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Ann Thorac Surg 2006;82:1068-1071
© 2006 The Society of Thoracic Surgeons

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Original article: General thoracic

Economic Assessment of the General Thoracic Surgery Outpatient Service

Department of Surgery, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, Virginia

Accepted for publication March 30, 2006.

^_* Address correspondence to Dr Jones, General Thoracic Surgery, PO Box 800679, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22908-0679 (Email: djones{at}virginia.edu).

Presented at the Poster Session of the Fifty-second Annual Meeting of the Southern Thoracic Surgical Association, Orlando, FL, Nov 10–12, 2005.

BACKGROUND: One aspect of the definition of institutional value for any program is based on the return on investment (ROI) for that program. Program requests for future resource allocations depend, in part, on that information. The purpose of this project was to determine the ROI for initial outpatient visits only for our General Thoracic Surgery (GTS) program.

METHODS: The number of GTS outpatient visits, studies, and requested consultations ordered by GTS surgeons only was determined after review of the hospital database and office records for the calendar year 2003. Only charges associated with the initial outpatient visits (no inpatient or physician charges) were included. Charges were based on hospital finance department data. The ROI for GTS outpatient services was calculated using total hospital costs and hospital collections.

RESULTS: There were 689 initial outpatient GTS visits. The majority were for lung cancer (48%), benign lung diseases (21%), and esophageal diseases (14%). Total outpatient charges were $1.25M and by disease process were lung cancer ($644,000), benign lung disease ($90,000), esophageal disease ($159,000), and other ($357,000). The most significant hospital charges were the following: radiology ($850,000), laboratory studies ($82,000), gastrointestinal medicine studies ($59,000), and cardiology ($42,000). Total operational costs for the GTS clinic were $415,000 and hospital collections were $513,000, yielding an ROI of $98,000 or an operating margin of 19%.

CONCLUSIONS: An operating margin of 19% for GTS outpatient services is better than most Fortune 500 companies. Acquisition of this type of information by GTS surgeons may be helpful for future program development and institutional resource allocation.

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Invited commentary

Richard Freeman
Ann. Thorac. Surg. 2006 82: 1072. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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