Time Studies

[essarge]

Last night when I was working there were two people there that I'd not seen before. Turns out that they were doing a time study in our department (emergency) to see how we could get patients in and out faster, why we were short staffed, etc. etc. etc.

I was wondering if anyone has ever had this done in their department and what the outcome was.

The only time I've ever been involved in anything like this, I was working in a factory and the outcome was that the "study" showed that we could produce more, in less time, with less staff.

I would appreciate any imput on this. Thanks.

[caliotter3]

Sorry I can't help here but remember that we had a thing in the military called a "manpower survey" which did the same thing. I helped the boss come up with some data once, but never saw what the results were. I think it probably had to do with someone deciding how many personnel were required to work in certain environments.

[jemb]

A hospital where I used to work had one done shortly after Tenet bought the place. Two things I remember: A woman followed me around for an entire shift, asking the rational for the sequence of my actions and what could be eliminated , added, or changed to increase productivity. And 2nd: For a period of time (a week, I think), each staff member had to keep track of our duties/actions and indicated the amount of time each took. I don't think they liked mine because I included the amount of time it took to fill out their stupid forms and the extra amount of time required to keep a constant eye on the clock since they wanted everything in exact minutes. As I recal, they ended up paying me OT for doing their stupid paperwork,:roll

[micro, RN]

Done with reality and quality care in mind.....from the floor nurses point of view, maybe time studies have some merit.....

But time studies are usually just done and show that more can be done in less time and with less staff.....ya da ya da ya da.........

nobody bleed, nobody fall, nobody have pain, nobody have a change in cardiac rhythm, I have to stay within my organized schedule and have nothing conflict with my time management.

duh,

micro nurse.....

hehehehehehe on schedule today.....

not working........ :-)

[sjoe]

You can expect the same conclusions that you experienced at the factory from this survey at your present healthcare factory.

IMHO.

[midwestRN]

We had one done. They changed the number of FTE (full time employees hours) they we could have. Now, if we are normally staffed, we are over budget. When people leave the unit, they are not replaced. We are just expected to pick up the slack, permanently.