A “paradigm shift” in attending call staffing with a focus on fatigue mitigation can be undertaken in a vascular surgery practice without disruption to clinical productivity, a study presented at the New England Society for Vascular Surgery (NESVS) annual meeting (Oct. 15–17) in Cape Neddick, Maine, demonstrated.
A research team implemented an attending call model similar to a resident “night float” in 2018 with the intention of limiting the number of continuous hours of coverage undertaken. “Attending wellness should be the aim of further interventions and study,” Elizabeth Blazick, MD, a vascular surgeon at Maine Medical Center in Portland, Maine, and colleagues concluded.
They had carried out a comparison of operative work relative value unit (wRVU) productivity before and after implementation of a weekly night call model among attending vascular surgeons at a single tertiary vascular surgery practice.
A total of 10 attending surgeons participated in the model during the three-year study period, NESVS heard. “The total inpatient wRVUs were stable during the year of implementation compared with the previous year, and had increased significantly in the year after implementation,” the researchers reported.
Similar trends were noted in the wRVU/clinical full-time equivalent and total operating room cases, they added.
