You are on page 1of 6

CAP Laboratory Improvement Programs

Assessing Performance, Productivity, and Staffing Needs


in Pathology Groups
Observations From the College of American Pathologists PathFocus Pathology
Practice Activity and Staffing Program
Scott A. Martin, MD; Patricia E. Styer, PhD

● Context.—The PathFocus program affords the opportu- .006), miscellaneous (P ⴝ .006), and professional devel-
nity for participating pathology practices to be compared opment (P ⴝ .003). Group practices report up to 4% of
with other practices that have similar characteristics. hours devoted to clinical pathology consultation, on av-
Objectives.—To demonstrate variability in workload erage, and from 20% to 25% to administration and man-
among different pathology practice settings and to deter- agement. There are strong positive associations with staff-
ing levels for lower-complexity Current Procedural Termi-
mine practice characteristics that influence staffing levels.
nology code volumes (P ⬍ .001) and higher-complexity
Design.—Among 228 group practices in the PathFocus Current Procedural Terminology code volumes (P ⴝ .006).
database, group practice settings were analyzed. The prac- Conclusion.—The settings of pathology practices carry
tice characteristics that were highly correlated with staff- specific commitments of time that are different and not
ing levels are presented. equally distributed among all practice settings and strongly
Results.—Activities that showed significant variation in- influence staffing requirements.
clude surgical pathology (P ⴝ .003), cytopathology (P ⴝ (Arch Pathol Lab Med. 2006;130:1263–1268)

D uring the past several decades, a changing fiscal land-


scape in the delivery of health care in general and
in the provision of professional services of pathology and
consequences of these changes that pathologists have wit-
nessed, and these changes have demanded that patholo-
gists provide logical and credible arguments to justify
laboratory medicine in particular has required patholo- their perceived staffing requirements. Faced with these ex-
gists to become more attentive to the management of their pectations, there has been a relative dearth of resources
practices as economic enterprises. This responsibility is originating from pathologists or pathology organizations
added to maintaining the skills necessary for accurate and to which pathologists could turn for information, direc-
prompt diagnoses and clinical consultation, for education- tion, and support.
al responsibilities, and for laboratory and personnel man- In this regard, a seminal article by Haber1 was pub-
agement that, heretofore, consumed most of their efforts. lished in CAP Today in 1987. He described a simple mod-
Whereas decisions about professional staffing have been ule-based formula that was used as a guideline to assist
formerly driven mainly by impending retirements or other with determination of staffing needs in the Kaiser-Per-
staff departures or expansion of services, more recently manente Medical Centers in Northern California. The util-
the changes in the pathologists’ practice environments ity of this model in the Kaiser-Permanente system was
have often been commensurate with rapid changes in the verified by a subsequent article published by him in 1995.2
institutions they serve (mergers, acquisitions, and clo- For some pathologists practicing in hospital systems in the
sures). Forced ‘‘marriages’’ of pathology group practices, United States, the formula proposed by Haber quickly be-
redistribution of workloads, acquisition of new service re- came a ‘‘productivity benchmark’’ to which hospital ad-
sponsibilities, and outsourcing of services are among the ministrators, or the consultants hired by them, incautious-
ly expected the pathologists to meet. This was despite Ha-
ber’s admonitions: ‘‘. . . these recommendations were not
Accepted for publication March 24, 2006. and are not intended to provide standards by which other
From the Department of Laboratory Medicine, St John’s Mercy Med-
ical Center, St Louis, Mo (Dr Martin); and College of American Pa- pathology departments can or should be staffed or judged.
thologists Biostatistics, Northfield, Ill (Dr Styer). The denominators in the proposed workload mod-
The authors have no relevant financial interest in the products or ules . . . should not be considered to be fixed, rigid, or even
companies described in this article. recommended, just because they work for us. . . . The
Presented in part at the College of American Pathologists Pathology modules and denominators are based upon TPMG’s [The
Practice Management 2004, Chicago, Ill, July 17, 2004.
Permanente Medical Group’s] mode of practice and may
Corresponding author: Scott A. Martin, MD, Department of Labora-
tory Medicine, St John’s Mercy Medical Center, 615 S New Ballas Rd, not be applicable to yours.’’ 2 Haber’s model appeared to
St Louis, MO 63141 (e-mail: martsa@stlo.smhs.com). have appeal primarily because he presented a simplistic
Reprints not available from the authors. approach that was quickly calculable, but it was some-
Arch Pathol Lab Med—Vol 130, September 2006 Characteristics That Influence Staffing—Martin & Styer 1263
times used with disregard to differences that might occur Table 1. Categories of Group Practice Settings
in settings other than the Kaiser-Permanente system.
No. of
In 1997, to respond to inquiries from the membership
Practice Setting Practices Included
and to assist them in formulating responses to these is-
sues, the College of American Pathologists created an Ad Hospitals without residents 140
Hoc Task Force on Pathologist Staffing that was to report Hospitals with residents 11
Hospital/clinic hybrids 47
to the Board of Governors. This task force was given the Independent or commercial laboratories 7
specific charge to ‘‘develop . . . a usable template with ex- University hospitals 23
plicit data elements that can be applied to pathology prac-
tices throughout the country . . . [and] a descriptive data-
base containing elements of pathologist productivity
Table 2. Staffing Patterns Among Group
based upon the . . . template.’’ 3 The template was tested Practice Settings
through several iterations and pilot study groups. The fi-
nal product, PathFocus, was introduced in 2001. This ar- No. of Persons in Group
ticle reviews some of the data obtained about character- Practice Setting Median Mean Range
istics of practices that have participated in the PathFocus Hospitals without residents 4 4.6 1–22
program. Hospitals with residents 12 14.9 3–27
Hospital/clinic hybrids 6 8.5 1–22
MATERIALS AND METHODS Independent or commercial
The PathFocus Pathology Practice Activity and Staffing Pro- laboratories 3 4.4 1–11
gram is a service offered by the College of American Pathologists. University hospitals 7 10.3 3–34
Enrollment is voluntary, and data are self-reported on question-
naire forms that are provided.
In the data collection phase, participants record detailed infor- participant report package is based on data aggregated across all
mation about pathologists’ activities and about characteristics of group practices in the active database and is presented herein.
the group practice. Pathologists in a practice identify the activities Staffing levels are measured by the sum of the reported hours,
in which they are engaged and specify the time allocated to those excluding leave time, for all staff members submitting data. Using
activities in an average week of work. This is accomplished with stepwise regression, a subset of group practice characteristics is
time studies during a sufficient length of time in which the data identified to predict staffing levels.5 Group practice characteristics
capture all the activities that the pathologists perform. For ex- are included in the final model if their corresponding regression
ample, if a rotational schedule in a group practice assigns an coefficients have P values less than .05.
individual pathologist to cover certain services (such as perfor-
mance of frozen sections) only every fourth week, then 4 weeks RESULTS
of data would need to be recorded to calculate accurate average
time expended in 1 week by that pathologist for that activity. The observations presented herein are based upon the
Activities for each group practice are summarized by adding up analysis of records in the current active PathFocus data-
the hours reported for various activities in a typical week for all base. These comprise a complete set of pathologists’ activ-
individuals submitting data in the group practice. To normalize ity and practice characteristics forms from 228 group prac-
across practices of different sizes, the total hours per activity are tices submitted from 1999 through 2004. Table 1 gives the
expressed as percentages of the total hours reported for the number of practices by institution type included in this
group practice. analysis. Within these categories, the staffing ranges are
PathFocus participants also submit data describing features of broad (Table 2) and illustrate why even within a narrow
each group practice, including institution type, patient volumes,
category, such as hospital practices without residents, an
Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) code frequencies, character-
istics of supported sites, and other practice complexity charac- adequate comparison of practices must take into account
teristics. A complete profile of an individual group practice’s other factors of practice complexity in order to make the
characteristics is constructed and is designated its fingerprint. comparisons meaningful and realistic.
Similarities of groups’ fingerprints determine a unique peer Pathologists’ activities are categorized into 9 general ar-
group for each participant in the PathFocus program, permitting eas: (1) surgical pathology, (2) cytopathology, (3) autopsy
matches across a wide range of features. For the analysis pre- pathology, (4) clinical pathology consultation/interpreta-
sented in this article, group practices are simply categorized by tion, (5) administration and management, (6) miscella-
a single characteristic, institution type. Practice settings are cat- neous, (7) professional development, (8) teaching/train-
egorized as (1) hospitals without residents; (2) hospitals with res- ing, and (9) research. The ‘‘miscellaneous’’ category in-
idents, excluding university-based practices; (3) hospital/clinic
hybrids (which may or may not have a private practice laboratory
cludes leave time away from practice, time for travel be-
separate from the hospital laboratory); (4) independent or com- tween practice sites, and time expended in waiting to
mercial laboratories; and (5) university-based practices. provide a service (eg, waiting for specimens on which to
Allocation of time by institution type is formally analyzed us- perform frozen section or cytologic immediate assessment
ing 1-way analysis of variance models for activities with adequate of adequacy and during which no other meaningful ser-
data among different type of practices. Results of all analyses vices can be performed). By far, leave time away from
using 1-way analysis of variance models are presented. If the practice is the greatest contribution to the miscellaneous
result from the analysis using the 1-way analysis of variance category.
model is significant at the P ⬍ .05 error level, differences by prac- Table 3 gives a summary of time allocated to various
tice type are evaluated using pairwise comparisons between
activities by practice type for all 9 general areas of pa-
means with the Bonferroni method to adjust for multiple com-
parisons.4 The multiple comparison adjustment is made for 10 thologists’ activities. For 6 of the 9 activities, results from
pairwise comparisons among the 5 group practice means. an analysis of variance evaluating differences among prac-
One component of the PathFocus participant report summariz- tice types are also included.
es the results from an analysis evaluating the impact of various Activities that showed significant variation in the per-
practice characteristics on staffing levels. This component of the centage allocation of time by practice type include surgical
1264 Arch Pathol Lab Med—Vol 130, September 2006 Characteristics That Influence Staffing—Martin & Styer
Table 3. Allocation of Time for Pathologists Activities by Practice Group Categories*
Percentage Time Allocation
10th 90th Overall
Group Practice Category No. Mean Percentile Percentile P value

Activities That Vary Significantly by Practice Type


Surgical pathology .003
Hospitals without residents 132 41 28 56
Hospitals with residents 11 30 20 43
Hospital/clinic hybrids 47 39 26 56
Independent or commercial laboratories 6 36 18 48
University hospitals 22 33 16 55
Cytopathology .006
Hospitals without residents 126 9 4 15
Hospitals with residents 11 6 4 9
Hospital/clinic hybrids 47 9 3 14
Independent or commercial laboratories 6 14 6 20
University hospitals 10 5 3 7
Miscellaneous .006
Hospitals without residents 134 11 5 19
Hospitals with residents 11 9 5 13
Hospital/clinic hybrids 47 14 8 20
Independent or commercial laboratories 6 16 10 22
University hospitals 22 10 3 14
Professional development .003
Hospitals without residents 134 7 2 12
Hospitals with residents 11 10 6 19
Hospital/clinic hybrids 47 6 3 11
Independent or commercial laboratories 6 5 2 7
University hospitals 22 10 7 14

Activities That Do Not Vary Significantly by Practice Type


Clinical pathology consultation/interpretation .15
Hospitals without residents 129 3 1 8
Hospitals with residents 11 4 1 6
Hospital/clinic hybrids 46 3 2 9
Independent or commercial laboratories 6 0 3 17
University hospitals 21 2 0 10
Administration and management .75
Hospitals without residents 134 24 12 38
Hospitals with residents 11 22 15 32
Hospital/clinic hybrids 47 23 13 34
Independent or commercial laboratories 6 20 13 28
University hospitals 22 25 13 40

Activities Not Formally Evaluated for Differences by Practice Type


Autopsy ...
Hospitals without residents 118 3 0 5
Hospitals with residents 11 4 1 6
Hospital/clinic hybrids 44 3 0 9
Independent or commercial laboratories 2 0 0 1
University hospitals 22 2 0 3
Teaching/training ...
Hospitals without residents 134 1 0 3
Hospitals with residents 11 12 6 18
Hospital/clinic hybrids 47 1 0 3
Independent or commercial laboratories 6 1 0 1
University hospitals 22 6 0 16
Research ...
Hospitals without residents 83 1 0 2
Hospitals with residents 11 5 1 9
Hospital/clinic hybrids 31 1 0 2
Independent or commercial laboratories 3 0 0 0
University hospitals 22 8 0 18
* Mean and percentile values show the distribution of percentages of time spent in each category of activity summed over all individuals in each
group practice. Results from 1-way analysis of variance, where applicable, are summarized by the overall P value.

Arch Pathol Lab Med—Vol 130, September 2006 Characteristics That Influence Staffing—Martin & Styer 1265
Table 4. Practice Characteristics Most Closely Associated With Staffing Levels*
Distribution of Responses in
Active PathFocus Database
P Value 10th 50th 90th
Group Practice Characteristic in Regression Percentile Percentile Percentile
Annual volume
CPT 88300 ⫹ CPT 88302 ⫹ CPT 88304 ⬍.001 732 4144 10164
CPT 88307 ⫹ CPT 88309 .006 246 1478 6373
Practice setting Yes, % No, %
Hospital setting .01 82 18
Group practice uses residents ⬍.001 78 22
General services Yes, % No, %
Fine-needle aspiration biopsy interpretation by pathologist ⬍.001 57 43
Regional blood bank center .04 11 89
* Practice characteristics that were tested but not selected in the stepwise regression model in this iteration included (1) volumes for Current
Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes 88305, 88104, 88173, 88311, 88312, 88313, and 88342; (2) practice setting of independent or commercial
laboratory and use of pathologists’ assistants; and (3) performance of cytogenetics, molecular pathology techniques, gynecologic and nongyne-
cologic cytology services, and general blood bank and transfusion medicine services.

pathology (P ⫽ .003), cytopathology (P ⫽ .006), miscella- with the practice setting of a hospital with residents, with
neous (P ⫽ .006), and professional development (P ⫽ the provision of fine-needle aspiration biopsy interpreta-
.003). Typically, pathologists in hospitals without residents tion, and with regional blood bank services. This analysis
spend more time on surgical pathology than those in hos- is repeated in each iteration of the PathFocus database, so
pitals with residents and in university hospitals (P ⫽ .03 the variables selected by the stepwise regression model
and P ⫽ .04, respectively). Pathologists in hospital/clinic change slightly with each annual update. Consistently,
hybrids and in independent or commercial laboratories surgical pathology volume statistics have shown strong
show intermediate levels of time allocation to surgical pa- positive association with group practice staffing require-
thology. For cytopathology, pathologists in hospitals with ments. Because multiple measures of surgical pathology
residents and in university hospitals significantly showed are considered (namely, low-complexity, medium-com-
lower allocations than those in independent or commercial plexity, and high-complexity CPT code volumes) and be-
laboratories (P ⫽ .05 and P ⫽ .02, respectively). Patholo- cause these volumes are themselves correlated, the partic-
gists practicing in hospital/clinic hybrids and in hospitals ular selection of best predictors can vary from 1 year to
without residents show intermediate levels. the next because of the effect of collinearity. The hospital
Activities with no significant variation by practice type practice setting and the provision of regional blood bank
include clinical pathology consultation/interpretation (P center services have also consistently been significant pre-
⫽ .15) and administration and management activities (P dictors of staffing levels. Table 4 also gives the distribution
⫽ .73). Group practices report up to 4% of hours devoted of responses from all practices for the group practice char-
to clinical pathology consultation, on average, and from acteristics and services selected by the stepwise regression
20% to 25% of hours devoted to administration and man- method.
agement. In univariate analyses, there are strong positive associ-
Because of sparse data, time allocations for autopsy, ations between staffing levels and the annual clinical pa-
teaching/training, and research activities are reported, thology billable test volumes and the annual total labo-
but they are not formally evaluated. Autopsy pathology ratory test volumes (P ⬍ .001 for both). These associations
time allocation was low in all settings. Teaching/training hold for the practice settings of hospitals without resi-
time is low except in university hospitals and in hospitals dents, of hospitals with residents (excluding university
with residents, with averages of 6% and 12%, respectively. practices), and of hospital/clinic hybrids. Data in the set-
Whereas this pattern might seem intuitive, the analysis ting of independent or commercial laboratories are too
does provide concrete data about the amount of time these sparse for analysis. In university hospital practice settings,
educational activities and responsibilities demand. Simi- there is a positive association between staffing levels and
larly, research activity is typically quite low except in uni- total laboratory test volumes but not with clinical pathol-
versity hospitals and in hospitals with residents, where ogy billable test volumes. In the multivariate analysis
pathologists spend averages of 8% and 5%, respectively, model, only total laboratory test volumes have a positive
of their time in research. association with staffing levels (P ⫽ .01), less significant
Table 4 gives the results of the stepwise regression anal- than the association between staffing and the particular
ysis predicting staffing levels from group practice char- anatomic pathology CPT code volumes given in Table 4.
acteristics using the current active PathFocus database. The There was no significant association between staffing and
6 variables present in the final model were selected from clinical pathology billable test volumes in the multivariate
a list of 32 candidate variables. In this set of group prac- analysis model (P ⫽ .08).
tices, lower-complexity CPT code volumes (codes 88300 to
88304) and higher-complexity CPT code volumes (codes COMMENT
88307 and 88309) had strong positive associations with Models to assist with the determination of staffing levels
staffing levels (P ⬍ .001 and P ⫽ .006, respectively). In in pathology have come from 2 different vantage points.
addition, higher staffing levels are positively associated The first, which we designate demographics-based models,
1266 Arch Pathol Lab Med—Vol 130, September 2006 Characteristics That Influence Staffing—Martin & Styer
originated from physician workforce forecasts. Initially fu- specimen complexity does, indeed, influence staffing re-
eled by projections from the Graduate Medical Education quirements for surgical pathology.
National Advisory Committee in 1980, concerns began to This is the flaw in metrics-based models. Simple nu-
emerge about physician oversupply and, consequently, meric workload volumes and formulas derived from them
about overutilization of physician services and increased cannot be universally applied to all practice settings. Ev-
cost. Fear of potentially unrestrained expansion and cost ery publication promulgating workload statistics to define
led to development of closed-panel health maintenance or- staffing requirements has made this point directly or with
ganizations and other managed care models, and it was disclaimers about the particular model used. Efforts to
reasoned that these models for health care delivery would capture the dimension of complexity in surgical pathology
control cost and be efficient. These demographics-based have been few and have had limited success. As Tomas-
models defined physician-population ratios (usually ex- zewski et al12 stated, ‘‘Measures which adequately reflect
pressed as number of physicians per 100 000 population), complexity in surgical pathology cases have not been de-
largely based on historical needs, that became a factor in veloped,’’ and the excellent study published by those au-
decisions about determining staffing needs.6 In such mod- thors demonstrates the difficulty in doing so. Without spe-
els, the reported pathologist-population ratios have been cifically attempting to define measures of complexity, per-
in the range of 1.7 to 5.4 pathologists per 100 000 popu- haps the most successful incorporation of that character-
lation.6–8 Although such an approach is useful for large- istic into workload distribution is described in the article
scale organizational, community, and public health plan- by Black-Schaffer et al13 of their experience at the Massa-
ning purposes, it provides little assistance to an individual chusetts General Hospital. Assignment of workload ac-
pathology practice faced with making decisions about cording to areas of subspecialty interest and expertise re-
staffing needs. sulted in greater equity of workload distribution and im-
The second approach, to which we apply the term met- proved practice efficiencies.
rics-based models, focuses on some measurable characteris- The global database of information from enrollees in the
tics that can be used as indicators for staffing require- PathFocus program gives a broad-brush portrait of pa-
ments. The Kaiser-Permanente model described by Haber2 thology practice characteristics that influence staffing lev-
is an example. Other models have been proposed that pri- els. The broader and more robust the database, the more
marily tie staffing levels to some service parameter or useful this information may be. Such an overview is, how-
workload level. In an article published in a Canadian As- ever, of limited utility in evaluating the circumstances of
sociation of Pathologists newsletter, Waldorf 9 stated, a specific practice relative to the entire global data. To be
‘‘Many attempts have been made in the past to relate pa- useful as a self-assessment tool requires that practices
thologists’ activity to workload. These usually fail because with similar sets of characteristics (ie, closely matching fin-
the situations to which they are applied are not compa- gerprints, such as service volumes, case complexity, insti-
rable.’’ Yet, in that same reference there is a seemingly tution type, and educational and training responsibilities,
contradictory guideline: ‘‘Divide the number of surgical to name a few) be the peers among which direct compar-
specimens per year by 3500 to give the number of pa- isons should be made. That is precisely what the detailed
analyses of the PathFocus program are designed to do. The
thologists needed to handle all laboratory physician activ-
PathFocus program makes no attempt to set workload
ities.’’ 9
benchmarks or staffing targets but permits groups to see
Highly elaborate workload guidelines for anatomic pa-
where they are relative to similar groups and with respect
thology and clinical laboratory activities have been pub-
to many parameters. It is neither intended nor expected
lished in the United Kingdom by the Royal College of
that the PathFocus database data provide a directive as to
Pathologists.10,11 In the 1992 surgical pathology module, for the number of pathologists appropriate for a particular
example, the annual maximal workload of 4000 surgical group practice setting; they do identify how similar prac-
pathology cases (not individual specimens) per general tice settings manage comparable workloads. In this pre-
hospital full-time employee was recommended. This fig- sentation of data, we have chosen to characterize practices
ure was halved (2000 pathology cases) for teaching hos- only according to broad settings that are commonplace
pital settings. Notably, with increasing trends toward spe- and relatively different and to which most readers can
cialization, concerns were expressed ‘‘that the annual relate. These groups are certainly not unique or mutually
workload guidelines based on specimen numbers are un- exclusive in all respects; however, the analysis does show
able to reflect accurately the variety of work and the var- that there are demonstrable differences even among the
iable complexity of different types of specimens. . . .’’ 10 broad categories of practice settings that can influence
Hence, in 2002, the workload guidelines were changed staffing needs. Even within a single practice setting, such
from specimens per annum to workload units per hour, as university hospitals, this study illustrates that ranges
and an attempt was made to incorporate specimen com- for most characteristics are wide, and, in reality, only spe-
plexity into their calculations. For a variety of surgical pa- cific comparisons using the capabilities of fingerprinting
thology specimen types, matrices were developed that provide sufficient data to make analysis of individual
ranked numerically gross examination and microscopic practice characteristics more meaningful and applicable.
examination complexity. Using workload units derived Thus far, the anecdotal benefits of this self-evaluative pro-
from this approach, it was then presumed that reasonable cess have been reported.14 Pathologists participating in
workload distributions could be made and that staffing PathFocus have seen opportunities for redistributing work-
levels required to perform the work could be calculated. load among staff and for correcting missed opportunities
A detailed discussion of that methodology is beyond the for coding and billing for certain services. When differ-
scope of this article, and the reader is referred to the au- ences between the comparative data of the participant and
thors’ publications for more information.10,11 The principal of the peer group are identified, there may be opportu-
value of their efforts, in our opinion, is the recognition that nities for focused quality improvement studies.
Arch Pathol Lab Med—Vol 130, September 2006 Characteristics That Influence Staffing—Martin & Styer 1267
The most recent College of American Pathologists Prac- References
tice Characteristics Survey Report cites for the year 2004 an 1. Haber S. When do you need another pathologist? CAP Today. October 1987:
40.
average of 7.7 hours per week (16% of an average 49.4- 2. Haber SL. Kaiser Permanente: an insider’s view of the practice of pathology
hour workweek) spent in performing clinical pathology in an HMO hospital-based multispecialty group. Arch Pathol Lab Med. 1995;119:
services (including laboratory management and supervi- 646–649.
3. Kass ME. Report of ad hoc task force on pathologist staffing. In: Course
sion) for which bills are not submitted to patients or their DG31; Pathology Staffing and Productivity. ASCP-CAP Fall Meeting; October 20,
insurers.15 Furthermore, in that survey 18% of pathologists 1998; Washington, DC.
report spending more than one fourth of their time per- 4. Fisher LD, van Belle G. Biostatistics: A Methodology for the Health Sciences.
forming these activities. For comparison, it is notable that New York, NY: Wiley & Sons; 1993.
5. Weisberg S. Applied Linear Regression. New York, NY: Wiley & Sons; 1985.
in the PathFocus database the average time spent in ad- 6. Weil TP. How to determine the need for MDs by specialty. Physician Ex-
ministration and management is higher in all practice set- ecutive. 1997;23:42–49.
tings and varies from 20% to 25% (range, 12%–40%) (Table 7. Mulhausen R, McGee J. Physician need: an alternative projection from a
study of large, prepaid group practices. JAMA. 1989;261:1930–1934.
3). Perhaps one of the greatest benefits of PathFocus is the 8. Weiner J. Forecasting the effects of health reform on US physician workforce
opportunity to participate in a disciplined comparative requirement: evidence from HMO staffing patterns. JAMA. 1994;272:222–230.
collection of solid objective data about the time commit- 9. Waldorf V. Verne’s Rules of Thumb. Canadian Association of Pathologists
Newsletter; 1996; Ontario, Canada.
ments necessary to fulfill the obligations and expectations 10. Royal College of Pathologists. Guidelines on staffing and workload for his-
of providing medical direction and management of a lab- topathology and cytopathology departments. 2nd ed. June 2005. Available at:
oratory (ie, activities that vary significantly by practice http://www.rcpath.org/resources/pdf/GuideHistoCytoWorkload0605.pdf. Ac-
type). The amount of time required for these services is cessed May 11, 2006.
11. Royal College of Pathologists. Medical and scientific staffing of National
not insignificant. Health Service pathology departments, June 1999. Available at: http://
www.rcpath.org/resources/pdf/workloads.pdf. Accessed June 15, 2004.
PathFocus was developed through the efforts of members of the 12. Tomaszewski JE, Abraham S, Bell K, et al. The measurement of complexity
College of American Pathologists Ad Hoc Task Force on Pathol- in surgical pathology. Am J Clin Pathol. 1996;106(suppl 1):S65–S69.
ogist Staffing. The physician participants have included Mary E. 13. Black-Schaffer WS, Young RH, Harris NL. Subspecialization of surgical pa-
Kass, MD (chair); Michael L. Cibull, MD; C. Terrence Dolan, MD; thology at the Massachusetts General Hospital. Am J Clin Pathol. 1996;106(suppl
1):S33–S42.
Henry A. Homburger, MD; Scott A. Martin, MD; Jeffrey S. Ross, 14. Lusky K. Apples to apples to oranges: comparing lab practices. CAP Today.
MD; Thomas M. Sodeman, MD; Mark S. Synovec, MD; Henry June 2003:14–18.
Travers, MD; Richard J. Zarbo, MD, DMD; and Matthew A. Zar- 15. College of American Pathologists. 2004 Practice Characteristics Survey Re-
ka, MD. port. Northfield, Ill: College of American Pathologists; 2005:10–11.

1268 Arch Pathol Lab Med—Vol 130, September 2006 Characteristics That Influence Staffing—Martin & Styer

You might also like