title: Broadbanding a surgical academic practice salary: a possible score.
abstract: How can we look at productivity in academic centers when surgeons perform different procedures that pay differently? Another dilemma is how they are compensated for teaching medical students, residents, and other surgeons. We also have to compensate them for the types and difficulty of the procedures. We can view this problem as either "making the pie bigger" or "dividing the pie better. "First, we should focus on how to "divide the pie. "Regardless of the "pie size," the issue of allocation for remuneration purposes is an important issue. "Dividing" the pie is an internal exercise, whereas making the pie "bigger" involves additional internal and external factors. In this paper, we address the issue of dividing the pie in a measurable way. We also address how to score each activity so that bonuses or compensation can be calculated without the "more" productive surgeons effectively subsidizing the "less" productive, a situation that is often detrimental to organizational success. Academic surgeons are very important for teaching new surgeons and medical students; therefore, they should be remunerated adequately. Pay schemes may be developed to improve the retention of highly productive surgeons in the academic environment.
authors.affiliation: Division of General Surgery, Department of Surgery, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, MOP Building, Suite 380, 3502 9th Street, Lubbock, TX 79415, USA. eldo.frezza@ttuhsc.edu
authors.forename: Eldo E
authors.initials: EE
authors.lastname: Frezza
authors.forename: Bradley T
authors.initials: BT
authors.lastname: Ewing
mesh_terms: D000046:Academic Medical Centers; D013502:General Surgery / Q000191:economics*; D006801:Humans; D010820:Physicians / Q000191:economics*; D012456:Salaries and Fringe Benefits; D013514:Surgical Procedures, Operative / Q000145:classification* / Q000191:economics; D014481:United States