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Carol, I work at a university based hospital in the U.S. and we are open every day of the year. On weekends, only "priority" patients are seen. That would be those patients whose discharge is pending within the next 3-4 days. We do not see patients who are waiting for placement in a rehab facility or nursing home. This cuts significantly the number of patients to be seen. We have one physical therapist, one physical therapy assistant and two aids who work the weekend. The therapist typically goes out on the hospital floors to evaluate and treat while the PTA works in the rehab gym with the aids. The regular acute care staff rotates weekends but we also hire PT's who only work the weekends which allows the regular staff less weekend work. If you have further questions, you can contact me directly. Janice Michaels, PT, MS Upstate Medical University Syracuse, NY michaelj@upstate .edu >>> [log in to unmask] 07/31/02 06:37AM >>> We are planning a seven-day Physio and OT service in proposed new 25-bed Elective Orthopaedics, and are looking into the best way to staff it. Brainstorming has so far thrown up the following: 1. Difficulty recruiting qualified staff - possibly TI II assistants working to protocol instead? 2. Qualified staff will also cover the Trauma ward 10 miles away, Monday to Friday. 3. Senior staff static, but junior staff are rotational. 4. Currently, independently-funded weekend work in rheumatology offers very attractive overtime and travel rates which will not be available on Orthopaedics, thus leading to possible overtime volunteer recruitment difficulties. The rheum service is not always covered, so it cannot be relied on to provide orthopaedic cover or supervision; plus many of the volunteers work outside the Trust and may either have different orth protocols, or no orth experience at all. 5. If set up as a rota similar to emergency on-call, it could lead to shortage of staff covering on-call as they would not be able (or willing) to do both. 6. Due to surgery days, Saturdays are critical for mobilising and discharge. 7. No luck so far recruiting dedicated weekend-only staff. Any examples of successful staffing systems gratefully received, also any experience of self-rostering, annualised hours and working with TI II staff. I'm looking into the literature but have found very few evaluations of weekend physio, still less on weekend staffing systems and rotas. Thanks in advance, Carol David