I am looking for some assistance on obtaining data regarding the time we put into providing various services to our patients. I would like to use this data to help justify an increase in hours allotted to S.W. issues that focus on preventative care rather than intervention.
It is my goal to justify an increase in hours to provide more one-on-one time with our patients & their families.

Here are some suggestions:
1) There is a staffing formula in the Guidelines for Practice for Nephrology Social Work also available from the NKF. This looks at annualized caseload, patient risk factors (acuity), and job functions that the social worker is expected to do to arrive at appropriate social work staffing.

1) Contact the chair of the Council of Nephrology Social Workers, Maureen McKinley. You can find out her phone number by calling the National Kidney Foundation at (800)622-9010. She should be able to direct you to social workers who have been successful in documenting outcomes and linking these outcomes with better social work staffing. Also, there may be other tools that CNSW has developed that could help you justify improved social work staffing.

3) If you're doing health-related quality of life surveys, you may be able to document the number of patients at high risk of hospitalization and death due to high mental component scale scores showing a need for social work intervention. If you're interested in learning more about these instruments, check out the Encouragement and Evaluation bibliographies on the Life Options website at http://www.lifeoptions.org.