Act I: The Negotiation
(A barren academic office, dimly lit, the pall of difficult negotiations afloat, backlit like dust in the air. Seated, under a strangely intense incandescent bulb, a man, who looks eerily like a good-looking version of me, sits uncomfortably adjusting himself in his seat. His eyes constrict on his counterpart, a miserly sort peering out from behind wire-rim glasses and a shock of hair improbably combed over from ear to ear. The tension crests.)
GOOD-LOOKING ME
(Voice cracking)
I’ve come to ask for a raise for our hospitalist group.
MISER
(Adjusts his clip-on tie)
We just gave you a raise in 2004.
GOOD-LOOKING ME
(Smiles uncomfortably)
That was very gracious, sir, but I think the numbers support another.
MISER
(Incredulous look at his watch)
But your work RVUs are thousands below what I’d like to see.
GOOD-LOOKING ME
(Dabs bead of sweat away from chiseled chin)
That’s because you’ve set your benchmark thousands above a reasonable number.
MISER
(Voice flitting with child-like condescension)
But those are the numbers my finance guy gave me. It’s the benchmark.
(Blackout and end of Act I.)
Mutual Agreement
Tony Award-winning stuff for sure—and based on a true story! In fact, this scene no doubt plays out annually for those of you unfortunate enough to have to negotiate with hospital executives for programmatic support. To be fair, hospital administrators deserve to know that they are getting what they pay for. Thus, the concepts of a benchmark are reasonable. The problem lies in setting mutually-agreed-upon standards.
Act II: Disbelief and Confusion
GOOD-LOOKING ME
(Unsteadily hands document to Miser)
Sir, I’ve highlighted the national benchmarks for you to see. Column four of this 2007-2008 SHM survey clearly shows that the average academic hospitalist should make $168,800 and achieve 2,813 work RVUs. We achieve the latter benchmark but are severely underpaid.
MISER
(Produces a folded cocktail napkin from his shirt pocket)
But look at this: My executive-friends-at-other-medical-centers-who-overwork-and-underpay-their-hospitalists benchmark shows that you should be well over 4,500 work RVUs. And besides, the SHM numbers are skewed; it’s a survey of hospitalists done by a group that represents hospitalists. I don’t believe them.
GOOD-LOOKING ME
(Eyes averted, adopts a tone of trepidation)
But sir, with all due respect, don’t your numbers reflect a survey of hospital administrators who might have a bias toward more expected productivity? Which benchmark should we believe?
(Blackout and end of Act II.)
A New HM Benchmark Arises
It’s all about the benchmark you choose to believe. For years, the best source of data regarding hospitalist compensation and productivity was that published every other year by SHM. It is a fair, but unfounded, concern that these data might tilt toward the benefit of hospitalists. Likewise, the hospital administrator I work most closely with (who, for the record, reads this publication and IS NOT miserly, has a FULL HEAD of hair, and is, for innumerable reasons, a TRULY GREAT man) will produce benchmarks from organizations like the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) or the University HealthSystems Consortium (UHC), all of which show surprisingly disparate numbers dripping with a similar tilt toward the medical center.
Thus, the importance of the 2010 SHM/MGMA report. The Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) consists of administrators and leaders of medical group practices. Since 1926, they’ve been providing accurate, independent data on physician practice metrics. For most hospital administrators, it is the benchmark. The problem is that in the past, MGMA has struggled to identify hospitalists; the MGMA data were always underpowered and, therefore, suspect.