Contributions of Academic Emergency Medicine Programs to US Healthcare: Summary of the AAAEM-AACEM Benchmarking Data

Abstract

Objectives

The societal contribution of emergency care in the United States has been described. The role and impact of academic emergency departments (EDs) has been less clear. Our report summarizes the results of a benchmarking effort specifically focused on academic emergency medicine (EM) practices.

Methods

From October through December of 2016, the Academy of Academic Administrators of Emergency Medicine (AAAEM) and the Association of Academic Chairs of Emergency Medicine (AACEM) jointly administered a benchmarking survey to allopathic, academic departments and divisions of emergency medicine. Participation was voluntary and non-anonymous. The survey queried various aspects of the three components of the tripartite academic mission: clinical care, education and research, as well as faculty effort and compensation. Responses reflected a calendar year from July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2016.

Results

Of 107 eligible US allopathic, academic departments and divisions of emergency medicine, 79 (74%) responded to the survey overall, although individual questions were not always answered by all responding programs. The 79 responding programs reported 6,876,189 patient visits at 97 primary and affiliated academic clinical sites. A number of clinical operations metrics related to the care of these patients at these sites are reported in this study. All responding programs had active educational programs for emergency medicine residents, with a median of 37 residents per program. Nearly half of the overall respondents reported responsibility for teaching medical students in mandatory EM clerkships. Fifty-two programs reported research and publication activity, with a total of $129,494,676 of grant funding and 3,059 publications. Median faculty effort distribution was: clinical effort: 66.9%, education effort: 12.7%, administrative effort: 12.0%., and research effort: 6.9%. Median faculty salary was $277,045.

Conclusions

Academic EM programs are characterized by significant productivity in clinical operations, education and research. The survey results reported in this investigation provide appropriate benchmarking for academic EM programs because they allow for comparison of academic programs to each other, rather than non-academic programs which do not necessarily share the additional missions of research and education and may have dissimilar working environments.

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