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The purpose of this study is to develop a model for physician staffing requirements that could be generally applied to any hospital department, taking into account factors such as occupancy level, professional absences, allowances, physician work duties and patient service levels. Design/methodology/approach The ability to generalize the model was tested via its implementation to five hospital departments considered to represent a cross-section of all hospital requirements: Internal Medicine, Surgery, Orthopedics Children's (Pediatrics), and Gynecology. The work is based on a combination of a survey, work-sampling and direct time study, conducted by professional observers with a high degree of frequency and over a relatively long period of time. Findings The model that we developed is based on the concept of "required work capacity" of physicians. The model makes it possible to account for such factors as yearly capacity, level of desired service, increments for work conditions, roster duties and necessary absences.

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45 seconds, w i t h r a t e d perceived e x e r t i o n (RPE) g i v e n a f t e r 15, 30 and 45 seconds. The whole t e s t s e r i e s was repeated twice. The r e s u l t s show t h a t i t i s p o s s i b l e t o e v a l u a t e d i f f e r e n t body postures by RPE a c h i e v i n g a t o t a l r e l i a b i l i t y a-value over 0.96. Despite t h e f a c t t h a t the r a t i n g p a t t e r n between t h e d i f f e r e n t postures was t h e same f o r a l l subjects, i t i s shown t h a t each person assessed according t o a c e r t a i n i n d i v i d u a l l y -i n f l u e n c e d p a t t e r n . A c e r t a i n person can f o r example, d e v i a t e c o n s i s t e n t l y towards higher values on Borg's scale, a so-called " h i g h r a t e r " . F i n a l l y , the d i f f e r e n t postures were grouped according t o how t h e r a t i n g s changed i n time ( r e g r e s s i o n slope between the RPE's a f t e r 15, 30 and 45 seconds). The t h i r d -c l u s t e r , which showed a h i g h b a s i c r a t i n g -l e v e l and t h e g r e a t e s t regression slope,