Capacity Planning

[RR1]

If anybody has a template or suggestions of data needed to format a laboratory capacity plan, would be appreciated. I'm not quite sure how to proceed with this.

Thanks!

[Eoin]

Hi Rashmi,

I have searched extensively for this. I found a references to pathologists workloads (surprise, surprise) but not of med scientists / BMS / techs. I know the one, five two ratio is thrown about (1 senior, five BMS and two lab aides) but the actual number would depend on so many variables that a one fit-all formula is impossible - depends on local practices, distances within the hospital and lab, whether you have considered Lean Management, workload patterns etc.

Best of luck with it. If you have great inspiration on the subject, would love to hear it -

a very difficult issue to deal with and probably goes hand in hand with the economic downturn, the shrinking health dollar, the impending upsurge due to the baby boomers passing the sixty mark (estimates range from six to eight times the path testing required than younger population), changes in technology including IT etc.

Cheers,

Eoin

[RR1]

Thanks Eoin, I found this template on the internet- but looks a bit complicated, so will need to simplify and just concentrate on the issues surrounding the Capacity for the lab to continue with building and maintaining quality practices.

This would involve issues around timely training, validation, equipment handling, deviations and CAPA handling etc. to maintain BSQR compliance.

A colleague of mine from another hospital mentioned that when trying to calculate capacity needs youmust take into consideration that issues such as training need double time (if 1:1 training) or multiply by 6x if training is 1:5.

eplc_capacity_planning_template.doc