Early Predictors of Performance Deficiencies in Academic Faculty: Pre-Employment Red Flags.

ABSTRACT Objective To determine whether faculty who had red flags (unprofessional behavior, delayed response to queries, or delayed submission of required documentation) during pre-employment were more likely to have performance deficiencies than faculty who did not have red flags. Method The study included 187 faculty consecutively hired in a Department of Pediatrics in a large academic health system from 2013-2018. Faculty with and without pre-employment red flags were compared to identify the proportion who had subsequent performance deficiencies related to documentation, unprofessional behavior, performance, or premature departure from the faculty. Results Most of the hired faculty were female (127, 0.68), physicians (136, 0.73), and clinicians or clinician-educators (124, 0.67). Sixteen faculty (0.09) had pre-employment red flags. In the three years after hiring, 31 (0.17) of the faculty cohort had at least one performance deficiency. Faculty with pre-employment red flags were more than four times as likely to experience a performance deficiency during follow-up (0.56 vs. 0.13, p Conclusions Faculty who had pre-employment red flags were significantly more likely to experience subsequent performance deficiencies. Given the substantial investment that individuals and academic medical centers make in recruiting and hiring new faculty, efforts to identify and assist faculty members at risk provide academic departments opportunities to provide the best environment for success for all faculty.