Surgical Workforce Planning Instrument

Defining 1.0 cFTE Across Surgical Specialties

Convert a specialty surgeon practice into a reasonable week — clinics, OR, and call. This is transformed into annual work-periods which allow cross and within specialty comparisons. Then input a surgeon's clinic cFTE and select focus (OR, clinic or call) and see what an average week should look like.

1 Shared Assumptions

These apply to every specialty below. Set the intensity values once; each specialty then picks which one fits its call.

Calendar
Call intensity modifiers
How to set call intensity. The modifier is the share of a call period that effectively counts as worked. Suggestions: in-house ≈ 1.0 (present all night). For home call, ≈ 0.8 if called to the hospital >50% of the time, ≈ 0.5 for 25–50%, ≈ 0.2 for <25%. A weekend (24-hr) call is credited as two work-periods before the modifier is applied.

2 Specialties

Enter each specialty's reasonable weekly commitment and pick its call type. Weekend call is entered as 24-hr call days per year — 12 days ≈ 12 Saturdays, credited as 24 work-periods. The right-hand column computes a full 1.0 clinical FTE, in work-periods per year.

SpecialtyClinic ½-days/wkOR days/wkWkday call/wkWkend call days/yrCall typeWP / 1.0
Methodology & assumptions
WP per 1.0 cFTE = (clinics×0.5 + OR×1.0 + weekday call×intensity) × working weeks + weekend call days/yr × 2 × intensity
clinic ½-day = 0.5 WP · OR day = 1.0 WP · weekday call = 1 × intensity · weekend 24-hr call day = 2 × intensity · working weeks = 52 − vacation − CME

3 An Individual Surgeon's Week

Pick a specialty, set the surgeon's clinical cFTE, and choose their focus. The tool works backward from that specialty's 1.0-cFTE definition, preserving its own clinic-to-OR balance, to a reasonable average week. Call requirements do not change with cFTE adjustments.

Representative week

Recommended average week

Clinic½-days / week0
OR10-hr days / week0
Weekday callper week0
Weekend call24-hr days / year0
ClinicORCall

4 Cross-Specialty Comparison

Each specialty's 1.0 cFTE in annual work-periods, against the acute care surgery standard of 204.

Work-periods per 1.0 cFTE by specialty