ABSTRACT
A provider’s capacity can be expressed as the expected total number of patient visits per year a provider can manage or the expected number of patients per year a provider can manage. Along with learning how each provider’s true work cycle time for each appointment type compares to what was planned, learning what a provider’s general overall average cycle time is will help identify a provider’s capacity. There are a variety of ways to technically calculate a provider overall average cycle time. Each one poses some unique trade-offs and each one requires information from different sources. The best method to use is the one that an organization can calculate fairly easily and which gets team buy-in when it’s used. Providers have patients that will visit the clinic every couple of years, every 18 months, once a year, twice a year, monthly, or more. Providers work many hours a year by plan and by necessity because patients need care.
