Assessing performance, productivity, and staffing needs in pathology groups: observations from the College of American Pathologists PathFocus pathology practice activity and staffing program.
BACKGROUND
The PathFocus program affords the opportunity for participating pathology practices to be compared with other practices that have similar characteristics.


OBJECTIVE
To demonstrate variability in workload among different pathology practice settings and to determine practice characteristics that influence staffing levels.


METHODS
Among 228 group practices in the PathFocus database, group practice settings were analyzed. The practice characteristics that were highly correlated with staffing levels are presented.


RESULTS
Activities that showed significant variation include surgical pathology (P = .003), cytopathology (P = .006), miscellaneous (P = .006), and professional development (P = .003). Group practices report up to 4% of hours devoted to clinical pathology consultation, on average, and from 20% to 25% to administration and management. There are strong positive associations with staffing levels for lower-complexity Current Procedural Terminology code volumes (P < .001) and higher-complexity Current Procedural Terminology code volumes (P = .006).


CONCLUSIONS
The settings of pathology practices carry specific commitments of time that are different and not equally distributed among all practice settings and strongly influence staffing requirements.
Martin
Scott A
SA
Department of Laboratory Medicine, St John's Mercy Medical Center, St Louis, Mo 63141, USA. martsa@stlo.smhs.com
Styer
Patricia E
PE
D000488:Allied Health Personnel; D006801:Humans; D010336:Pathology; D010561:Personnel Staffing and Scheduling; D012955:Societies, Medical; D014481:United States