Question About Average RVUs:
Answer:
I have not been able to find a specific breakdown of work RVUs per radiologist when it comes to academic versus private practice. I can send a shout out to my audience and see if anyone has this information. (Anyone found any useful data about this? If so, please write something in the comments section!) However, if you want to figure out the average RVU per shift, you can take the average RVUs of 8907 in 2016 (from Aunt Minnie) and divide that by approximately 200 days per year. (around the average number of days worked per radiologist) That would give you around 45 RVUs per day shift.
Concerning practicality and potential job search, however, the question may not matter. I know of private practices where they have a “lifestyle” practice and complete very low RVUs. Likewise, I know of academic centers where the radiologists work like dogs and complete ungodly RVUs. So, if you are using this information for determining whether to go into private practice versus academia, it would be a mistake. You need to approach this issue on an individual practice basis, not on a global academic versus private practice basis. On the other hand, if you are using the information for research purposes, it may have an alternative use.
Assuming that you are using RVU data to look for jobs using this criterion, I would make sure to look at the specific RVUs of a group and, even more importantly, remember to also look at your particular role in the academic or private practice. Some “academic” centers do very little research and expect some of their radiologists to do almost entirely clinical work. Likewise, other private groups have a partial academic bent and are less heavily RVU oriented.
Good luck with your search!
Director1
