Faculty productivity is of interest for hospital and university administrators as pressure is placed on them by government and private payors. Further, the effect of trainees on clinical productivity is of personal interest to physicians because their performance evaluations and earning potential are often tied to their productivity. Several groups have utilized creative methodology to study the effect of learners on emergency department (ED) productivity, but they were faced with multiple confounding variables for which it was difficult to adjust. In this study, we utilize relative value unit (RVU)/h to study the effect of resident physicians and medical students on the productivity of academic emergency physicians (EPs) during the implementation of a new residency program. Each physician’s productivity on shifts with distinct types of learners present is compared to their shifts worked without any learners during the same time frame. Each attending physician serves as their own control while the confounding variables introduced by comparing over multiple years are minimized.