LAUSR

everal weeks ago, as the Chair of the Department of S Obstetrics and Gynecology (ob/gyn), I was asked to give a farewell speech during a social gathering honoring the retirement of an ob/gyn attending physician (Dr PV). Dr PV had worked in our department and taught residents for 40 years. I accepted the challenge immediately. Dr PV had been a superb clinician and mentor for our ob/gyn residents. Then, I started thinking about the possible impact of the teaching efforts of Dr PV, wondering how many patient lives this physician must have touched by teaching residents. Violating one of my cardinal rules to not prepare for this kind of speech, I decided to find out by doing some research. During his career of 40 years, based on our Graduate Medical Education files, Dr PV actively participated in the teaching of 127 ob/gyn resident graduates, all of whom were in practice from a few days to 40 years with an average duration of practice being 20 years. The next step was to determine the average number of patients seen by a practicing ob/gyn physician. This number was reported in a 2003 American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists survey as approximately 92 patient encounters per week, which includes both new and repeat encounters. Patient encounters include office, hospital, clinic, and emergency room visits. Given that approximately 12% of patient encounters involve new patients, I was able to determine not only the total number of patient encounters but also the number of individual lives (individual patients) that Dr PV may have touched through his resident teaching. The Table shows 2 formulas. Formula 1 can be used to estimate the total number of patient encounters reached by a teaching ob/gyn attending physician. Assuming that a practicing ob/gyn physician takes, on average, a 4-week vacation a year, the number of patient encounters per year per practicing ob/gyn physician is estimated to be 4416 (92 patient encounters per week 48 weeks); however, this number can be adjusted according to individual circumstances. From the total number of encounters, 12% represent new patients, thus