The Midwest Surgical AssociationIncome, productivity, and satisfaction of breast surgeons
Section snippets
Methods
A 19-question survey was mailed to all 2,160 active members of the American Society of Breast Surgeons with mailing addresses in the United States; active members are general surgeons with a demonstrated interest in breast surgery. The survey asked questions regarding age, sex, proportion of practice dedicated to breast care, fellowship training, work hours, practice patterns, income derived from clinical services, and income and job satisfaction.
Data from surveys were summarized and tabulated.
Results
Out of 2,160 surveys mailed, 772 were returned (35.7% response rate). Responses were received from 48 states and the District of Columbia. The mean age of respondents was 50.1 ± 9.1 years (range 31–83), the mean years in practice was 17.3 ± 9.3 (range 1–50), and 41% were women; 12.4% of respondents were breast fellowship trained, 14.7% had surgical oncology fellowship training, and 14.4% reported fellowship training in another field.
Seven percent reported working with breast fellows, 37.2% with
Income
Our data clearly shows that surgeons dedicating a greater portion of their practice to breast care have lower incomes. The important question then becomes whether this is because of other factors specific to breast care practitioners (ie, hours worked, sex, and so on) or is it related to factors specific to the practice of breast care (ie, Medicare RVU valuations, features unique to the patient population, and so on).
Dedicated breast surgeons reported working fewer hours. To evaluate this,
Limitations
There are some limitations to this study that warrant discussion. Some of the questions generated such disparate responses as to question the clarity of the questions themselves. The number of new breast cancer patients seen per month was wildly unrealistic in many responses, and the data were not incorporated into any of the analysis. Reporting on the number of RVUs produced per month was also unreliable. This was, in part, because of the small minority of respondents that were able to answer
Conclusions
It is clear that incomes for dedicated breast surgeons are lower than those of general surgeons. There are a number of factors that likely influence income. These include trends in sex, number of hours worked, and RVU valuations assigned to breast procedures, to name a few. Although the data gathered in this survey cannot reliably establish cause and effect relationships, certain important trends do seem to emerge. One of the most interesting and compelling findings from this survey is the
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