Case Study: University of Tennessee Health Science Center saves time and streamlines clinical placements with Exxat STEPS

Saving Time and Resources with Automated Clinical Placements

The University of Tennessee Health Science Center’s Doctor of Physical Therapy program faced a time-consuming manual process for assigning clinical experiences to students. The Director and Assistant Director of Clinical Education spent hours sending slot requests, collecting site availability, managing slots, and running a lottery to place 60 students per cohort across five clinical experiences each year. Exxat’s STEPS clinical education management platform was used to streamline this complex placement workflow.

With Exxat STEPS, UTHSC automated bulk slot requests, student wish lists, and placement matching through the “Placement Assist” algorithm. The result was an estimated 38 hours saved per clinical experience, nearly 200 hours saved annually, and 50% of students receiving their first-choice placement. Exxat also reduced clerical work by 95% and improved student satisfaction with a faster, more efficient, and less random placement process.

University of Tennessee Health Science Center

Jacque Bradford

Director of Clinical Education