Reimagined night-call model boosts interventional radiologist well-being
Marty Stempniak|August 11, 2026|Radiology Business|Interventional Imaging
An academic medical center has reimagined its nigh-call model, boosting interventional radiologist well-being with minimal impact on work output.
To meet rising demand for IR services, a robust call system must be in place, experts write Monday in the Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology. However, working these later hours can lead to burnout and emotional exhaustion among radiologists, with rates as high as 72%, previous research has shown.
Stanford University Medical Center, in California, has sought to address this by rearranging its call model to minimize strain on providers. Based on recent survey results, the change appears to be paying off.
“The adoption of an IR attending night float call system was perceived to have a positive impact on physician wellness, patient care and the ability to fulfill academic missions as compared to a traditional call system and would have a minimal impact on total [work RVUs/clinical full-time equivalents],” lead author Matthew L. Hung, MD, an assistant professor and IR specialist at Stanford, and colleagues wrote Aug. 10.
In the original model, Stanford’s inpatient service was covered by a different IR attending in 24-hour shifts Monday through Thursday. Radiologists also were expected to handle clinical work the following day after their marathon shift. A single attending would provide call coverage Friday through Monday.
Under the new model implemented in 2024, Stanford utilized a separate weekday inpatient daytime attending radiologist from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. It also utilized a night-float attending from 5 p.m. to 7 a.m., Monday through Thursday. These attendings remained on the same shift through the whole week. Call for Friday through Monday morning was covered either by that week’s inpatient daytime attending or the following week’s night-float attending. Altogether, the new model utilized 11 to 12 attendings versus 10 in the old one.
Hung and co-authors distributed an anonymous survey last September to Stanford’s 10 attendings who took part in both arrangements, with 100% responding. Radiologists reported significantly increased hours of sleep (a median of 6) under the new model versus before (5.5). They also felt more prepared to work the following day under these changes. Overall, attendings agreed that during the week they were a night-float attending, they had more time to conduct research, work on teaching, fulfill administrative duties, and attend to personal matters.
Overall, 60% of attendings said they preferred the new model while the remaining 40% said the two felt equivalent. Zero respondents found the old call model to be superior to the new one, the survey found. Radiologists also perceived the new nigh-float call system to be superior or equivalent to the traditional approach in terms of perceived patient safety, quality of care, physician wellness, and the ability to satisfy the division’s academic mission.
“Referring providers, consultants, IR residents, and IR advanced practice providers have anecdotally been more satisfied because there are consistent patient plans,” the authors noted. “Previously, the most frequent complaint by these groups was the daily change in patient plans due to the different approaches by different attendings. Because the daytime attending is already aware of patient plans, there is also more time for teaching during morning rounds.”
Meanwhile, the new night-float shift accounted for an additional 0.8 clinical full-time equivalents Monday through Thursday, the study found. However, the new model resulted in a 6% decrease in work RVUs per FTE. “This effect should be interpreted cautiously,” the authors warned. Total wRVUs still continue to grow annually, even with the new model. Plus, wRVUs “grossly underestimate the value of IR,” with radiologists also reviewing consults, evaluating patients, and triaging phone calls.
“Therefore, we view the slight decrease in wRVU/cFTE associated with the night float shift not as an inefficiency, but rather an important allocation of dedicated physician time towards providing optimal overnight procedural coverage and emergency readiness,” the authors charged.
Read more, including potential study limitations, in JVIR, the official journal of the Society of Interventional Radiology.
Marty Stempniak
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association’s member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight’s. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.
