Hospitalist workload and resident evaluations.

BACKGROUND: Most academic hospitalists fulfil the role of clinician educator and have many opportunities for the bedside clinical teaching of resident physicians; however, hospitalists are promoted at lower rates than traditional internal medicine faculty staff. The conflict between the demands of clinical productivity and time to teach may be central to understanding the lower rates of academic promotion seen in hospitalists. This investigation explores the relationship between clinical productivity and learner evaluations of hospitalist clinician educators.

METHODS: A retrospective review of clinical productivity and learner evaluations of hospitalists by residents was collected during the 2009-2012 academic years at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine. Correlation analysis between annual work relative value units (wRVUs), patient encounters and duty days with resident evaluations of faculty staff in the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education core competencies was performed.

RESULTS: Forty-one annual data sets, representing 18 individual hospitalists, were analysed. No significant correlations between clinical productivity, in terms of annual work RVUs, patient encounters and duty days, and resident learner evaluation scores was found. This investigation explores the relationship between clinical productivity and learner evaluations of hospitalist clinician educators

DISCUSSION: This study found no significant influence of measures of annual clinical service workload on resident learner evaluations of hospitalist clinical educators. These results are consistent with data reported for emergency medicine doctors and anaesthesiologists. These results may have significant implications for the staffing requirements for academic hospitalists.