The utilisation we generally expect an established senior clinician to reach, measured the honest way, what it bills, and why it is not an Award classification test.
80% utilisation is not a test of whether someone is a Senior Clinician. It is the operating benchmark we generally expect an established senior clinician to be capable of reaching. It is a Culture of One practice-economics benchmark, not an Award classification test. Classification asks what work the employee performs. Utilisation asks whether the economics of the role are working. A clinician below 80% can be a Senior Clinician at Level 2, and the number is no basis for reclassifying anyone, demoting them or removing their senior status.
A senior clinician costs more, and an established senior should generally generate more: a fuller diary, a higher price point and patients and referrers who ask for them by name. The honest way to see whether that is happening is utilisation measured against the full contracted week. In the planning benchmarks we use the band is narrow: under 70% a clinician is being carried, above 85% they are being cooked, and the difference between the two is five to six hours a week. We use 75% as the entry-level benchmark inside two years and 80% as the benchmark for an established senior. A senior who sits persistently below it is an operating problem worth addressing: the diary, the price, the referrals or the way the role is set up.
The short answer
Utilisation is hours in front of patients divided by the full contracted hours. On a 38-hour contract the denominator is 38. Meetings, professional development, notes and admin stay in it, because the clinic pays for every one of those hours.
| Utilisation | Hours a week on a 38-hour contract | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Below 70% | Under 26 to 27 hours | Not being used efficiently. The clinic is carrying them |
| 70% to 75% | 26 to 29 hours | Where most juniors sit. Keep them inside the guardrails |
| 80% | About 30 hours | The benchmark we use for an established senior: four to five years out and beyond |
| Above 85% | Over 32 to 33 hours | Very few sustain it. Protect people from going past it |
These are our planning benchmarks, not an award figure. The Health Professionals and Support Services Award classifies people by the work they perform; it says nothing about what a senior diary should look like.
The measure, and the mistake owners make with it
The common mistake is to subtract the non-clinical time first and call the remainder the week. It muddies the water. Eighty per cent of a 30-hour clinical week and eighty per cent of a 38-hour contract are different jobs with the same label, and the owner is paying for the 38. Always a percentage of the full contract.
Two diaries make the band concrete. Fifty 30-minute consults a week is 25 hours with patients, under 70% of a 38-hour contract. Sixty is 30 hours, 78 to 79%. Ten appointments a week is the difference between a diary the clinic is carrying and one near the benchmark we use for an established senior.
| Appointments a week (30 minutes) | Hours with patients | Utilisation |
|---|---|---|
| 50 | 25 hours | Under 70% |
| 60 | 30 hours | 78 to 79% |
Every clinician has a different comfort level. The owner's job is to keep each one inside their guardrails. Under-utilisation costs money. Over-utilisation costs the person.
The benchmarks we use
| Who | Benchmark | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Entry level, inside two years | 75%, about 29 of 38 hours | Weeks fluctuate: 30 one week, 26 or 27 the next. Allow for cancellations and failed rebookings |
| Established senior, four to five years out and beyond | 80%, consistently | Depth of experience generally moves each case, and the diary, faster |
| Anyone under a year with the clinic | Give it time | No referral network or past patients in this clinic yet, whatever their experience elsewhere |
Tenure matters as much as experience. A clinician who has been with the clinic less than a year has no referral network there and no past patients to rebook, however many years they bring. Past two years with the clinic and four or five years in the profession, 80% is the benchmark to push for. Where a senior's role deliberately includes supervision, education or other non-clinical work, the owner sets the benchmark around that time and writes it into the role. From 80% a conversation about shrinking diary hours becomes possible, which is the lever behind a four-day week.
What 80% is worth
Eighty per cent of a 38-hour contract is 30.4 hours a week. Over 44 revenue weeks that is about 1,340 clinical hours a year. At $225 an hour of realised revenue the clinician bills about $300,000. Ratchet the price up and the same diary reaches $350,000 to $400,000.
| Utilisation | Clinical hours a year (44 revenue weeks) | At $225 an hour | At $260 an hour | At $300 an hour |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 80% of 38 hours | About 1,340 | About $300,000 | About $348,000 | About $400,000 |
Some clinics sustain senior therapists billing close to $400,000. Others employ senior therapists who do not reach $200,000. Same title, same years, same classification. Much of that gap is usually utilisation and price, and that is an operating gap the owner can work on.
Classification and utilisation are separate questions
Classification asks what work the employee performs. Utilisation asks whether the economics of the role are working. The award answers the first question and is silent on the second; our 80% benchmark answers the second and plays no part in the first.
| Question | What decides it | What it is used for |
|---|---|---|
| Is this clinician a Senior Clinician at Level 2? | The work they perform, against the award definition | Classification and minimum pay |
| Are the economics of this senior role working? | Utilisation, price point and referral pull | Running the diary, setting goals, planning the role |
Senior Clinician under Level 2: what the award actually says
Senior Clinician is a term in the award with a written definition. Level 2 of the Health Professionals and Support Services Award (Schedule A.2.2(a)) names four roles: Senior Clinician, Specialist, Supervisor and Educator. There is no management limb at Level 2; Section Manager is Level 3 and Manager is Level 4.
The Senior Clinician limb reads: "works directly with patients in a clinical area of their profession that requires specialist knowledge or depth of experience and/or provides clinical guidance and direction to less experienced employees as needed. Such an employee may have obtained a post-graduate qualification and/or perform advanced practice work and/or have completed training which may involve credentialing relevant to their profession" (Schedule A.2.2(a)(i), MA000027, as varied by PR814029).
Two things follow from the words. Depth of experience in an area of practice satisfies the first arm on its own; a post-graduate qualification is named as something the employee "may have obtained", which makes it evidence, never a switch. And the clinical guidance arm is "as needed", not a structured supervision program. Supervisor is its own role on the same list. Utilisation, billings and price point appear nowhere in the definition. In practice an employee who works in an area of practice that calls for depth of experience, and has years in it, does not usually find the award definition hard to meet. Owners who try to push those people down to Level 1 are taking a precarious position, and a senior who is pushed down is likely to dispute it.
The fuller treatment of the definition, with the up-the-mountain and down-the-mountain tests, is in A Qualification Doesn't Automatically Make Them Level 2.
What we expect from an established senior commercially
None of this is in the award, and none of it decides classification. It is the commercial lens, and it answers the second question: are the economics of the role working, and if not, what does the owner work on? We generally expect an established senior clinician to show three things:
- They hold 80% utilisation without the diary breaking.
- They hold a higher price point than a standard therapist without ending up with a quiet diary.
- Referrers and past patients ask for them by name, more than the generic walk-in work.
A senior who shows all three is generally earning what the role costs, and it opens the conversation about their diary hours. A senior who persistently shows none of them is still a senior, classified on the work they perform. What it tells the owner is that the economics of the role are not working yet, and that is an operating problem worth addressing: how the diary is filled, what they charge, where their referrals come from and how the role is set up. The response is a clear goal and the support to reach it, never a reclassification. The benchmark we set for an established senior is 80%, because depth of experience generally moves each case faster than it does for a junior.
The guardrails
The gap between a clinician who is under-utilised at less than 70% and one who is potentially burning out at 85% is about five or six hours a week. The owner's job is to keep people inside those guardrails and keep them happy. For most juniors that is 70 to 75%. For established seniors it is 80%, and the protection against going past 85% is scheduled, not hoped for.
Nobody enjoys being held to a number, and clinicians will say so. The trade is real: a senior wage is a cost the clinic carries every week, and the billings that sustain it come from the diary, the price and the referrals. That is what the benchmark is for.
For owner-led clinics doing $1M to $3M
Operator: every clinician's utilisation and billings against their full cost, modelled forward to 2030
What each clinician actually earns you, what the award does to that as each stage lands, and what has to change so it still works. Built on your own payroll and diary data.
Questions owners ask
How do you calculate clinician utilisation?
Hours booked with patients divided by full contracted hours. On a 38-hour contract the denominator is 38, with meetings, professional development, notes and admin left in. Fifty 30-minute consults a week is 25 hours, under 70%. Sixty is 30 hours, 78 to 79%.
What is a good utilisation rate for a physio?
The benchmarks we use are 75% inside the first two years, about 29 of 38 hours, and 80% as the operating benchmark for an established senior clinician four to five years out and beyond. Both are Culture of One practice-economics benchmarks, not award figures. Above 85%, over 32 to 33 hours a week, very few people sustain it.
Should utilisation include admin and non-clinical time?
Keep admin, meetings and professional development in the denominator. The clinic pays for those hours. Subtracting them first makes 80% of a 30-hour clinical week look the same as 80% of a 38-hour contract, which hides the cost of the non-clinical time.
How much should a senior physio bill a year?
At 80% utilisation on a 38-hour contract, 30.4 clinical hours a week over 44 revenue weeks is about 1,340 hours. At $225 an hour that is about $300,000 a year; at $300 an hour about $400,000. Where a senior bills under $200,000, the gap is often utilisation and price, an operating problem to work on before it is a wage problem.
Is 80% utilisation a test of whether someone is a Senior Clinician?
No. 80% is the operating benchmark we generally expect an established senior clinician to be capable of reaching. It is a Culture of One practice-economics benchmark, not an award classification test. Classification asks what work the employee performs; utilisation asks whether the economics of the role are working. A senior below 80% is still classified on the work they perform, and persistent under-utilisation is an operating problem to address through the diary, the price and the referrals, not a reason to reclassify.
What is a Senior Clinician under the Health Professionals Award?
The first of four Level 2 roles in Schedule A.2.2(a) of MA000027. The definition is a clinician who works directly with patients in an area requiring specialist knowledge or depth of experience, and/or provides clinical guidance to less experienced staff as needed. A post-graduate qualification is named as something the employee "may have obtained": evidence, not a requirement. Utilisation and billings are not part of the definition.
Does a senior clinician have to supervise anyone to be Level 2?
No. The Senior Clinician limb is satisfied by clinical work in an area requiring specialist knowledge or depth of experience on its own. Supervisor is a separate Level 2 role, which is why a structured supervision load is not a requirement of the Senior Clinician limb.
What is the difference between senior and Level 2?
Senior is a title the clinic gives. Level 2 is an award classification with a written definition, decided by the work the employee performs. The 80% utilisation benchmark, a higher price point and their own referrers are commercial measures of whether the economics of a senior role are working. They sit beside the award classification and play no part in it.
Recent Insight Articles
Explore more expert insights to deepen your understanding and find practical solutions for advancing your clinic's growth and sustainability.
