What are the typical career paths for EM physicians?

[Restart13]

Hello,

I am an M1, and I've always had a sweet spot for EM. I know it's early on in med school and my mind can change tomorrow, but I am strongly considering EM as of right now. What I am trying to find out are the typical career paths of an EM physician?

Obviously, I know they can work in a hospital, but what else can they do? I'm aware that there are probably academic/research routes as well, but I'm curious as to what routes there are in the private sector.

How does the whole EM physician group/being a partner work? What about pursuing an administration job? I've also heard of urgent care, etc. How practical are these suggestions (i.e. does it take a lot work and years to attain these positions?)?

I understand it's a lot to answer, but I haven't been able to find a direct answer to any of these questions anywhere.

Thanks in advance!

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[Rendar5]

You can apply for administration jobs from any field, and any generalist-type field of medicine can train you for urgent care. Generally, if you're an EM PHysician, you'll work in an ED

 

[Transmogrifier]

1. Practice setting - you could work in an academic medical center with a residency program or in private practice in a community hospital (or a community based residency program).
2. Type of ED - Busy urban level 1 trauma center, small rural ED, middle of the road community hospital in a suburban area
3. Fellowship options - Peds EM, toxicology, sports medicine, EMS, ultrasound, hyperbarics, critical care

Otherwise I'm not sure what you're asking. Emergency physicians work in emergency departments. I think there are very, very few who work 100% in urgent care from EM. They may own an urgent care and run it on the side, but they'll still be in the ED.

 

[Restart13]

Thanks for the info!

I guess my question was a little vague. What I was trying to get at (in my head at least) was are there any entrepreneurial opportunities? And how long does it take? Is it a popular career path for EM physicians? I've always had an itch for entrepreneurship and was thinking if there was a career path that involved it with EM.

For example, my roommate's brothers are all ENTs and they are partners/owners in their own practice among other things, being relatively young (for an ENT). Or as an accountant, one can expect to be a partner in their firm in "X" years after buying their share of the company. Obviously the professions are completely different, but I've always wondered if there was a similar route for EM, or more specifically the timeline for that route in a private EM group. I've never heard of how a private EM physician group is structured. And I'm not looking for a definite answer, I was just curious more than anything.

And for the record, I don't want to make it out like I don't want to be in the ED. That's what drew my interest in EM in the first place.

Thanks again for the responses. I really appreciate every one of them.🙂

 

[Transmogrifier]

Practice structures:

1. Academic medical center - you're employed by the hospital/university with a salary.
2. Contract management group (CMG) - A company manages contracts to staff various numbers of EDs with emergency physicians. You act as an employee of the CMG. The groups can be local or there are several that are national in size.
3. Private group - Your group staffs one to a few EDs. In a democratic group, all physicians have some say in how things run but obviously someone is in charge and it may have partnership components.

I don't know the breakdown of how common each model is throughout the country, but you could certainly be heavily involved in the business side of things if that floats your boat.

 

[dotcb]

If you want to be an entrepreneur in EM, some ways to do it are:

open a freestanding ED or urgent care
be an administrator in a private group (ie. it's your contract)
work a lot - use the money to make money another way - real estate, stock.