Mission-based budgeting hours model: an accurate way to understand physician costs

Abstract

Financial resources to manage academic emergency departments are becoming more scarce. The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) has embraced mission-based management (MBM) as one viable option to allocate financial and personnel resources based on medical school goals. The key features of this style are integrating financial statements, measuring faculty activity, holding service line leaders accountable, and building a trust through information sharing. The authors describe how they integrated their service line cost through an hours model. From this they describe a formula for calculating the cost of protected time. The authors use mission-based budgeting to more accurately understand their physician costs and use the formula to effectively negotiate internal and external contracts.