question about Family Medicine and work in ER

[andwhat]

is it true???? that almost 70 to 80 percent of Emergency Rooms in the United States are not actually docs that completed an Emergency Room residency, and are actually Family Practice doctors, Surgeons, Internal Medicine physicians? this is awesome, but doesnt make complete sense to me just yet, I mean why is that Emergency Medicine residency is so competitive if this is the case? and then the burning question is then what is the difference in salary in this case????? just seems strange and doesnt quite make complete sense to me thats all. Can anyone please enlighten me? I mean I know that back in the day, say 70s, Family Practice physicians could even perform surgeries as Primary Surgeons, and were extremely versatile, however can a Family Medicine physician man an Emergency room with the same salary as a Physician that completed a residency from Emergency Medicine, I have already seen that it is possible for a Generalist to become an Emergency Room physician firsthand. I am in need of some serious enlightenment here, can someone please help me out????

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[island doc]

I am a former emergency physician and am also an FP. In answer to your question: Yes, the actual majority of ED physicians in this country are not BC/BE in EM. Most are trained in Primary Care. The reason is a simple one, there just are not enough residency trained EM's to staff all the ER's in this country around the clock. Especially, the ER's of small and medium sized hospitals. The BC/BE EM's generally work in larger, busier ED's and of course earn a substantially higher income.

For someone seriously interested in FP and ER, for MD's there are some emergency medicine fellowships for FP's. For DO's there are some combined FP/EM residencies.

I had a military scholarship in med school, and was assigned to work as a solo ER doc in the USAF immediately after a transitional year, I had not yet completed a residency. It was very tough. Hope this answers your questions.

 

[ramonaquimby]

The BC/BE EM's generally work in larger, busier ED's and of course earn a substantially higher income.

this is how i've come to understand it as well. the large university / mega-trauma centers / big name / urban center type ERs are the ones that have BC/BE emergency docs. they make big money there, too.

as for ALL THE OTHER emergency med places in teh country, they need folks! it pays well (not as well as the examples above), yup, they're staffed by 'other' docs. cool, huh?

 

[andwhat]

this is how i've come to understand it as well. the large university / mega-trauma centers / big name / urban center type ERs are the ones that have BC/BE emergency docs. they make big money there, too.

as for ALL THE OTHER emergency med places in teh country, they need folks! it pays well (not as well as the examples above), yup, they're staffed by 'other' docs. cool, huh?

Thank you so very much. these replies were great and very very helpful and informative!