to number of physicians to number of sleep beds?
More specifically, if one were to open a comprehensive sleep center (not a diagnostic center), where the sleep physician saw the patient first and performed the consult, before deciding the PSG was needed.
In this model of care - how many full time docs per sleep beds do you need keep the beds FULL 6 nights per week?
Thanks!
All depends on how many beds.
There are no mandated ratios for docs:beds (unlike for tech coverage, which is 2:1). Depends on how big a center and how the doc plans to work. You have to look at how many daytime new consults and followups the doc(s) can realistically see. You can probably figure realistically 40 minutes for a new consult and 15-20 for a followup. Each overnight patient will need a followup to discuss results, plus you will need f/u slots for established patients, so your ratio of new:f/u will probably be roughly 1:2. You can do the patients/hour math because it's too early in the morning for me.
And don't forget to block out time to actually review the studies -- at a "comprehensive sleep center" you're going to be expected to actually review the PSG and not just rubber stamp the tech's scoring report.
There are some other practice models wereby established patients are seen by a nurse or NP -- i.e., stable patients who just need a CPAP f/u or med refill. That adds some ability for the MD to see new patients or PSG returns for results.
I'd say realistically one doc could manage up to a 4-6 bed lab, depending on how busy they want to be. And don't forget that if you're running 6 nites a week, Mondays will be killer because you have 2 nites of studies to review (Friday + Sat/Sun), unless you plan to work every weekend. And of course, your planning would need to account for the fact that not every consult to a "comprehensive sleep center" will need a PSG (insomnia, restless leg, etc).
Would be interested to hear from Michealrack on this, since he's running his own center, I think.