ER Attending Lifestyle/Pay

[orthoguy]

Can anyone tell me what the lifestyle of an ER attending is like....hours/week pay...........IS anyone out there interested/know anyone in Academic Emergency medicine.......how does their lifestyle compare..........is there research available?

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[Future EM?]

wait.. aren't you going into ortho?

 

[orthoguy]

don't mind the name..........I forgot to change it........I do not want ortho..........

Anyone answer the above question?

 

[Future EM?]

Pretty variable... the beauty of ER is that you work as much or as little as you want. From talking to attendings, it seems like most work 12-15 shifts a month, 8-12 hr shifts. Most get paid hourly, pay varies widely depending on location, group practice etc. Generally, the coasts pay less, midwest and south pay more. You can generally expect to make at least $100/hr, i've heard from $75-80 in some higher supplied areas to $150+ in places like Texas.

In terms of academic EM, this link may be helpful: http://saem.org/publicat/tabofcon.htm

 

[anonymousEM]

Definately take a look at the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine website (www.saem.org). I think that the abstracts for this years' scientific assembly are posted already under "meetings." From what I can tell many more people pursue clinical research, but bench research is also done. It really depends what you want to put into it. SAEM really supports developing researchers...there are grants from the med student to fellow and young attending level to compete for funding for research.

As far as salary, academics make about 1/2 what their counterparts in private practice in the same community make as a general rule. Another thing to consider in EM is that many practices you get a bonus for # of pts seen (moving the meat so to speak) and for billing for higher acuity patients. Add that to making partner after 2 years, and it might be more than twice as much in salary if you're in a busy group!

 

[ERMudPhud]

Reimbursement varies a lot around the country depending in part on the amount of managed care and the extent to which the mega-Groups like EMCARE et. al. control the market. Here in Denver academics are involved in bench and clinical work. They probably work about 30 clinical hours per week plus academic and research time. I think they are being payed in the range of 160-200K per year with nice benefits. The private practice people are getting $150-$300 per hours when you include bonuses and benefits and work as few as 2 shifts per week and as many as 4-5.

 

[orthoguy]

what type of bench research do er docs do?

 

[DocWagner]

EM has more clinical based research than purist bench research...refer to www.aaem.org www.saem.org www.acep.org

Generally in the back of annals of EM, there are many adds for EM jobs, that may also give you regional salaries....if you choose, the journal Medical Economics has yearly salary breakdowns by profession and region.

 

[ERMudPhud]

Originally posted by orthoguy
what type of bench research do er docs do?

I do basic immunology and biochemistry-admittedly not very closely related to EM. Many people study issues related to ischemia/reperfusion injury and resuscitation- biochemistry and cell biology of cell death after ischemia/reperfusion. There are also many opportunities in toxicology bench work. The basic science section at the last ACEP conference had a wide range of posters of varying qualities but the future is definately wide open.