Capacity Planning Setup
The Capacity Planning module within Apex allows you to predict your future demand to plan workforce distribution, sessions and slots based on customisable baselines. With the flexibility to create numerous plans, Apex allows you to view demand and capacity for your regular routine Services, as well as create bespoke plans for particular seasonal work, such as flu clinics and Winter Pressures.
Filters can be applied to Capacity Planning, enabling you to set your own parameters and view data relating to a specific Services, broken down by clinicians and slot types.
Creating a plan
When you first navigate to the Capacity Planning module on the left-hand menu of Apex, you will invited to create your first Plan.
Your first option when creating a Plan will be to give this a name and description.
Once you have named your Plan, you will then be able to link this to one of your Apex Services, as configured in your Apex Organisation Settings. Please click here for further information on mapping appointment data into Apex Services.
Customising the Plan
Once a Plan has been created, you will instantly see the results of your plan for the next week available week, but before viewing your capacity, Apex allows you to apply adjustments to your Plan.
In the top right of the screen, Apex allows you to click on the pencil icon to make adjustments to two measures; your ‘Baseline Period’ and ‘Adjustments.’
Baseline
Capacity Planning allows you to select a definitive Baseline against which you would like to plan, giving you a range of options:
Firstly, to plan against the same period from the previous year of activity. This option is often useful for planning for periods such as flu season, where you expect your demand level to be similar.
Your second option is to plan against the previous week of activity or a third option lets you select the average of the previous 12 weeks.
Finally, Apex allows you select a user-defined Baseline, either via the drop-down menu or using the calendar icons.
When selecting the ‘Other Period’ option, you will also be asked whether you wish to calculate the ‘Average Demand’ for this period, or the ‘Peak Demand,’ which Apex will highlight a date range for.
Upon completing your selections, click ‘OK.’
Adjustments
Once you have defined your Baseline, Apex then allows you to select the pencil icon on Adjustments, to apply any changes you foresee in demand.
The ‘Unused Slots’ check box allows you opt in or out for the inclusion of any slots in your Baseline period which did not have patients booked into them.
Secondly, Apex will ask you how you wish to plan in terms of your Population Size, with the default option tracking your population growth over time.
However, should you be aware of an increase or pending additional patients in your practice, you may wish to select the ‘Static Population’ option to add a number of patients to forecast and plan for the expected increase in demand.
‘Change in Demand’ then allows you to add a percentage buffer to your Plan, whether to account for unmet demand identified in your Baseline period, or to give extra headroom.
Upon completing your selections, click ‘OK.’
Setting Targets
After defining a Plan Baseline and applying Adjustments, Apex then allows you add in any targets you wish to track within your practice from the options below.
To add a new target, select the metric you wish to track from the drop-down menu and click, ‘Add.’
Enter the target number you wish to plan for.
Repeat this process to add as many targets as desired and then confirm selections by clicking, ‘OK.’
Capacity Overview
After your Baseline, Adjustments and Targets have been established, Apex will then give you a high level overview on your Plan, based on the Apex Capacity Status Indicator of ‘Insufficient Capacity,’ ‘Sufficient Capacity’ or ‘Excess Capacity.’
A gauge chart highlights where your current availability, based on data extracted directly from the Clinical System, for the selected planning period.
Your ‘Expected’ demand is highlighted in green, with a five percent plus/minus tolerance either side of the predicted number of appointments.
This information is then broken down by day – using the Apex Capacity Status Indicator – before being broken down to number of slots, sessions, as well as offering information on clinician availability.
Mode of Contact allows you to see how your selected Plan currently compares to your selected parameters – Baseline and Adjustments – by the mode of consultation, with Face to Face, Telephone, Home Visit and Digital Slots highlighted.
You can also see how the Modes of Contact are planned over the course of the week.
Please click here for more information on defining the Mode of Contact in the Apex settings.
For the selected Plan, Apex can also highlight the current status of your appointments, whether they are available for patients to book, embargoed, blocked, or already booked.
On the right-hand side of the tab, Appointment Availability gives you an overview of how many days patients will waiting for the next available appointments.
Apex again uses the Apex Capacity Status Indicator to highlight how each time period – ‘AM Extended,’ ‘AM,’ ‘PM’ and ‘PM Extended’ – compares to your Plan. After showing a breakdown of Routine and Extended Hour appointments, Apex also shows a percentage of appointments expected to be booked on the day. Apex also allows you view the week by ‘Slots,’ ‘Sessions or ‘Time (mins)’ via the radio buttons at the top of the weekly overview.
You can also use Capacity Planning to view the availability of your Workforce, by Job Category and Session Holder, again applying the Capacity Planning RAG status.
After a high-level view of your Workforce, Apex then allows you to view your current Session Holder Rota to see the number of Sessions and Slots available by Clinician.
A green status bar highlights the percentage of appointments booked for the Clinician and placing your mouse over the status bar will highlight the percentage of appointments which have been booked.
Clicking on the arrow at the left-hand side of the Clinician’s name will expand the data further for you.
Saving Your Plan
After reviewing your Plan, you can then click on ‘Save & Close’ in the top right-hand corner of the screen to save you Plan to review and amend at any time.
Useful Links
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