Surgical manpower: General surgery in a small army hospital

The general surgery experience from a small military hospital is presented. The operative workload, although small, includes a wide variety of procedures. The average California Relative Value workload is expressed in hernia equivalents and is 2.2 per week per surgeon. Each surgeon's average workweek was 58 hours and the average income was $24,500. Overall, the Army general surgeons in Europe performed an average of 125 operations per year, worked 58 hours per week, and earned $32,700. It appears that increased regionalization of general surgeons and relative increase in primary care physicians might increase specialty productivity as measured by operative workload.