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Download Patient Flow Analysis software and support documents 

Patient Flow Analysis version 2 (PFA 2.0) is a DOS-based public domain computer application for documenting personnel use and client flow in health service clinics. The PFA 2.0 data reports and graphical display, which simulate the clinic session, assist the user in identifying problems in client flow, determining personnel and space needs, and documenting the personnel costs associated with client visits. Overall, PFA 2.0 aids in assessing the influence of clinic systems on service delivery.

PFA will run under all operating systems that allow DOS-based programs. Operating systems that may not allow PFA to run may include Windows XP.®

Please note that support for this software will not be available beyond July 2006. Instead, we recommend PFA for Windows or WinPFA (see below).

PFA for Windows (WinPFA 2.2 revision 4/1/08)

PFA for Windows (WinPFA) is the Windows®-compatible public domain update of PFA 2.0. Running under Windows® 95, 98, ME, NT 4.0, 2000, and XP (untested thus far on Vista®), WinPFA offers a range of new or enhanced features (compared with PFA 2.0), which allow the user to

• Print the client and staff graphs separately
• Import existing PFA data sets.
• Read WinPFA data sets in MS Access, permitting data analyses not included in WinPFA’s reports.
• Calculate session costs by using all non-personnel overhead costs as well as all personnel costs.
• Document clinic services which the client does not experience face-to-face (i.e., non-contacts).
• Document all periods of time when staff are not available to provide services.
• Document all periods when clients are completing activities as requested by clinic staff (e.g., completing their medical history).
• Document all periods when clients are not available to receive services (e.g., escorting children to their own medical appointments).
• Document four additional attributes for each client (e.g., the client’s overall satisfaction survey score).
• Select one or more of 12 preformatted reports.
• Tailor the reports using a range of word processing applications (e.g., MS Word) to meet data presentation requirements.
• Save labels and staff files for future reuse, making data-entry for future WinPFA studies at the same clinic site more efficient.
   

What Do PFA and WinPFA Offer the User?

With WinPFA the user has the means to establish a database for self-designed and self-implemented client flow studies. The software’s reports effectively analyze and measure the performance of individual clinics and thus yield for the user quantifiable data for designing new clinics, instituting improved client flow patterns, and evaluating staffing needs so as to increase clinic effectiveness. Examples of specific benefits derived from using this methodology include reduced client waiting time in the clinic, more equitable distribution of workload for each staff person, an improved appointment system, and greater staff satisfaction with the overall delivery of services. Further, the costing feature—greatly improved in WinPFA—allows users to factor costs into possible PFA-driven changes in clinic operations.

PFA and WinPFA ListServ

The WinPFA ListServ has two purposes

To subscribe, please send an e-mail to PFA@cdc.gov

Data Collection Forms

WinPFA’s new and enhanced features drive the extensive changes in the data-collection forms (also known as “registers”). Active study documentation requires completing only the staff and client registers. PFA and WinPFA registers are available below, as are the corresponding data-collection manuals, which describe how to design and carry out studies as well as describing the registers and the study variables.  Download the   Patient Flow Analysis for Windows (WinPFA) Data Collection Manual (PDF 3.8MB).

Data-Entry

With WinPFA installed, users may proceed with data entry or assign this task to other staff. Typical Windows® users, if experiencing difficulty with PFA, should contact CDC to request the corresponding data-entry manual. Users requiring the WinPFA data-entry tutorial may download it.

The amount of time required to complete data entry varies according to user experience with the software and with the volume of study data. With WinPFA, a study consisting of 50 patient registers and 10 staff registers should require no more than 2 hours data-entry time.

Data Analysis and Beyond

WinPFA analyzes study data and delivers 13 standard reports and a graphical depiction of the session.  For information about Interpretation and Use of the WinPFA Reports, please send an e-mail to PFA@cdc.gov.

WinPFA includes these additional data and many more:

• Client appointment compliance (i.e., a calculated “show-rate”).
• Client timeliness with their appointment time according to how you, the user, define client early and late arrival (i.e., you set the “on-time” interval from 0 to 60 minutes).
• Clients’ time in clinic and service times broken out by clients’ reason for visit and subclassification (e.g., client age or gender).
• Calculated session costs, which include both personnel-associated costs as well as non-personnel overhead costs (e.g., rent, utilities).
• Personnel use in the clinic by task.
• Documented staff workday including time not available to deliver services (e.g., break-times) and services not delivered in a face-to-face manner (e.g., retrieval of lab results).
• Number of clients, number of staff available, and number of services delivered broken out according to user-defined time intervals, running from 1 to 1440 minutes (this allows, for example, comparison of the “AM” vs the “PM” or early AM versus late AM portions of the session).
• Sequenced order of services received by clients displayed for each reason for visit.
• Sequenced order of services received displayed for each client. (see “Client Time-Line” under “Tools“).
   

Division of Reproductive Health's Services Management, Research & Translation
CDC's Division of Reproductive Health promotes improved health services management through capacity building, training, and technical assistance for reproductive health care providers ...more

“Organizing Work Better” Population Reports,* volume XXXII, Number 1, Winter 2004.

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Page last reviewed: 7/21/08
Page last modified: 4/14/08
Content source: Division of Reproductive Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion