Physician services in an academic neurology department: using the resource-based relative-value scale to examine physician activities.

The inability of physician managers and decision makers to critically analyze the resource utilization of physicians has hindered a more comprehensive understanding of the role of neurologists in the patterns and organization of medical practice. This article outlines an approach for using the physician work relative value units (RVUs) in the Medicare Fee Schedule (MFS) to address this problem and profile physician clinical activities in a comparative manner. These techniques are then used to profile the physician services associated with the neurology department at a large academic hospital. All 28,048 physician services associated with a neurology department in 1995 were studied. Using billing data, physician work RVUs were assigned to each service and the results analyzed by major services, type of service, and physician workload for physician work RVUs and physician charges. For the average service, mean physician charges were $187 per service while median physician charges were $120. Mean physician work RVUs per service averaged 1.3 RVUs, and the median was 0.94 per service. Of all the services provided in the neurology department, 65 percent are visits and consultations, while medicine services (e.g., nerve conduction studies, needle electromyography, neuropsychological testing, and electroencephalogram) make up 31 percent. All the other services combined represented less than five percent of the services in the department. The top five physicians in the department account for 33 percent of all physician work RVUs in the neurology department. Using the physician work relative values in the MFS provides a unique perspective for analyzing and understanding neurologists' work activities.