Six-year update on the financial status of US Family Medicine Departments.
BACKGROUND
The financial climate for academic family medicine departments is increasingly threatened by reductions in federal funding and ever more competitive health care markets.


OBJECTIVE
Our objective was to evaluate the financial status of US Departments of Family Medicine, comparing 1998 and 2004 data.


METHODS
In 1999 and 2005, family medicine department chairs were surveyed for the Association of Departments of Family Medicine. Information reported about departments' financial status for 1998 and 2004 included department size, faculty compensation, revenue sources, expenditures, residents' salary support, payer mix, and department reserves. The 2005 survey data were compared to the 1999 survey reports.


RESULTS
Eighty-five departments responded to the 2005 survey (69% of 124 departments). For 2004, the largest source of department revenue was clinical income; the median percent of revenue from clinical work increased from 32% in 1998 to 46% in 2004. The contributions of school/government support and hospital support decreased. Median expenditures for faculty salaries and fringe benefits increased (from 49% to 54%). Although the percentage of departments with reserves had increased (from 57% to 71%), 18% of departments reported debt in 2004.


CONCLUSIONS
Family medicine departments increasingly rely on clinical income. They continue to be vulnerable to changes in support from government and hospital sources, since these sources constitute significant portions of department budgets but have declined in the past 6 years.
Matheny
Samuel C
SC
Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40536-0284, USA.
Love
Margaret M
MM
Smith
Alice W
AW
Pugno
Perry A
PA
D005178:Faculty / Q000458:organization & administration; D005194:Family Practice / Q000193:education*; D006801:Humans; D017149:Private Sector; D017150:Public Sector; D012456:Salaries and Fringe Benefits; D012577:Schools, Medical / Q000191:economics* / Q000458:organization & administration; D014481:United States