Highlights
- •No significant difference between post and pre leave productivity for maternity leave or other types of leave.
- •No significant difference in the post/pre productivity ratio between maternity leave and other types of leave.
- •Our study suggests that speculation that women forfeit clinical productivity after maternity leaves is not supported by data.
Abstract
Background
It has been speculated that women's productivity decreases after maternity leave.
In this study, we measured if surgeon clinical productivity decreases after a maternity
leave or other types of leave.
Methods
Data from a large medical center was used to measure surgeon productivity before (pre)
and after (post) a leave of absence. Post-to-pre productivity ratios were calculated
for each leave based on operative volumes and Relative Value Units (RVUs). Multivariate
linear regression analysis was performed for the post/pre productivity ratios, adjusting
for surgeon characteristics.
Results
Fifty leaves of absence, from 30 surgeons, were analyzed. There was no significant
difference between post and pre leave productivity for maternity leave or other types
of leave. There was also no significant difference when comparing post/pre productivity
ratios between maternity leaves versus other types of leave (volume: 0.06, p = 0.52;
RVU: 0.08, p = 0.58).
Conclusion
Surgeons do not significantly reduce clinical productivity after maternity or other
types of leaves.
Keywords
Abbreviation:
RVU (relative value unit)To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: September 27, 2021
Accepted:
September 25,
2021
Received in revised form:
September 17,
2021
Received:
July 2,
2021
Identification
Copyright
© 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
