Hey EM/IM People

Your question doesn't make much sense. When you are a im attending at a hospital, you round on patients who are admitted to your service from your clinic, or those of your partners. If the the hospital has im housestaff then you allow them to cover your patients, and in theory teach them management. If you are an er doc where are you going to get patients to admit? You can't run a clinic for just 2 months during the year.

Some hospitals have hospitalists, who admit patients for community im docs who don't want to come to the hospital to round on patients, or admit patients who have no primary docs. But these are docs who have done im residenies, why would the hire an EM doc who have little training in chronic management to be a hospitalist, and one who is only available for 2 months of the year. If it is teaching that you are interested in, then most im residencies will send their residents to the er for a month or so, so get a flavor of er work. But in truth ER medicine is different from em, you wouldn't be able to teach them much about their future field.

At Hurley Medical Center in Flint, Michigan there are two EM/IM attendings that work in the ED as well as on the floors. How many months they do this a year I can not tell you.

There are some others at other places, too - there's a guy at Columbia quad-boarded (IM, EM, CC, and Pulmonary), and he works between the ED and the Unit, so, if he admits a patient last day of the month, he might be the attending the next day in the unit - the ultimate in continuity.

These folks are not common, though.

I'm EM/IM.
I do 2-3 days/wk in the ED, 2days/wk Administrative, several days of ward medicine/ month. I do research as well. I really enjoy the variety... would get bored otherwise.
I was just talking to an EM/IM colleague in Michigan who saw a patient in the ED with altered mental status and then picked the patient up as a hospitalist the next week... endd up diagnosing Jakob-Creutzfeld Disease (?spelling)- pretty neat! He loves his job. Some colleagues have gone on to do fellowship (ie. ICU).
EM/IMs are an eclectic/ fun group that really know how to roll with the punches as we seamlessly traverse different worlds/ rolls. I encourage anyone with an interest in academics who like EM and IM to apply... the world is your oyster!

SH

I agree. I know the guys at Flint, GREAT group! Many Henry Ford grads (where I did my EM/IM). I currently work about 5 shifts/mo in the ED at a major level 1 trauma center (90,000 visits/yr). I am also an attending in the cardiac surgery ICU for 7 days/month (I did my critical care at the University of Pittsburgh) and the other 10 days I'm doing shock research between the ICU and ED.

Since I'm boarded in all three, I really can pick and choose what I want to do. It took a little longer, but the variety and the extra knowledge is well worth it to me.

Kyle