Program directors in surgery agree that residents should be formally trained in business and practice management.
BACKGROUND
Surgical residents typically receive limited exposure to business and practice management during their training. As a result, residents are ill-prepared for issues related to starting a practice, coding, collecting, and taking a meaningful role within the medical community in promoting quality and safety and in containing health care costs. With the introduction of the core competencies and the current overhaul of surgical education, we believe there is an opportunity to include business and practice management into resident training.


METHODS
Program directors in general surgery (189 of 242) responded to a 9-question mailed survey inquiring about their opinions regarding training surgical residents in business and practice management.


RESULTS
Most program directors agreed or strongly agreed (87%) that residents should be trained in business and practice management. Seventy percent believed that their current trainees were inadequately trained in this area. Over half (63%) believed that this training should begin during postgraduate years 2 to 5.


CONCLUSIONS
Development of simple curricula aimed at preparing surgical residents for business and practice management could promote the contemporary education of surgeons.
Lusco
Vincent C
VC
Department of Surgery, and the Institute for Bioethics Health Policy and Law, University of Louisville School of Medicine, Louisville, KY 40292, USA.
Martinez
Serge A
SA
Polk
Hiram C
HC
D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003132:Commerce / Q000193:education*; D003162:Competency-Based Education; D003479:Curriculum; D013502:General Surgery / Q000193:education* / Q000458:organization & administration; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency / Q000458:organization & administration; D008486:Physician Executives / Q000523:psychology*; D011216:Practice Management, Medical; D016730:Program Development; D014481:United States