I’m a Rad, but I’m curious what has happened to EM exactly? It was a competitive field to match in the early 2000s when I finished med school. Corporate take over?
Yes. The corporate takeover destroyed it. The cancer started decades ago, and was real bad when I worked my last EM shift 10 years ago. From what I read here on SDN-EM, it’s progressed to stage IV, and very near terminal.Corporate take over?
1: Going from 1600 to 2900 graduating residents in the past five years (Yes, real numbers). Significant majority of the increase is from corporations (HCA, Envision, TeamHealth, etc) starting EM residencies since the requirements to start one are laughably bad.I’m a Rad, but I’m curious what has happened to EM exactly? It was a competitive field to match in the early 2000s when I finished med school. Corporate take over?
same as rads a decade ago. job supply decreased. i switched from rads to EM after a year of rads; no regrets.
same as rads a decade ago. job supply decreased. i switched from rads to EM after a year of rads; no regrets.
No FP office has NPs answering patient questions. At absolute best it's an RN and that's becoming very rare as is. Usually it's an LPN or MA.For context…. This is a guy who did an FM residency.
Anyway, Em has changed a lot even over the past 3-5 years. This is probably very dependent on what part of the country you are in, but at least in my ED, there are essentially zero chief complaints that get managed in outpatient settings.
30% of my patients are in the ED with things that absolutely could have been managed with a phone call to their PCP
30% called their PCP office, and were told by someone to “call 911 and immediately go to an ER” for a complaint that could be managed outpatient
30% need admission, but essentially all we do in the ED is identify the disease and admit
10% are emergencies requiring a board certified ED physician.
The problem is that at least half of the FP offices have NPs managing their phone calls and results/callbacks who say stuff like “OMFG your blood Sugar is 500, Go right to the ED or you will die!”
The answer is not putting FPs in the ED
We need to put competent FPs in FP offices
1: Going from 1600 to 2900 graduating residents in the past five years (Yes, real numbers). Significant majority of the increase is from corporations (HCA, Envision, TeamHealth, etc) starting EM residencies since the requirements to start one are laughably bad.
2: Over-utilization of inferior non-physician providers in place of EM physicians (Also mainly by CMCs)
3: CMCs/hospitals purposefully chronically understaffing EM FTEs.
4: CMCs continuing to take over contracts from hospitals/private groups and fire EM docs
5: Constant increase in Minuteclinics/urgent care lights popping up everywhere (staffed by NPPs).
6: Decreasing ER utilization (US wide ED visits were decreasing even before Covid).
etc
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This is much different than what happened to rads.
For context…. This is a guy who did an FM residency.
Anyway, Em has changed a lot even over the past 3-5 years. This is probably very dependent on what part of the country you are in, but at least in my ED, there are essentially zero chief complaints that get managed in outpatient settings.
30% of my patients are in the ED with things that absolutely could have been managed with a phone call to their PCP
30% called their PCP office, and were told by someone to “call 911 and immediately go to an ER” for a complaint that could be managed outpatient
30% need admission, but essentially all we do in the ED is identify the disease and admit
10% are emergencies requiring a board certified ED physician.
The problem is that at least half of the FP offices have NPs managing their phone calls and results/callbacks who say stuff like “OMFG your blood Sugar is 500, Go right to the ED or you will die!”
The answer is not putting FPs in the ED
We need to put competent FPs in FP offices
The name "Emergency Medicine" is a euphemism in the true sense of the word. It retains the title only because it would be too embarrassing to call EM what it actually is. EM should be renamed what it is, which is:We should probably rename Emergency Medicine.
What was that stupid EMRAP term?The name "Emergency Medicine" is a euphemism in the true sense of the word. It retains the title only because it would be too embarrassing to call EM what it actually is. EM should be renamed what it is, which is:
"Profit-Centered Health Care On Demand"
We should probably rename Emergency Medicine. Most of what is seen in the ED any more isn’t an emergency. Also, from a societal demand standpoint, people want the ability to have their acute medical condition evaluated more quickly. Often primary care doesn’t meet that need as they don’t have the resources or immediate availability of an ED. Sadly with the cooperate takeover of medicine where health care is a business it is time for a rebranding. We should probably rename ourselves as Acute Medical Specialists and the specialty should be renamed Acute Care Medicine.
Yes but the admins should call them availabillistsWhat was that stupid EMRAP term?
"Availabilitist"
4 years into attendinghood, I am learning to embrace and enjoy some of these lower acuity situations. I very much like reassuring a low-risk chest pain like you said - however, with one important caveat - the patient needs to be normal/grateful for me to enjoy the interaction. If they are seeking/malingering/threatening/cluster B, just chalk another one up on the ol' burnout ticker.
The lie of EM is defff sold hardcore to medical students. In hindsight, I would have done PCCM or interventional cards if I wanted actual consistent acuity. In my current job with no overnights and staffing up the wazoo, the lifestyle is actually great, however I'm waiting for the bottom to drop out...
Here’s an idea whose time has come: open up a freestanding ICU!!!Meh critical care is no better. Higher acuity, sure, but we get bored pretty fast with the 90 y/o full codes that come in septic or post MI/cpr; etc. Not fixing anything, just delaying the inevitable a few days or weeks isnt exactly exciting and rewarding.
My original plan was to do both EM and CCM, but with the complete lack of ED jobs im getting pretty damn bored with the unfixable gomers.
Here’s an idea whose time has come: open up a freestanding ICU!!!
Unfortunately illegal in many states.
Derm is also getting hit too from PE but they are safe now due to their scarcity and they have more control of their midlevels. Until we enforce the laws on the books that bans corporate practice of medicine, I think it's only a matter of time before most of medicine is controlled from a boardroom.
Dermatology is screwed, their clock is already starting to tick. PE has noted they are overfed for under-provision on their service line. They see this as a ripe opportunity for the picking. The older derms will be happy to sell out the younger generation in exchange for slightly earlier retirements and sell off their practices (which will never be wrestled back from PE-backed entities).
More derm residencies are coming on line, corporate entities, PE, and contract management groups are starting to infiltrate. Too much of what they do can easily be done by mid levels with high supervision ratios.
My bet is in 10 years dermatology will have pay equal if not lower than primary care and almost no independent practice.
The only escape hatches for them will be derm-path and Moh's surgery, which are already very competitive among dermatology residents.
They’re doing what every EM program director has always done: Say all those things while quietly plotting how to get their EM shifts as close to zero per month as possible, however, wherever, anyway they can.What are these new program PDs telling their incoming interns? Ignore the ACEP report? All is well? "Follow your passion"?
Any new PD wanna chime? It's an anonymous forum. Don't be shy.
What are these new program PDs telling their incoming interns? Ignore the ACEP report? All is well? "Follow your passion"?
Any new PD wanna chime? It's an anonymous forum. Don't be shy.
Where is this table from?
Whoa, derm spots going up at a fast clip..
Must be nice. 2-3 months to see derm, 3-4 weeks for their PAs here.Derm is now dime a dozen. In my neck of the woods, you can easily get same week appointments. The last couple of patients I referred, they got next day appointments.
In my old practice location, you can basically see a derm practice every few blocks just driving down the street.
Everything is saturated here except some of the surgical specialties. We are scheduling out 2-3 weeks for rheum, but derm really has oversaturated themselves big time…Must be nice. 2-3 months to see derm, 3-4 weeks for their PAs here.
I have a med school classmate dermatologist in your neck of the woods, she's busy as heck and I'm sure booking out multiple weeks if not months.Where I live, it's still hard to get in to see Derm.
Isn’t this really just the basic supply and demand principle of economics? If you can’t get in to see a specialist outpatient within a few weeks, then there isn’t enough supply. The arrogance of medicine is that we’ve controlled the supply to the detriment of patient access and over utilization of emergency services. I say this sadly knowing full well that as the supply of specialists goes up and patient access improves, that ED demand then goes down along with our compensation. However, as our specialties feel the squeeze, it will allow improved access that will hopefully allow for self selection of appropriate ED visits that are closer to emergent level care. The pendulum in our specialty has already surprisingly crossed an over supply of EPs (forget the 10 year projection, as we are already there), and I have hope that it will swing back within the next decade. We weren’t the first domino to fall with a tight job market that was excellerated by COVID-19, but we won’t be the last to fall. Luckily, I think we will rebound in volume a little here the rest of this year. In the long run though there will possibly be a contraction in ED care as society and business realize the cost, and outpatient specialty care becomes more available yet controlled unfortunately by private equity.
If we only saw real emergencies EM jobs would be immediately cut by 75%. People going into EM need to realize a majority of your job is being a fecal filter for the hospital and a punching bag for consultants. In return for that abuse, we were compensated appropriately with appropriate time off. Now with the EM market in the gutter and only getting worse with compensation to follow shortly, is it worth it?
Everything you mentioned only hurts EM docs further. Should we go into EM with. 200-400k debt and make 140/hr? You can't infantize medicine to simply supply and demand. Is my debt going to contract too as supply increases? There's a significant time opportunity cost to becoming a physician, do I get that back? Control of supply is completely appropriate.
Anyone in EM knows this.
But diverting traffic from the ED is the twisting the dagger that's already impaled us. Anyone in EM has to have the mindset of thank you for the business and this stimulating consult. Half the time you can therapeutically talk to the patient and discharge them without doing anything or a therapeutic blood draw or a healing radiograph. Put on the show.
I wish it was that simple.I know what you are getting at but I disagree, all the nonsense distracts us from actually rendering good emergency care for patients who really need it.
Listen man...I know that all these idiotic referrals by medical assistants, nurses, and phone staff indicating "MD REF" is what butters our bread. But we are not really helping the masses by running useless tests and therapeutic xrays just to tell them that "they don't have an emergency and they need to go see their PCP."
They tried to see their PCP. They couldn't get in. And now we tell them to go right back there. It's so sad and such a waste of money and time.
On phone with scheduler: "I can't come early because I don't wake up until 11. And since I don't drive, my neighbor can only take me on Wednesdays between the hours of 1:30 and 2:00. But only on even days, odd days don't work. And next week I'm having lunch with Melba who only eats meat plus carbs, so...."I wish it was that simple.
Every doctor in my office (9 of us) has large numbers of same day and work in appointment spots. I haven't completely filled my schedule more than once per week ever. So it's a combination of other factors: patients thinking something is more serious than it is, not wanting to wait until the availability appointment, not happy after they did see me about a problem, not wanting to pay a co pay. You get the idea.
I know what you are getting at but I disagree, all the nonsense distracts us from actually rendering good emergency care for patients who really need it.
Listen man...I know that all these idiotic referrals by medical assistants, nurses, and phone staff indicating "MD REF" is what butters our bread. But we are not really helping the masses by running useless tests and therapeutic xrays just to tell them that "they don't have an emergency and they need to go see their PCP."
They tried to see their PCP. They couldn't get in. And now we tell them to go right back there. It's so sad and such a waste of money and time.
Lol. 😆🤣 Patients and paperwork are some of the worst parts of medicine. I learned this quickly during my 3rd year clerkships and made a beeline 🐝 to radiology quickly.As Rustedfox says, patients are the worst part of medicine.
EM isn't dying. People overreacting. There's like 3x as many FM residencies than EM right now, they're not suffering for any jobs.