Comparison of the service volume and productivity of diagnostic radiologists in three hospital types in Taiwan

The aim of this study was to measure the workload and productivity of diagnostic radiologists according to hospital type in Taiwan. Between 2001 and 2004, the number of examinations performed and a measure of productivity, relative value units (RVUs), in the radiology departments of hospitals were obtained from a sample of data from the National Health Insurance Plan database in Taiwan. The outpatient data sample was 1/500 and the inpatient data sample was 1/20 from the raw database. The number of radiologists increased from 447 to 521 over the four-year period. On average, 2645 examinations were performed by each radiologist per month in medical centers, 3399 in regional hospitals, and 2122 in local hospitals. Medical centers, regional and local hospitals had averages of 911, 611 and 379 RVU points by each radiologist per month, respectively. The highest number of examinations, notwithstanding the type of hospital, was for conventional radiography, followed by CT scan. CT examinations produced the highest number RVU points in medical centers. The radiologist workforce in Taiwan was only 25% that of the United States, and the workload was 3-fold. Radiologists in regional hospitals performed more examinations than those in medical centers, but the RVU points per radiologist were higher in medical centers than in the regional hospitals.