Overview:

All faculty and staff across the Medical School must certify 100% of their effort yearly. The certified faculty effort is used to ensure:

• Compliance with Federal Guidelines -  All faculty must certify their effort to comply with the OMB A-21, which states that any individual that accepts federal dollars has an accurate and certified record of their effort each year.
• Appropriate Medicare Reimbursement –  The health system’s Medicare reimbursement is based in part on reported effort.
• Accurate Measurement of Faculty and Department Performance –  Faculty effort will be used to understand how faculty are spending their time across the different parts of the mission.

Important Concepts:

1. Faculty must certify 100% of their effort each year (regardless of their FTE status). Faculty should not certify effort that is unrelated to the University (e.g., external consulting).
2. Faculty and staff effort is measured as a percentage of time, not as an amount of time (e.g., 100% effort does not equate to 40 hours per week or 50 hours per week). 
1. If a faculty or staff member is teaching a course that requires 6 hours per week and that faculty member reports 5% of effort doing didactic teaching, he should be able to show that he works an average of 120 hours per week. 
3. The Medical School threshold for reporting any activity is 1%. 1% of effort should equate to a minimum of 20 hours per year.
4. Division and department leadership must set and communicate faculty expectations related to effort at the beginning of each year and if / when effort must change during the year. Leadership is also responsible for ensuring faculty accurately complete and certify their effort each year.
5. Effort reporting is not an exact science – our faculty and staff complete many concurrent activities (e.g., teaching while delivering patient care or completing research). Reasonable estimates are expected, but all faculty and staff are expected to follow the rules below.