Staffing the respiratory care department: new considerations.

The basic human-resources management tenets of attract, retain, and motivate the best practitioners remain at the core of management focus; however, time standards, volumes, staffing variables, and flexible budgets are concepts that have become increasingly important in managing respiratory care departments. Labor productivity is one of the most important priorities of any business, and labor is the largest expense for healthcare organizations. Labor typically represents more than 60% of a respiratory care department’s total costs.1 The justification of resources and equitable work-load distribution require formal productivity reporting systems and established staffing strategies. Considering the month-to-month, day-to-day, and even hour-to-hour variability in work demand, and having systems in place that are sensitive to work-load fluctuations provides a data-driven approach to adjusting labor hours scheduled. Essential for successful respiratory departments is the development of systems and strategies that ensure adequate numbers of qualified personnel to meet the patients’ needs at all times.