LAUSR

As the field of neurocritical care continues to solidify and evolve, there has been no comprehensive benchmarking survey that encompasses both compensation and structure of practices. Optimal staffing and structure in the critical care setting remain controversial [1–3] and varied [4]. The 2019 Neurocritical Care Survey was created to fill this gap in knowledge and will allow practicing physicians to gain insight into their own practices compared to peers across the country. The survey was conducted as a collaboration from members of the Advocacy, Finance and Quality Committees. There were two objectives for this survey. Firstly, we wanted to capture all relevant compensation data including productivity requirements. Secondly, we wanted to obtain and analyze practice settings including intensive care unit (ICU) structures and staffing models. The Advocacy, Finance and Quality Committees of the Neurocritical Care Society (NCS) conducted an online survey in February of 2019. The survey was reviewed by the institutional review board for Thomas Jefferson University and was provided exempt status. The anonymous online survey was sent to all physicians who had active NCS membership. Members were queried about demographics including age, gender and race. Survey questions dedicated to compensation also focused on location of practice, type of practice, type of hospital system, structure of neurological intensive care units (NICU) and salary. Respondents who practiced outside the US system were excluded in US census region analysis. Descriptive statistics were performed using SAS 9.4 (2013, Cary, NC: SAS Institute Inc.). Data were expressed as totals and percentages (the denominator being the number of respondent). Categories with less than five respondents were removed to preserve anonymity. The committee decided to use ranges of incomes instead of exact income in order to obtain higher response rates. Increments of $50 k were used except for incomes below $200 k and above $400 k. Mean response rates were calculated for demographics and practice setting with the assumption of uniform distribution. Median response rates were calculated for salary-specific questions. The US census regions were used to determine location-based results. Of the 1215 practicing physicians who are members of NCS, 372 (31%) responded. Respondents were mostly males (65%), 31–40 years of age (42%), who were white (54%) and mostly neurologists (65%). Majority (67%) were practicing for < 12 years after completing United Council of Neurological Subspecialties (UCNS) fellowship (53%) and were board-certified in neurocritical care (66%) (Table 1).