EM and private practice

[Chas99]

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Has anyone ever heard of an EM doc working in the ER for a while (10+ yrs) and later going into private practice (when he feels too old for the stress of the ER)? Is it possible to be BC in EM and later work in an out-patient family practice office, or would you have to be BC in FP as well?

 

[NinerNiner999]

Has anyone ever heard of an EM doc working in the ER for a while (10+ yrs) and later going into private practice (when he feels too old for the stress of the ER)? Is it possible to be BC in EM and later work in an out-patient family practice office, or would you have to be BC in FP as well?

You can easily to outpatient urgent care, but why would you? Yes - to do long-term caer involving health maintenance (FP/IM) you will need board certification in FP or IM...

 

[docB]

You might not be REQUIRED to be BC in IM or FP to do primary care but you should be. Just as non EM trained people shouldn't be working in EDs EPs shouldn't be doing primary care. An EM residency will not train you to manage chronic DM or HTN. The first time you try to manage these with your EM training and send someone home on and insulin or nipride drip you'll see.

 

[pushinepi2]

You might not be REQUIRED to be BC in IM or FP to do primary care but you should be. Just as non EM trained people shouldn't be working in EDs EPs shouldn't be doing primary care. An EM residency will not train you to manage chronic DM or HTN. The first time you try to manage these with your EM training and send someone home on and insulin or nipride drip you'll see.

Its interesting that private practice sometimes comes up as a solution or alternative to the 'burnout' phenomenon that might occur after years of long shift work. The idea of "private practice" may seem attractive, but wouldn't the options be rather limited? Just as board certification in EM=residency training, a worn-out EM physician would be hard pressed to justify hanging a shingle that says, "primary care" or "family practice." Currently, the realm of urgent care medicine is wide open for EP's in that urgent care centers feature physicians from a broad spectrum of specialties. Its not really a, 'private practice' but a consortium of IM/FP/ Occ Med/EM docs runs a 24 hour free standing minor care place here in South Florida. When I was up in Gainesville, there was one pseudo-retired EM physician who managed a similar practice. The, "Outpatient Emergency Medical Center" catered to employee physicals, urgent care medicine, and worker's compensation cases. Clearly, EM docs venturing into the outpatient/private practice venues find themselves in settings eerily similar to community emergency departments! I'll leave it for veteran ER docs to provide authorative commentary on this issue, but it seems that most career options for the practicing emergency medicine physician are in-hospital.