Hey, I am an upcoming pgy 2 at Carolinas, who hopes to stay in Charlotte. Anyway, I can give you some limited information about the 2 groups.
PEMA contracts out ED docs to the hospitals affiliated with Carolinas Healthcare system, excluding CMC-main where the residency is located. The hospitals are CMC-Pineville, Mercy, and University. I know at least 1 of those has a cath lab on site, but I am not sure if it runs 24 hours. CMC main is the only level-I trauma center. All of the ED's are busy, with a diverse population including a large hispanic population, especially Pineville. The only dedicated pediatric hospital/subspecialists are at CMC-main (soon to be named Levine's Children's hospital. So you will do alot of transferring to the main hospital for difficult peds cases. As far as benefits, I don't know the salary, but I am pretty sure that they don't include tail coverage. I know this b/c one of our new attendings just came from PEMA. I think you can also work something out where you do a few shifts/month at the main hospital and work with residents.
I don't know so much about MEMA. They primarily work at Presbyterian, and their satellite hospitals. Presby is the competitor of Carolinas Healthcare system. You will probably see the same spectrum of population, with the big difference being children, as they will mostly go to Carolinas.
I absolutely love Charlotte, and hope to stay here after residency. Please PM me if you have any more questions. I do not know much of the nuts and bolts as I haven't seen a contract from there, etc.
