Should proctors be paid?
Physicians tend to be paid on a production basis (e.g., fee for service or work relative value units), and time away from seeing patients costs them money. In the past, physicians considered giving time to medical staff work a reasonable trade-off for the services the hospital provided them in return (i.e., a workshop and tools to ply their profession). In today’s less hospital-centric world, many physicians do not feel they owe the hospital or its medical staff organization their time without compensation. This attitude is most clearly manifest in demands to be paid for emergency department on-call services.
Some medical staffs have begun to pay physicians for medical staff committee work, including work on peer review bodies. This is recognition that the work is important and it requires commitment that takes doctors away from their medical practices. The amounts paid tend to be nominal (e.g., $100 per proctored practitioner), more recognition of the service than actual recompense for lost income.