Free clinic operations method

Measure clinic admin before changing the workflow.

Record the work while it happens, count each minute once and compare like with like. This five-day method works with any clinic system. It helps your team understand its workload; it does not predict what software will save.

Rytura editorial team · Published and reviewed 19 September 2026

1. Choose an ordinary working week

Use five working days that reflect your usual appointment mix. Note unusual closures, absence, training or changes in demand. Record the number of practitioners, support staff, opening hours and appointments attended. Include everyone whose time belongs to the workflow you are measuring.

2. Agree what the categories mean

Forms

Assigning forms, checking receipt and chasing missing responses. Keep clinical interpretation separate.

Messages

Routine booking and next-step questions. Exclude time already counted under another category.

Payments

Checking payment status and resolving administration. Exclude unattended provider processing time.

Records

Administrative completion, organisation and duplicate entry. Necessary documentation must not be removed to improve a score.

Follow-up

Arranging the next agreed step and tracking completion. Keep consultation time separate.

Stock

Counting, checking and reconciling stock information. Exclude delivery time when nobody is working on it.

Keep the definitions unchanged between periods. A message chasing a form belongs under forms or messages, not both. Two people working for ten minutes represent twenty person-minutes. Do not count the same person’s overlapping activities twice.

3. Record short entries while working

Use the five-day admin diary to record the date, broad role, category, minutes and whether work happened outside planned hours. Use brief process descriptions only. Keep the diary in your clinic and leave out client names, record identifiers, treatment details and account credentials. You do not need to submit it to Rytura.

4. Calculate a baseline

Total the person-minutes in each category. Divide the total by 60 for team hours. Separately record how much work happened outside planned hours.

This ratio describes workload alongside appointment volume; it does not prove that each appointment caused that amount of work. If no appointments were attended, leave the ratio blank.

The admin time calculator turns your week into a weekly and annual scenario. An annual figure is an extrapolation, not measured annual performance. Valuing hours at a chosen rate does not establish a cash saving.

5. Change one process

Choose one repeated handover, duplicate entry or unclear responsibility. Record what will change, who owns it and when it starts. For example, agree who checks form status before appointments and where exceptions are recorded. Keep necessary checks and documentation.

6. Repeat and describe the limits

After the change has settled, use the same definitions over another five working days. Compare appointment volumes, staffing, opening hours and mix as well as time totals. Report increases as well as decreases. If several things changed together, say so: a before-and-after observation alone cannot show what caused the difference.

Use the printable workflow change record to keep the periods, measures and exceptions together.

What has been measured?

This is a self-assessment method. No study findings or industry benchmark are published here. A future multi-clinic report would need a stated recruitment method, field dates, sample size, exclusions and limitations. Participation and any use of a clinic’s name or quotation would be agreed separately.

For practical next steps, read the clinic administration guide, take the workflow health check or explore the connected Rytura platform.

Published by ClinicKind Ltd, trading as Rytura. We sell clinic software and have a commercial interest in this topic. Read our editorial methodology.