Measuring Faculty Effort: A Quantitative Approach That Aligns Personal and Institutional Goals in Pathology at Yale

Abstract

US medical schools increasingly seek ways to reduce costs and improve productivity. One aspect of this effort has been the development of performance-based incentives for individual faculty. A myriad of such plans exist. Typically, they incentivize clinical revenue generation but vary widely in how teaching, investigation, and administrative contributions are recognized. In Pathology at Yale, we have developed a transparent metrically driven approach that recognizes all missions and allows faculty significant control over their career path. Although some metrics derive from traditional measures such as workload relative value units and one’s level of grant support, the key concept underpinning our approach is to define one’s contributions not in terms of the revenue generated, but rather on the effort devoted to each of our missions, benchmarked against national or local standards. Full-time faculty are paid a competitive rank-based salary and are expected to contribute at least 100% effort in support of the school’s missions: clinical, research, education, administration, and professional service. Metrics define the effort assigned to each activity. Faculty achieving greater than 100% effort receive bonus compensation in proportion to their excess effort. By codifying explicitly how such effort is recognized into a single metric (% effort), we achieve a process that better aligns the professional and personal goals of faculty with the aims of the school. To facilitate its implementation, we have developed a web-based software platform called SWAY (Standardized Workload Analysis at Yale) that enables faculty to monitor their progress and record their activities in real time.

Education Value Units in Medical Education: A Scoping Review

“…[61][62][63][64][65] Fifty-six studies (97%) were conducted at academic centers. Studies were from a variety of different specialties, with greater representation from internal medicine (n = 9 [16%]), 3,6,7,14,15,18,23,37,48 pathology (n = 7 [12%]), 4,28,32,43,50,53,59 radiology (n = 6 [10%]), 31,35,46,51,55,65 surgery (n = 5 [9%]), 24,25,34,44,52 pediatrics (n = 5 [9%]), 17,47,61,62,64 family medicine (n = 5 [9%]), 16,19,21,26,63 and emergency medicine (n = 5 [9%]). 20,42,45,49,54…”

“…The most commonly described approach for developing an EVU system involved the creation of a committee whose goal was to develop the system. 3,5–7,14,16,17,19,20,23,24,26,28,31–34,36,37,40,42,43,45–48,50,52,54,58,59,61,64 This committee was typically made up of the chair and senior members of the department or divisions; however, special mention was made by a few programs of the inclusion of members from the finance team, 3,37 members with experience in psychometrics, 19,36 or members from the information technology team. 58 Individual activities of these committees varied greatly and ranged from categorizing and prioritizing activities 6,7,13,20,37,42,44,45,54 ; assigning weights, points, or relative value units in conjunction with a benchmark, such as a cRVU 15–17,37,48,53,58,61 ; and, in almost all cases, creating linkages to compensation for faculty.…”

“…Be open-minded and flexible 4,5,19,28,35,42,46,48,53,[57][58][59]63 Reconsider your priorities at least annually and evolve your system as needed.…”

“…17 The next most common rationale described by approximately one-third of programs was the need to catalog or identify all teaching or uncompensated educational activities. 3,6,7,14,[20][21][22]37,40,42,43,45,47,52,54,57,59 The main goal for identifying these activities was to facilitate compensation, with only 1 program noting their goal was simply to recognize the educational efforts. 6 Less frequent rationales for the development of these models included monitoring and improving performance through feedback 36,43,59,61 ; using incentives to improve teaching 38,41,53 ; meeting reporting metrics, such as those to research or state organizations 21,36 ; increasing faculty satisfaction 33,63 ; increasing involvement in educational activities 42,65 ; and disseminating teaching activities across the broader group of faculty.…”

Educational Relative Value Units as a Measure of Academic Productivity: A Systematic Review

“… Measuring Faculty Effort: A Quantitative Approach That Aligns Personal and Approach That Aligns Personal and Institutional Goals in Pathology at Yale. Morrow 2021 [ 33 ] Quantitative Department One Pathology 62 Unifying metric "Well-received" How this was determined is not measured. N/A N/A No N/A N/A N/A 0.1 for lecture, 1.0 [week effort] for new lecture prep 0.1 week effort N/A N/A N/A N/A Based on funds Complex system - see text Based on funds Complex system - see text Based on funds Complex system - see text 0.1-1 week effort N/A Organizing nat'l/int'l meeting Developed SWAY software to analyze inputs Yes Mission Aligned Management and Allocation: A Successfully Implemented Model of Mission-based Budgeting Ridley 2002 [ 6 ] Quantitative/Descriptive Design & Implementation of school-wide MBM Not reported NR Implementation No NR "increased academic productivity" No NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR NR ...…”