Tools to Increase Resident Aesthetic Clinic Volume

Resident Aesthetic Clinics (RACs) are an important element for training in plastic surgery residency programs. RACs provide increased exposure to aesthetic surgery as well as greater autonomy in clinical decision making. In an effort to increase RAC volume and thereby enhance resident education, we made two important changes to our operations. First, we reduced the resident surgeons' fees by 75%, and second, we began utilizing social media to promote our residency program and their involvement in aesthetic surgery.

Total RAC cases were queried using a RAC specific billing code and individual chief resident case logs for quality control. To generate an accurate timeframe, cases and procedures were compared from 18 months before and after the implemented changes.

We found that the number of cases and procedures increased by 135% and 255%, respectively. The five most commonly performed procedures were liposuction, augmentation mammoplasty, abdominoplasty, mastopexy, and rhytidectomy.

By both reducing the resident surgeons' fee and promoting the RAC on social media, we have demonstrated a pronounced increase in both cases and procedures performed by residents. As other institutions seek to increase resident exposure to aesthetic surgery, they may consider similar changes to these.

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