I recently shared why it’s not always safe to assume that a WRVU benchmark plucked from a survey table will make a good goal for your physicians, and how you can set smarter targets.
Let’s tackle the second of three unspoken assumptions that practices make when they put their faith in WRVU-based physician compensation models to fix access or financial issues: that it’s up to each physician to choose to generate more or less WRVUs.
I find it helpful to think about WRVUs in the same way I think about body mass index (BMI): a single number that might say something about me, but that I can only partially control. Sure, I could eat less, eat better, run further, lift heavier weights. But even if someone paid me to lower my BMI, I can’t change my genetics and I can’t change my height.
Similarly, the number of WRVUs that a physician generates over the course of a year is the result of many, many factors. Some of those factors are entirely within the physician’s control. Some are entirely outside of the physician’s control. Many others are somewhere in between.
Here are just a few examples of factors that likely impact your physicians’ WRVUs; what level of control does each of your physicians have over any of these factors?
- The hours the practice is open
- Patient preferences around who they see and when
- Advertising in the community
- How many hours each physician works
- The number of exam rooms, operating rooms, etc.
- The availability of medical assistants, nurses, or other clinical support staff
- The scheduling template
- Whether your practice uses scribes or AI to speed up documentation
- How visits are coded
- Whether or not a patient shows up for their appointment
Now, what does this all mean for you as a leader?
Most physicians choose to pursue a career in medicine because they want to help people. And most physicians want to help as many people as they can. I think the key here lies in those last three words.
In my opinion, the best way to increase the productivity of all of your practice’s physicians is to make it possible for them to do more with the same effort.
Start by asking your physicians about all the factors that they believe are holding them back from being more productive. Then ask what staff, space, equipment, policies, procedures, or whatever they think would make a difference. You might be surprised about how many relatively low- or even no-cost changes you can make to bring in more revenue without burning out your physicians.
If you want to take things even further, it’s worth the effort to review all of your many physicians’ priorities to ensure that they’re spending as much of their time as possible practicing medicine. I’ve got a workbook to help you do that; let me know if you want a copy.
At the end of the day, it’s not just about your physicians choosing to work harder. There might be something holding them back, something that makes that choice irrelevant. With the right expectations and support, you can remove those obstacles and make things run much more smoothly.
In my next post, the final one in this series, we’ll talk about the assumption that physicians want to do more so they can earn more.
