ACHA Utilization Survey
INSTRUCTIONS
Please review each of the following instructions:





Preparation and worksheet
General rules
Definition of visits and tests
Calculation of FTE staff
Entering the data
Preparation
1. Print these instructions and the survey to use as a worksheet.
2. Do Save the worksheet and all of your calculations so that you can to refer to them when you
complete this survey in future years.
General Rules
This survey is in two sections:


Section 1: Background information
Section 2: Utilization of services
In answering the questions:


Include enrollment data as of September 1, 2015
Include FTE and visit data for FY 2015/2016
Determining Patient Visits
Visits are face-to-face contacts for some type of patient service. The service is the primary reason for
which the patient came into the health center or, in other words, an end service. It would be for a
service for which there would be at least one CPT code if billing for the services were done. It could
include one E&M (office visit) code, surgical/procedure code(s), or E&M plus surgical/procedure code(s).
Visits do NOT include telephone encounters, triage, taking vitals, chart review, or any interactions that
have the purpose of obtaining preliminary information for the "real visit."
Examples:

A student has an office visit with a physician in the Medical Clinic after having seen a triage
nurse, and a second nurse who takes major complaints. This is one physician visit. It does not
count as a nurse visit. It would be reflected by a single E&M CPT code.




A student sees a physician and has a lesion removed. This is one physician visit even though
both an E&M and surgical CPT code may be billed.
A student has a routine annual pelvic exam in the Women's Clinic and after that exam is done,
has her teeth cleaned in the Dental Clinic. This reflects one physician visits and one dental visit.
Both were end services.
A student comes in for multiple complaints and is scheduled for two appointment slots with a
physician. This is one physician visit. The length of time (or number of scheduling slots) is not
relevant for counting the number of visits.
A spouse comes in for the specific purpose of having a nurse take and record his blood pressure,
and no other services are provided in the clinic. This counts as one nurse visit.
Primary Care Physicians include Family Practice, Internal Medicine, General Practice, Pediatrics, and
Emergency Medicine physicians working in general medicine clinics, urgent care clinics, walk-in clinics,
and women's health clinics.
Laboratory Tests
The number of laboratory tests, either in-house or reference labs are the number of CPT codes used for
billing. If a panel of tests is billed under a single CPT code, it is counted as one test.
Radiology Tests
The number of radiology tests is the number of CPT codes, not the number of views or films.
Calculating FTE Staff
FTE's = Full Time Equivalents. Be sure you know how many hours per week your institution considers as
constituting full-time employment. Any less than that is part time.
Examples of full-time employment (1.0 FTE) at different institutions:
35 hours per week (1,820 hours)
37.5 hours per week (1,950 hours)
40 hours per week (2,080 hours)
45 hours per week (2,340 hours)
A staff member who works full-time (according to your institution's criteria) for all 12 months of the year
is 1.0 full-time Equivalent.
Employees who work part-time and/or less than 12 months should be converted into a fraction of FTE.
The following chart shows how to calculate FTE units using your institution's FTE criteria along with the
hours/week and/or months/year worked:
(For these examples 40 hours per week represents full-time employment.)
Example 1: 20 hour per week, 12 month employee = 0.500 FTE Staff Actual calculation: (20/40) X
(12/12) = .500 X 1.00
Example 2: 20 hour per week, 9 month employee = 0.375 FTE Staff Actual calculation: (20/40) X
(9/12) = .500 X .75
Round FTE Staff to the nearest 3rd decimal place. For example round 0.6666 to 0.667.
Institution Definition of Full-Time
FTE
35 hrs/week
37.5 hrs/wk
40 hrs/week
45 hrs/week
1.0 FTE
35 hrs/week,
12 months/yr
37.5 hrs/wk,
12 months/yr
40 hrs/week,
12 months/yr
45 hrs/week,
12 months/yr
.75 FTE
35 hrs/week,
9 months/yr
37.5 hrs/wk,
9 months/yr
40 hrs/week,
9 months/yr
45 hrs/week,
9 months/yr
30 hrs/week,
12 months/yr
.75 FTE
.5 FTE
17.5 hrs/week,
12 months/yr
20 hrs/week,
12 months/yr
Show FTE Staff as a fraction of the employee's total institutional employment if the employee is partially
employed with another area (this usually means the person's total salary is split between student health
and another department).
Example: Employee is split 0.700 student health and 0.300 medical school, then FTE Staff =
0.700.
For contracted staff paid by the hour, estimate the number of hours she or he would work in a year then
convert to FTE. For example, if the person is estimated to work 250 hours per year (and 40 hours is the
full-time work week): 250 hours divided by 2080 hours = 0.120 FTE.
Individual Patients Served
Number of unique patients seen for the visits recorded above.
Entering the Data
1. Referencing the worksheet, enter the data in the survey. You have one opportunity to submit
the data. Once you hit the "submit survey" key you cannot go back and edit the responses.
2. Press the Tab key or the mouse after each entry. Do not use the Enter key.
3. If you must correct the data, e-mail the correction to ACHA Research Director Victor Leino, PhD,
at [email protected].
Contact Carlo Ciotoli, MD or Cheryl Flynn, MD for specific questions at the following e-mail addresses:
[email protected] or [email protected]