Patient Cycle Time Study
Time every step of the visit. Find the wait. Write it down.
No patient information. Visits are numbered automatically. Never enter patient names, birth dates, record numbers, room numbers or anything that could identify a patient. Use a role or team label (for example "Team A") instead of a provider's name if you prefer. Your study stays in this browser.
Your study
The default target of 60 minutes is a rule of thumb quoted in an AAFP Family Practice Management article: an average office visit regularly over 60 minutes has room to improve. The same article says there is no such thing as an ideal cycle time, so set your own.
Visit steps
Each row is a moment you write down (a milestone). The time between two milestones is a step. Mark each step as face-to-face care (value-added), waiting, or necessary admin, and say which role is responsible for it. Tick Optional for a milestone only some visits have (such as labs): when it is blank, its time joins the next step instead of leaving the visit out of the waiting and value-added numbers.
Visit types and exceptions
Exceptions and what to do
Tick these on a visit when they happen. What you write here becomes the exceptions table in your process document.
Live timing
For a tablet at the front desk or with an observer. Tap Start a visit when a patient arrives, then tap the next milestone as it happens. Several visits can run at once. Times use this device's clock.
Enter times from a paper sheet
Type the clock times (or tap Now). Leave a milestone blank if it was not recorded. Need sheets? that matches your milestones.
Recorded visits
Results
No complete visits yet. A visit is complete when its first and last milestones both have a time.
Where the time goes: median minutes per step
Step table
Cycle time per visit
Cycle time by arrival time
By visit type and by provider or team
Write up the current state
Export
CSV opens in Excel or Google Sheets and re-imports here. The JSON backup keeps everything, including your steps and settings.
Import
A JSON backup replaces the whole study. A CSV adds visits: it needs a header row whose columns match your milestone names (for example "Arrived", "Checked in"), with clock times like 9:05, 13:15 or 1:15 pm (a 1:15 with no AM/PM is read as afternoon only when morning makes no sense). Optional columns: Visit type, Provider or team, Appointment, Exceptions, Note.
Example and reset
Education and workflow support only. The Patient Cycle Time Study helps a clinic measure and document how long the steps of a visit take. It does not assess, diagnose or treat anyone, is not a patient tracking or medical record system, and its results are estimates from your own sample. Never enter patient information. Sources and method: see the method notes. Terms and disclaimer · Privacy.