Evaluation of Nonclinical Activities of Emergency Medicine Specialist Using Relative Value Unit: Pilot Study

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: Emergency medicine (EM) specialists in training hospitals perform not only clinical practice, but also nonclinical activities, such as education, administration, and research. The types and amounts of nonclinical activities are increasing, but the activities have not been evaluated. This study applied the concept of the relative value unit (RVU) and conducted a pilot study to calculate the total nonclinical activities of EM specialists in training hospitals. METHODS: The one year nonclinical activities of the eight EM specialists working in training hospitals were analyzed retrospectively. The nonclinical activities were divided into three areas education, administration, and research. The types of activities, and effort and time spent were collected and the RVU was calculated. RESULTS: The time spent on the education and administrative tasks ranged from 92 to 1,094 hours (average 348.8 hours) and 19 to 1,018 hours (average 207.8 hours), respectively. The average annual workload for education was 324.9 RVUs. The average annual administrative workload was 115.6 RUVs. The average time spent in education and administration was 556.6 hours and clinical practice was 1,904.8 hours. CONCLUSION: Nonclinical activities are essential for the operation of EM departments. If the necessary manpower for the EM is to be calculated, it will be important to calculate the workforce of the specialists, including the nonclinical workload.