Clinician capacity planning
Clinician capacity planning is the process of matching licensed clinician-hours to expected telehealth encounter volume — by encounter type, by state of licensure, and by hour of coverage — so that turnaround promises hold at peak demand without paying for idle time.
- Demand in clinician-minutes, by encounter type
- Peak factor for spikes, not average staffing
- A matrix of hours by state, not a headcount
- Minutes per case is the lever you control
The arithmetic
Encounters by type × minutes per type = clinician-minutes of demand. Divide by productive minutes per clinician-month for base capacity, then multiply by a peak factor (commonly 1.3–1.5) because intake arrives in spikes. The result is hours, not headcount.
The coverage matrix
Every encounter needs a clinician licensed in the patient’s state, and nurse practitioners need supervision as the state requires. Capacity is therefore a matrix of hours by state by coverage window. A staff of ten licensed in fifteen states has no capacity in the other thirty-five — which is why programs at scale usually provision capacity from a network licensed everywhere they sell.
Compliance handled, so you can build
Lithos runs the clinicians, pharmacies, and 50-state rules behind your care program — one API.
Frequently asked questions
How many clinicians does a telehealth program need per 1,000 encounters?
It depends on the initial-to-renewal mix and minutes per case, so compute it: total clinician-minutes ÷ productive minutes per clinician × peak factor, then check the answer against state coverage. Structured intake can halve the requirement.
Should telehealth programs employ clinicians or use a network?
At national scale, coverage by state decides it. Employed clinicians fit a few high-volume states; a network licensed in all fifty provides capacity where demand appears without months of licensing lead time.