Clinical care ratios for allied health practitioners: an update and implications for workforce planning

Cherie Hearn; Julie-Anne Ross; Adam Govier; Adam Ivan Semciw

doi:10.1071/AH24079

RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access)

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Clinical care ratios for allied health practitioners: an update and implications for workforce planning

Cherie Hearn

^A ^* , Julie-Anne Ross

^B , Adam Govier ^C and Adam Ivan Semciw

^D ^E

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A Physiotherapy Department, Division of Allied Health and Rehabilitation, Princess Alexandra Hospital, Metro South Health, Brisbane, Qld, Australia.

^B Department of Allied Health, Division of Allied Health and Rehabilitation, Princess Alexandra Hospital, Brisbane, Qld, Australia.

^C Department of Allied Health, Royal Adelaide Hospital, Central Adelaide Local Health Network, Adelaide, SA, Australia.

^D School of Allied Health, Human Services and Sport, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Vic, Australia.

^E Department of Allied Health, Northern Health, Epping, Vic, Australia.

^* Correspondence to: cherie.hearn@health.qld.gov.au

Australian Health Review https://doi.org/10.1071/AH24079

Submitted: 3 April 2024 Accepted: 3 July 2024 Published: 22 July 2024

© 2024 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of AHHA. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)

Abstract

Objective

Clinical care ratios are used to quantify and benchmark the activity of allied health professionals. This study aims to review previous recommendations and identify what variables may influence them.

Method

Data was collected from the core allied health professions (audiology, nutrition and dietetics, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, podiatry, prosthetics and orthotics, psychology, social work and speech pathology) across eight Australian hospitals. Data for 113 staff who were casual or from smaller professions (audiology, podiatry, prosthetics and orthotics and psychology) were excluded due to insufficient numbers for analysis. The remaining data were analysed according to profession, seniority (tiers 1, 2 and 3) and employment status (permanent versus casual staff). A two-way ANOVA was performed to assess the association of clinical care ratios with tier, profession, employment status and gender.

Results

Data from 1246 staff from the five larger professions at participating hospitals were analysed. There were no interactions between profession and gender (P = 0.185) or employment status (P = 0.412). The relationship between clinical care ratio and profession was modified by tier (interaction term, P = 0.014), meaning that differences in clinical care ratios between professions depended on the tier.

Conclusion

This research has confirmed that clinical care ratios are a useful tool in workload management and determining staffing levels for allied health professionals. The recommendations from this research provide a starting point that can be finessed with reference to profession, model of care, workforce structure, governance and training requirements. This will lead to increased staff wellbeing and improved patient outcomes.

Keywords: allied health, benchmarking, caseload, clinical care, clinical care ratio, staffing ratios, workforce planning, workload.

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