Productivity of respiratory therapy personnel.

An analysis was conducted of 630 periodic observations of work activities of 10 respiratory therapy personnel of a department during 14 consecutive days. It was found that the staff were spending about one-third of their working hours non-productively. The natures of the productive activities related to patient care were identified and each activity was categorized according to the level of difficulty and the skill required for performing it. The peak loads of the department were found to occur immediately before and after patients' meal hours and visiting hours. Nearly one-third of all the staff's productive time was spent administering IPPB. The personnel of various skill levels appeared to be performing different tasks regardless of their levels of difficulty.