Estimate how many active patients a home care team can support under a defined visit pattern. The calculation converts caregiver productive hours into visit capacity after combining in-home service and travel time, then divides by the expected weekly visit frequency per patient. It also displays weekly visit capacity and the effect of keeping a small operating reserve.
Usable visits = caregiver FTE × productive hours × 60 ÷ (visit + travel minutes) × (1 − reserve rate)
Patient capacity = usable visits ÷ visits per patient
Patient capacity is the largest average active caseload supported by the entered service pattern. Actual assignments still depend on geography, skills, continuity, and patient-specific care plans.
Do not use this estimate to reduce required care or override individual service plans.
With 18 caregiver FTEs at 28 productive hours, the team has 504 weekly hours. At 85 minutes per visit, raw capacity is 355 visits. Holding a 10% reserve leaves about 319 visits, enough for 106 patients receiving 3 visits per week.
Yes. Travel consumes field capacity even though it is not direct service time.
No. Productive hours should represent time genuinely available for visits and included travel.
A reserve leaves room for urgent needs, schedule disruption, and normal variation.
Yes. Use the weighted average weekly frequency across the planned caseload.
No. It is a time-based operating estimate and does not replace care plans, qualifications, supervision, or local rules.
| Item | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Input | Capacity effect |
| Caregiver FTE | Adds productive labor |
| Visit plus travel minutes | Consumes capacity per completed visit |
| Visits per patient | Converts visits into caseload |
| Reserve | Keeps capacity available for variability |