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Use the facility planner

warning

RehabAlpha is still under active development. It is not yet HIPAA compliant and should only be used with dummy data.

Use the facility planner to compare therapist capacity with planned clinical work, adjust assignments, optimize the schedule, and review scheduling notices.

Before you start​

Open the facility planner​

  1. Open Facilities.
  2. Select the facility.
  3. Click Planner.
  4. Enter the Start date and End date.
  5. Click Apply date range.

Dates are interpreted in the facility's time zone.

The planner includes these sections:

  • Date range sets the planner window.
  • Planned hours shows therapist hours by date and facility.
  • Optimize schedule runs the autoplanner for the selected facility and date range.
  • Summary stats shows planned hours, document and treatment hours, utilization, treatment counts, and unassigned treatment counts by date and discipline.
  • Therapist stats breaks planned hours, assigned documentation and treatment hours, utilization, and treatment counts down by therapist and day.
  • Stacked assignments shows each day as therapist stacks so you can compare workload and move assignments.
  • Daily assignments by participant shows treatment and documentation cards for one selected patient or therapist, with treatment-plan compliance bars in patient views.
  • Notices shows schedule-related issues for the facility.

Set planned hours​

Planned hours is the maximum time each therapist should be scheduled to document and treat at the facility on each day.

  1. Find the therapist and date in Planned hours.
  2. Open the information icon beside the hours field to review available hours and any displayed deductions for other facility assignments or busy events.
  3. Enter 0 to 24 hours in quarter-hour increments, such as 6.5 for six and a half hours.
  4. Click Save.

You can change planned hours for today and future dates. Past dates are read-only. A field turns red if planned hours exceed available hours; the form allows this exception. A green border marks planned hours that match available hours.

Available hours start with the therapist's availability, then subtract planned hours at other facilities and busy-event hours, with a minimum of zero. Owners and Admins include both facility and personal busy events; Custom users include only the facility's busy events. Timesheet work and leave entries do not change capacity for any date.

Update availability or calendar events when capacity information is outdated. Plan future time off there, then record actual leave in the timesheet after it occurs. See Avoid counting the same leave twice before combining busy events with reduced availability.

Compare capacity with workload​

Start with Summary stats. Review each date and the Total columns for the selected range, including the OT, PT, and SLP breakdowns.

  • Doc & treat hours adds estimated treatment and documentation durations.
  • Utilization divides those estimated hours by planned hours. Above 100% means estimated work exceeds planned hours; below 100% means planned hours exceed estimated work. A dash appears when there are no planned hours.
  • Unassigned treatments counts treatments that still need a therapist.

Review the underlying work and adjust planned hours or assignments where appropriate. For example, six estimated hours of work with four planned hours gives 150% utilization. These figures describe planned workload; use timesheets to review recorded hours worked.

Then use Therapist stats to compare planned hours, assigned documentation and treatment hours, utilization, and treatment counts by therapist and day. Check for uneven workload within each discipline.

Adjust assignments​

Change a treatment's therapist​

  1. In Stacked assignments, choose a day tab.
  2. Compare the therapist stacks and look for unassigned or unevenly distributed work.
  3. Drag the treatment card from one therapist stack onto another therapist stack.
  4. Wait for the assignment to save and review the updated workload.

The destination therapist must have a matching discipline. You can also drag an unassigned treatment onto a therapist's stack.

Change a treatment's date​

  1. In Daily assignments by participant, select the patient or therapist.
  2. Review the treatment and documentation cards across the date grid.
  3. Drag a treatment card to its new date.
  4. Wait for the change to save.
  5. In a patient view, review the treatment-plan compliance bars above the grid. Hover over a bar for details.

Dragging is available for unsigned treatments without a resolution on today or a future date. A treatment cannot be dragged to a past date. Documentation cards open their documents and cannot be dragged.

To set a treatment's time of day or edit its other details, open the treatment. See Use the schedule for calendar views and timed scheduling.

Optimize the schedule​

Optimize schedule applies schedule changes for the selected facility and date range. Save planned hours first so the optimizer uses the intended staffing capacity.

  1. Review the facility's autoplanner settings and schedule priorities. These control allowed changes and which scheduling goals take precedence.
  2. Review treatment-level autoplanner locks where a therapist or date must remain fixed.
  3. Click Optimize schedule and wait for it to finish.
  4. Read the result, the number of treatments changed or left unassigned, and the Before, After, and Change score columns.
  5. Review Summary stats, Therapist stats, assignments, and notices again.

The optimizer respects facility and treatment locks. It can modify dates within the selected range from today through 89 days ahead, further limited by the facility's schedule lock. If no dates remain eligible, it makes no changes. Its staffing choices use planned hours and eligible therapist licenses.

If the optimizer stops after reaching its processing limit, review the applied changes before running it again. Another run starts from the current schedule and may find further improvements.

For the optimization rules and scoring details, see How the autoplanner works.

Review notices​

The Notices section at the bottom of the planner shows schedule-related issues for the facility. Use it to find problems that should be resolved before the schedule is treated as ready.

Examples include:

  • unassigned treatments
  • noncompliant treatment windows
  • patient preference violations
  • therapist preference violations
  • license or documentation-related notices when applicable

Patient and therapist preferences can become notices when the preference's Notice control is set to generate a notice. For example, if a patient averts a certain therapist and the schedule assigns that therapist anyway, RehabAlpha can surface a patient preference violation notice.

For filtering, fixing, refreshing, and snoozing notices, see Manage notices.