The US Pediatric Dermatology Workforce: An Assessment of Productivity and Practice Patterns

BackgroundPediatric dermatology has always played an important role in children's healthcare, but there has been a shortage of pediatric dermatologists nationwide for more than a decade, and few metrics of productivity and practice patterns exist. This study sought to provide insight into these and other factors of the pediatric dermatology workforce. MethodsElectronic surveys were distributed to all 226 U.S. board-certified pediatric dermatologists. ResultsA total of 108/226 (48%) of the electronic surveys were returned. Sixty percent of respondents were employed full- or part-time in academic environments and 81% were salaried. Respondents reported that children constituted 79.5% of their practice, and the average respondent spent 3.8days/week treating 92.6 patients, considerably lower than the 136.3 patients/week that the average general dermatologist sees. The academic practice environment was associated with children constituting a larger proportion of the practice (p<0.001), fewer patients seen per week (85.9, p<0.001), and longer median new patient wait times (60 vs 15days) than in other practice environments. Private practitioners saw significantly more patients per week than those in academic environments (112.7, p=0.005). Male and female practitioners reported approximately equal patient care days per week, similar wait times, and similar proportions of children in their practices. ConclusionsThis assessment revealed productivity and practice pattern differences between the various pediatric dermatology practice environments and between pediatric and general dermatology. This study provides important information for workforce planning and care availability assessments and baseline information for future studies.