206484 No more tears: An adaptable tool for measuring workloads without inflicting a time study or new information technology on staff

Monday, November 9, 2009: 11:10 AM

Virginia Huang Richman, MPH , Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Development, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, Los Angeles, CA
Nancie S. Bendaņa, MS, RN , Public Health Nursing Administration, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, Los Angeles, CA
Carol Archer Floyd, MS, RN , Public Health Nursing Administration, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, Los Angeles, CA
Kendra A. Bell, RN, MSN (c) , Public Health Nursing Administration, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, Los Angeles, CA
In the effort to reduce District Public Health Nurses (PHNs) workloads, the administration of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health needed to measure the relative contribution of common activities to overall District PHN workload in order to identify tasks for streamlining. District PHNs are frontline staff working directly in neighborhoods investigating communicable diseases, performing home visits, interviewing patients, and participating in community outreach. However, the amount of variation among staff in the time spent on common work tasks and the relative contribution of each domain of work (e.g. home visits) to overall workload was not known. Without an existing system to measure time spent on tasks, the challenge was meeting Administration's needs to characterize workload in a timely manner. The solution was an on-line administered survey that asked District PHNs to self-report percent of time spent on common tasks in each work domain over the typical time frame in which that work domain is performed (e.g. percent of time in a typical week spent on home visitation). The workload survey tool is adaptable to various workforces, particularly for fieldwork staff, but does begin with a deep qualitative understanding of the major tasks that make up workload. The District PHN Workload Survey can provide health administrators with a relatively quick overview of workload for their staff and is less disruptive than time studies and information technology approaches. The survey also has applicability in situations where it may be desirable to measure the effects of an intervention upon workload.

Learning Objectives:
1) Compare the advantages and limitations of the workload survey method to traditional workload measurement approaches. 2) Describe the steps for designing and adapting the workload measurement survey to measure the workloads of various types of public health staff. 3) List best practices for the analysis and reporting of data collected from the workload survey tool.

Keywords: Public Health Administration, Workflow Analysis

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: The subject of this abstract is from direct professional experience in the design, implemention, analysis, and reporting of results from the workload survey tool which was created to measure the workload of our District Public Health Nurses. I am an analyst in the Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Development in the Los Angeles Department of Public Health, our work includes development of our department's strategic plan and as management consultants to our executive administrators to analyze workflow and improve organizational performance.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.