Becoming a Partner?

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Pril

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In one of the previuos threads someone mentioned becoming a partner as an emergency medicine doctor. This confused me because I thought to be a partner you would have to have your own office and this is non-existent in emergency medicine???? or does it mean that you become partner with the hospitals with the earnings from the emergency room and if so does this exist in every hospital?

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There are many private democratic EM groups that contract with hospitals to work in the ED. I worked in two different ED's that were private groups. One had about 8 docs and 2 PA's and the other had about 15 docs. You can become a partner just like you can in a family practice group or IM group.
 
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What would you say is the percentage of hospitals that hire these private groups to run their ERs?
 
Almost every non-academic hospital contracts with some form of group to cover its ER. The vast majority of those groups are either independent (and may offer a partnership track) or corporate (and usually don't offer partnership). Be advised that I am generalizing in a big way so don't everyone pelt me with examples of exceptions. I don't know what the ratio of independents to corporates is. I'd guess maybe 60:40 corporate to indie. That's a total guess. Try browsing the AAEM site. They might have some better data.
 
The breakdown between corporate groups, privately held groups, HMOs, and democratic groups will vary quite considerably depending on where you want to practice.

Being a partner in a practice has nothing to do with having an office. You can be a partner in any kind of business and not have your own office (or any office at all).
 
how long does a group contract with a hospital typically last? when the contract expires, does the original group have to bid against other groups to cement a new contract? will the growing number of graduating EPs and expanding number of groups cause a nationwide cut in salary since hospitals will most likely choose the lowest bidder?
 
grouptherapy said:
how long does a group contract with a hospital typically last? when the contract expires, does the original group have to bid against other groups to cement a new contract? will the growing number of graduating EPs and expanding number of groups cause a nationwide cut in salary since hospitals will most likely choose the lowest bidder?
Since EPs don't generally get paid by the hospital, hospitals don't generally choose physician groups based on price. Level of service is what they're looking for most of the time.

EM contracts are like any other contracted work, and they vary widely in implementation and length. At this point in your career, you shouldn't bother yourself worrying about these issues.
 
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