Author ORCID Identifier
0000-0002-9905-4417 (Knapp)
0000-0002-0126-6500 (Graffeo)
0000-0002-8389-4569 (Counselman)
0000-0002-9840-2088 (Byars)
0000-0002-7271-4366 (Landon)
DOI
10.25884/c74p-cs28
Document Type
Original Research
Subcategory
Graduate Medical Education
Abstract
Introduction: In 2020, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) approved the Residency Review Committee for Emergency Medicine (RRC-EM) revisions to the program requirements. Revisions mandated that Program Directors (PDs) receive 50% full-time equivalent (FTE) non-clinical time, and Associate Program Directors (APDs) receive 35% FTE non-clinical time for administrative and teaching responsibilities for a program our size at the Department of Emergency Medicine, Macon & Joan Brock Virginia Health Sciences Eastern Virginia Medical School at Old Dominion University. Objective: To quantify the actual administrative time our residency leadership team— including the PD, APD, Department Chair, and core faculty— used in fulfilling their non-clinical responsibilities and compare this with the minimum administrative time requirements set by the ACGME. Study Design: We conducted a retrospective, cohort designed study of a single ACGME-accredited, three-year EM residency program with 30 residents. In 2018, independent of ACGME or RRC-EM requirements, our department mandated that all faculty formally document their hours dedicated to non-clinical administrative and teaching activities. This requirement applied to the PD, APD, Chair, and core faculty who were instructed to track time spent on administrative, educational, and scholarly activities related to the residency program. We excluded clinical hours and encouraged faculty to document non-clinical activities in real time using a software program that recorded start and end times. We then uploaded the data quarterly to a shared, web-based Excel document. The study period was February 1, 2018, through January 30, 2022. Documented non-clinical time was subsequently compared to the ACGME minimum administrative requirements for the PD, APD, Chair, and core faculty. Results: The PD documented an average of 1,134 hours of non-clinical time annually, equivalent to 69.5% of our department standard FTE, which is 1,632 clinical hours per year. The APD recorded an average of 971 non-clinical hours annually, equal to 59.5% of an FTE. In addition, the Chair reported 1,039 hours of non-clinical work, exceeding the 880 hours of protected administrative time allocated by the department. Core faculty documented an average of 519 hours of administrative and teaching time, compared to the 450 hours of allotted protected time. Conclusions: The time documented for administrative responsibilities by our residency leadership team was significantly higher than the minimum ACGME-mandated protected time. A national study of representative EM residency programs should be conducted to provide the ACGME with data to better inform and potentially revise the amount of non-clinical time requirements for program leadership and faculty.
Recommended Citation
Knapp BJ, Graffeo CS, Counselman FL, Byars DV, Klinkhammer MD, Landon JD. Assessment of Non-Clinical Time Expenditures by Academic Emergency Medicine Faculty. Eastern Virginia Medical Journal. 2026; 2(1). doi: 10.25884/c74p-cs28.
