Posted: 6/19/2017 11:24:26 PM EDT
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I'm trying to help a friend solve this, and I think it's horribly written, but maybe I'm missing something obvious. The irony is I work in a math heavy field.
The given information: Your team's slot utilization has decreased from 85 to 82 percent. You will have 1000 appointments this month. If you stay at 82 percent: 1. How many patients will not be served that would have otherwise? This one is simple, it's 180 right? 2. How many hours per provider per workday do these extra blocks represent? Is the wording for this question not ridiculous? Info given: Slot utilization = total number of slots available to patients Blocks = visit slots Total slots in schedule = 16 It just seems really odd, the way the second question is worded. How many hours do these EXTRA blocks represent? What extra? The extras not used because of the 3 percent drop in utilization? Argh! |
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I would think the answer to the first is 30, since the baseline was 85% and not 100%. I have no idea what language the second question is written in. |
 Jimmy Buffett - MATH SUKS |
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35 for q1 Need more info for q2. How many work days in a month? How many ppl on your team? Thanks everyone for confirming. And thanks for the help on number 1...I thought maybe from the way the question was worded they were asking for a baseline of 100 percent to 82. |
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If you have 1,000 appointments at the 82% utilization level, that means your maximum utilization level would be just over 1,219.5 appointments in a month (1,219 in reality since you can't see half a patient). At 16 appointment slots per day this would mean you will be seeing 62.5 (62 actual) patients per day.
The 85% utilization level would mean you are able to see 1036.5 patients per month, for a practical difference of 36. 16 appointments per day at this level would enable you to see 64.78 (64 actual) patients per day. The other posters are right when they say there isn't enough information to answer Q2, but that difference of two patients per day would be able to help you solve the answer if you knew how many providers there were, and how long they spend with each patient. The part of the question that claims there is "extra" time seems to be referring to the amount of time the provider will have outside of seeing a patient, assuming that 100% utilization means that they are with patients every minute of their workday. This is consistent with medical billing practices in that providers are expected to spend a certain amount of time with a patient, and another amount of time on documentation and related tasks. Thus, a drop in time with patients would necessarily lead to an increase in other available time; an "extra" even though the total time in a day remains unchanged. |
I think I misread the question (surprise, right?) Total appointments is 1000. That's not slots, that's actual appointments. If you are getting 82% slot utilization, you would have a total of 1219.51 slots available. Why in the hell would they give you 0.51 of a slot? So that can't be right either. I give up. 
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This bullshit is why healthcare is so expensive, FYI. "Managers" managing Physician schedules. That is literally all the information given for that, I looked over the sheet more than once seeing if something else was given. |
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If you have 1,000 appointments at the 82% utilization level, that means your maximum utilization level would be just over 1,219.5 appointments in a month (1,219 in reality since you can't see half a patient). At 16 appointment slots per day this would mean you will be seeing 62.5 (62 actual) patients per day. The 85% utilization level would mean you are able to see 1036.5 patients per month, for a practical difference of 36. 16 appointments per day at this level would enable you to see 64.78 (64 actual) patients per day. The other posters are right when they say there isn't enough information to answer Q2, but that difference of two patients per day would be able to help you solve the answer if you knew how many providers there were, and how long they spend with each patient. The part of the question that claims there is "extra" time seems to be referring to the amount of time the provider will have outside of seeing a patient, assuming that 100% utilization means that they are with patients every minute of their workday. This is consistent with medical billing practices in that providers are expected to spend a certain amount of time with a patient, and another amount of time on documentation and related tasks. Thus, a drop in time with patients would necessarily lead to an increase in other available time; an "extra" even though the total time in a day remains unchanged. |