Trends in the financial status of United States anesthesiology training programs: 2000 to 2004

The decrease in resident applicants for United States (U.S.) anesthesiology training programs in the mid-1990s has resulted in a national anesthesiologist shortage. This shortage has been associated with increased salaries for anesthesiologists in academic institutions. Salary increases have placed the financial condition of academic training departments in jeopardy, requiring increasing support from their institutions. In the year 2000, a nationwide survey of the financial status of the U.S. anesthesiology training programs was conducted. Follow-up surveys have been conducted each year thereafter. We present the results of the fifth such survey. One-hundred-twenty-eight departments were surveyed, with a response rate of 73%. The average department employs 45 faculty and 81% of those departments have an average of 3.3 open positions. Of the 91% of departments who employ Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs) (an average of 25 CRNAs/department), 73% have an average of 4.2 open CRNA positions. The average department received $3,787,835 (or $97,621/faculty) in institutional support, which is an increase over the 2003 amount of $85,607/faculty. In 36.6% of the departments a portion of these support dollars ($1,888,111) was provided to support CRNA salaries. Therefore, the support to departments for faculty averaged $81,696/faculty, after the CRNA dollars were removed. Faculty academic time averaged 16% (where 20% is 1 day/wk) and departments billed an average of 11,954 anesthesia units/faculty/yr. These results demonstrate a continued shortage of anesthesiology faculty and continued institutional support to keep these training programs financially viable.