Quantification of clinical consultations in academic emergency radiology.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study is to quantify the impact of clinical consultation on the workload of an academic emergency radiology section.


METHODS
Data from a 7-day audit (24 h/d) of the number and length of clinical consultations was expressed as the mean number of consultations per 24 hours and consultation minutes per 24 hours. Consultations performed on images acquired from outside institutions were noted. The attending radiologist consultation fraction was defined as the attending consultation minutes per 24 hours divided by the number of minutes of attending coverage per 24 hours. Using annualized work relative value units per full-time employee (wRVU/FTE) over the 7 days, the consultation value unit per full-time employee (CVU/FTE) was defined and calculated as the consultation fraction multiplied by the annual wRVU/FTE.


RESULTS
For the attending radiologists, the consultation fraction was 0.13 and the CVU/FTE was 1216. Twenty-two percent of the total consultation minutes were spent on studies performed outside our institution.


CONCLUSIONS
Clinical consultation represents a significant portion of the workload in academic emergency radiology. The consultation fraction describes the fraction of the radiologist's time spent in consultation, and the CVU/FTE expresses the workload of clinical consultations in terms of wRVU/FTE, the factor used most commonly to determine the academic radiologist's productivity and staffing.
Viscomi
Salvatore
S
Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, 75 Francis Street, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Shu
Kirstin M
KM
Blinder
Elise M
EM
MacKenzie
John D
JD
Ledbetter
Stephen
S
Rybicki
Frank J
FJ
D000046:Academic Medical Centers; D001900:Boston; D004632:Emergency Medical Services; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008485:Medical Audit; D008505:Medical Staff, Hospital; D010561:Personnel Staffing and Scheduling; D011872:Radiology Department, Hospital; D015642:Radiology, Interventional; D012017:Referral and Consultation; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed