The University of Tennessee Health Science Center's Doctor of Physical Therapy program used Exxat STEPS (now part of Exxat Prism) to eliminate nearly 200 hours administrative work every academic year.

Assigning clinical experiences to students is a stressful experience for any academic program in health education. The task of reaching out to the clinics, collecting their availability to accept students and matching each student to the right clinic is complex by itself. Multiply this effort by an entire cohort of students, and the number of person hours spent becomes staggering. The situation at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center’s (UTHSC) Doctor of Physical Therapy program was no different. Their Director of Clinical Education (DCE) and Assistant Director of Clinical Education (ADCE) were completing this work manually – manually sending their Slot Requests to clinical sites, manually entered and managed slots, and used a lottery system to manually match 60 students per cohort to the slots provided by the sites. A tedious 40-hour process for each of the five clinical experiences in their curriculum.

“With Exxat, the University of Tennessee Health Science Center saved an estimated 38 hours per clinical experience.”

- Dr. Jacque Bradford, PT, DPT, EdD, MS, CHSE
Director of Clinical Education, The University of Tennessee Health Science Center Doctor of Physical Therapy Program

With Exxat’s Student Training Education and Placement Systems (STEPS) (Now part of Exxat Prism), they saved an estimated 38 of these 40 hours per clinical experience. Over the course of 5 clinical experiences per student, the team saved nearly 200 hours of manual work each academic year

How Exxat STEPS (now part of Exxat Prism) turned 40 hours of manual clerical work into 2.

It all began with the annual slot request sent by physical therapy programs on March 1st. The DCE and ADCE at UTHSC sent this request electronically in minutes and received responses through a hands-off process.

Each Site Coordinator of Clinical Education (SCCE) received an email with a personalized message from UTHSC along with a unique link generated by the system. After clicking the link, the SCCE entered their availability directly into UTHSC’s the system and a received confirmation email recapping the availability they have offered. Time saved by minimizing clerical effort in requesting, entering, tracking, and confirming slots.

Once the slots from the clinical sites are in, Exxat STEPS (now part of Exxat Prism) made all relevant slot and site information available to students from any web-enabled device. This empowered UTHSC’s students to easily filter and search slots, then, create and submit a ranked list of their preferences electronically. No more time and energy spent in creating, distributing and collecting hard copies.

Like many programs, UTHSC utilized a lottery system for matching students where students choose their slots one by one in order of a randomly assigned number. The lucky few with the first few numbers get their pick of the slots while unlucky students with higher numbers choose from whatever remains.

The “Placement Assist” feature in Exxat STEPS (now part of Exxat Prism) eliminated the element of “luck” by using a sophisticated linear regression algorithm, along with program-specific guidelines, to make over 1 million calculations, finding the best placements for the class as a whole. These placements were manually adjusted by the DCE and ADCE as needed, then shared with both clinical sites and students as soon as the program was ready

A Win-Win Outcome

With Exxat STEPS (now part of Exxat Prism), 50% of UTHSC’s students received their first choice of clinical experience with 95% less time spent by the DCE and ADCE. In a typical lottery scenario, these results would be extremely difficult and time consuming to achieve. The program called the results “The best I’ve ever seen!” and further remarked that “All the students were extremely pleased.” Overall, the University of Tennessee saw a streamlined March 1st Mailing, a more efficient way to display available slots and happier students with a higher percentage in their top choices. All with the extraordinary time savings of 38 hours per clinical experience.

With Exxat STEPS (now part of Exxat Prism), 50% of students received their First choice of rotation. In a typical lottery scenario, these results would be highly unusual.

Key Takeaways:

Exxat STEPS (now part of Exxat Prism) automates the process of gathering availability from clinical sites, capturing student preferences and assigning students to a site for their clinical experience.

By eliminating the need for manual placement processes such as a lottery system, STEPS (now part of Exxat Prism) maximizes the number of students who receive a top choice improving student satisfaction while saving 95% of the time spent in clerical work.

Exxat Prism is an all-in-one Education Management Platform for Health Science Programs. It streamlines Clinical Education, Curriculum Management, Document Compliance, and Contract Tracking & Sharing.

Prism manages it all from placement availability, site details and accreditation reports to required documents, patient logs, curriculum mapping, and evaluations. Our integrated database helps you to seamlessly collect and manage everything through just a few clicks.

You can learn more about Prism and request a demo at https://exxat.com/solutions/prism/