P003: Productivity patterns in early-career physicians: a multi-center analysis of administrative emergency department operations data

Abstract

Introduction: Physician metrics extracted from an electronic medical records (EMR) system can be utilized for practice improvement. One key metric analyzed at many emergency departments (EDs) is ‘patients per hour’ (pts/hr), a proxy for physician productivity. It is often believed that early-career physicians experience rapid growth in efficiency as they acclimatize to a hospital system and develop clinical confidence. This is the first study to evaluate the following question: Do early-career ED physicians increase their productivity when beginning practice? Methods: We performed a retrospective review of EMR data of early-career ED physicians working at one or more urban, academic centers. Early-career physicians must have started practice within three months of residency completion, and were identified by privileging records and provincial medical college registration. Physicians were excluded if they did not have at least 36 months of continuous data. Monthly productivity data (pts/hr) was extracted for each physician for their first 36-months of practice. A ‘performance curve’ or graph with a trendline of productivity as a moving average was created for each physician. Each performance curve was visually evaluated by two independent reviewers to qualitatively identify the general trend as upward, downward, or stable, with disagreements resolved by conference. Each physician's first and third year average productivity was compared quantitatively as well, with a significant upward or downward trend defined as a difference of at least 0.2 pts/hr. Results: A total of 41 physicians met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Overall monthly pts/hr averages ranged from 1.08 to 7.65. Upon visual inspection, six (14.6%) physicians had upward trends, five (12.2%) had downward trends, and 30 (73.2%) had no discernable pattern. The quantitative analysis comparing first year to third year productivity matched the qualitative inspection exactly, with the same six physicians showing increased productivity, five with decreased, and 30 without significant change. Notably, the majority (30/41) of physicians demonstrated radical productivity variations over short periods with no discernable long-term trends. Conclusion: The majority of early career physicians do not demonstrate sustained early-career productivity changes. Of those that do, an approximately equal number will become faster and slower.