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Reproductive Health: Publications and Products:
Patient Flow Analysis (PFA) |
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Back to Reproductive Health Tools![PFA logo](images/pfa.gif)
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 facilitate communication among PFA
and WinPFA users.
To allow more direct communication between CDC and PFA and WinPFA
users (for example, dissemination of information about newly released
versions of WinPFA.).
To subscribe, please send an e-mail to
PFA@cdc.gov
Data
Collection FormsWinPFA’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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Links to non-Federal organizations found at this site are provided solely as a service to our users. These links do not constitute an endorsement of these organizations or their programs by CDC or the Federal Government, and none should be inferred. The CDC is not responsible for the content of the individual organization Web pages found at these links.
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Page last reviewed: 1/29/09
Page last modified: 4/14/08
Content source: Division
of Reproductive Health, National
Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
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