Rationale and objectives: The purpose of this study is to quantify the impact of clinical consultation on the workload of an academic emergency radiology section.
Materials and methods: Data from a 7-day audit (24 h/d) of the number and length of clinical consultations was expressed as the mean number of consultations per 24 hours and consultation minutes per 24 hours. Consultations performed on images acquired from outside institutions were noted. The attending radiologist consultation fraction was defined as the attending consultation minutes per 24 hours divided by the number of minutes of attending coverage per 24 hours. Using annualized work relative value units per full-time employee (wRVU/FTE) over the 7 days, the consultation value unit per full-time employee (CVU/FTE) was defined and calculated as the consultation fraction multiplied by the annual wRVU/FTE.
Results: For the attending radiologists, the consultation fraction was 0.13 and the CVU/FTE was 1216. Twenty-two percent of the total consultation minutes were spent on studies performed outside our institution.
Conclusions: Clinical consultation represents a significant portion of the workload in academic emergency radiology. The consultation fraction describes the fraction of the radiologist's time spent in consultation, and the CVU/FTE expresses the workload of clinical consultations in terms of wRVU/FTE, the factor used most commonly to determine the academic radiologist's productivity and staffing.