Long waiting times for speech therapy, occupational therapy and physical therapy have become a key challenge for pediatric therapy providers. Parents are expected to begin treatment programs with early intervention, but are facing lengthy waiting times due to understaffing and shortage of appointments. The issue is forcing pediatric therapy organizations to reconsider their approaches.
Pediatric therapy is based on specialized professionals whose work is hard to scale. There is only a certain amount of time that each therapist can spend on patients' treatment. In addition, there are certain therapies that require multiple sessions over a long period of time.
Therefore, it becomes extremely important for providers to find ways to deliver the services despite such limitations. Some organizations consider changing the scheduling procedures, as well as evaluating the ways to arrange follow-up sessions. There is a number of pediatric therapy service providers that try to change the balance of in-person and remote interaction to make it easier for some families to attend frequent appointments.
There is also another aspect of staffing challenges, which has nothing to do with recruitment. Retention has become equally important because pediatric therapy is usually based on long-term relationship with the therapist. Frequent changes in personnel may interfere with the treatment plan, making the need for re-assessment a regular activity for new therapists. Pediatric therapy providers are aware that the cost of replacement of skilled clinicians goes far beyond hiring.
In addition, the pattern of demand is changing too. Increased awareness of developmental problems, as well as screening activities result in more children coming into the system that is already overloaded with patients. Now pediatric therapy providers face a challenging task of combining high volume of referrals with the restrictions imposed by staffing limitations.
These factors affect decision-making in the whole industry. Some organizations try to develop auxiliary positions around therapists to make the work of the latter more efficient. Others explore the possibility of collaboration with schools and other community organizations. These activities are aimed not at increasing the volume of the services provided, but rather at preventing the occurrence of bottlenecks.
For the consumers of pediatric therapy services (health systems and community organizations), the issue of workforce stability plays a significant role in the selection process. Besides capacity, the ability to provide stable treatment is an important criterion. Provider that guarantees stable relations with therapists may become even more valuable than that one that claims shorter waiting periods.
The issue of understaffing does not seem to resolve soon. Specialized services require specialized people, who cannot be recruited and trained overnight. The providers that are able to maintain sustainable clinician capacity management are likely to cope with increased demands in the future, while others continue to experience issues with bottlenecks and interruptions in the services provided.
