How to calculate productivity from your schedule before the day starts
Divide tomorrow's booked minutes by your paid minutes.
To calculate productivity from your schedule, add up the treatment minutes booked for the day and divide by your paid minutes. Run it the evening before and you know whether tomorrow reaches target while there is still time to change the schedule.
How to calculate productivity from your schedule
Projected % = booked treatment minutes ÷ paid minutes × 100
The result is tomorrow's ceiling if every patient attends and every session runs to its booked length. To get the same figure, enter the booked minutes as treatment minutes in the therapist productivity calculator. Add your shift length and unpaid break.
Worked example
Example assumptions: tomorrow runs 08:00 to 16:30 with a 30-minute unpaid lunch, so 480 paid minutes, and the target is 85%. The schedule is below.
| Time | Type | Minutes |
|---|---|---|
| 08:30 to 09:30 | Evaluation | 60 |
| 09:45 to 10:30 | Follow-up | 45 |
| 10:45 to 11:30 | Follow-up | 45 |
| 11:45 to 12:30 | Follow-up | 45 |
| 13:15 to 14:00 | Follow-up | 45 |
| 14:15 to 15:15 | Evaluation | 60 |
| 15:30 to 16:15 | Follow-up | 45 |
| Total | 345 |
- Projected: 345 ÷ 480 × 100 = 71.9%
- Needed for 85%: 480 × 0.85 = 408 minutes
- Short by: 408 − 345 = 63 minutes
The schedule looks full, with seven patients and almost no long breaks, and it still falls 63 minutes short of target.
Finding the gaps
Every paid minute that isn't booked treatment is a gap. In this example the lunch is 12:30 to 13:00. The 45 minutes between the 12:30 finish and the 13:15 start are 30 minutes of unpaid lunch and 15 paid minutes.
| Gap | Paid minutes |
|---|---|
| 08:00 to 08:30, before the first patient | 30 |
| 09:30 to 09:45 | 15 |
| 10:30 to 10:45 | 15 |
| 11:30 to 11:45 | 15 |
| 13:00 to 13:15, after lunch | 15 |
| 14:00 to 14:15 | 15 |
| 15:15 to 15:30 | 15 |
| 16:15 to 16:30, after the last patient | 15 |
| Total | 135 |
The gaps add up to 135 minutes, 28.1% of the paid day (345 + 135 = 480). At 85%, the day can afford 72 minutes that aren't treatment (480 − 408). It has 135, which is 63 minutes too many.
Closing 63 minutes takes two more 45-minute follow-ups. One more brings the day to 390 minutes, 81.3%. Two bring it to 435 minutes, 90.6%.
Only one gap is long enough to book. The 30 minutes at 08:00 could hold a 30-minute session, which brings the day to 375 minutes, 78.1%. The other seven gaps are 15-minute transitions between patients (see below). As built, this schedule can't reach 85%, and that is a scheduling question for whoever builds the schedule.
How many sessions the day needs
Sessions needed = (paid minutes × target) ÷ session length, rounded up
480 minutes at 85% is 408 treatment minutes. At 45-minute sessions, 408 ÷ 45 = 9.1, so 10 sessions. The example has seven sessions, but two are 60-minute evaluations, so counting sessions overstates the gap. In minutes it is 63 short, which is two 45-minute follow-ups.
| Paid minutes | Target | Sessions at 30 min | Sessions at 45 min | Sessions at 60 min |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 450 | 80% | 12 | 8 | 6 |
| 450 | 85% | 13 | 9 | 7 |
| 450 | 90% | 14 | 9 | 7 |
| 480 | 85% | 14 | 10 | 7 |
| 480 | 90% | 15 | 10 | 8 |
Each figure is rounded up, because part sessions can't be booked.
Allowing for attendance
If your no-show rate is 10%, book for it. Ten sessions at a 10% loss deliver nine on average. Eleven deliver 9.9, so you need 12 booked to land ten (12 × 0.9 = 10.8). Whether your department allows booking above capacity is a policy question. Running the numbers in advance turns it into a planned decision. Planning the day around them has its own guide, on cancellations and no-shows.
Scheduling across the week
The daily version tells you whether tomorrow works. The weekly version shows which day carries the shortfall, which tells you where to add a booking.
Total the booked treatment minutes for the week, divide by the week's paid minutes, and compare with target. If the week is 200 minutes short, that is five 45-minute sessions to find (four would leave it 20 minutes short). Then look at each day's projection. If one or two days carry most of the shortfall, add bookings there instead of spreading extra work across all five.
Once the week is under way, the weekly productivity calculator works out what each remaining day needs. For days of different lengths, use the method in the guide to weekly and pay-period averages.
The gaps you can't book
Not every gap can be booked. A 15-minute interval between patients is transition time for seeing one patient out, resetting the space and opening the next note. Booking into it gives a day that runs late from mid-morning.
When you check a schedule, separate gaps of 30 minutes or more from transitions of 15 minutes or less. Only the first kind can take a booking. In the example above, that leaves one bookable gap out of eight.
What to do with the projection
If tomorrow projects below target and there are bookable gaps, ask for them to be filled. If it projects below target and there are none, the schedule can't reach the target. Tell your manager in writing the evening before.
Raised the evening before, it asks for a schedule change before the number is missed.