What's the market like for inpatient and ED psych based on region?

[slowthai]

Don't know much about inpatient psych, but I hear that ED psych jobs are plentiful.

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[soundnin]

i thought pure psych ED jobs are extremely rare these days.

 

[Sushirolls]

Don't know much about inpatient psych, but I hear that ED psych jobs are plentiful.

There are barely any psych EDs.

 

[slowthai]

There are barely any psych EDs.

How common is it for the average ED to have a psychiatrist on staff?

 

[Sushirolls]

Rare.

 

[Sushirolls]

Hospitals 200+ bed in size might have a psychiatrist doing C/L work, which includes wandering into the ED at times.
Or they might pull from their outpatient employed group to also cover C/L and ED consults.

More beds for hospital, greater the odds.

 

[Stagg737]

Might be regional, but not uncommon at all where I'm at to have psychiatrists in the ER. I know at least 6 hospitals in my city that regularly have psychiatrists in the ER (I see their notes through Care Everywhere). That said, I'm pretty sure most of them are not dedicated ER psychiatrists and I only know for certain that 2 hospitals here have ER psychiatrists who don't have other roles (consults, inpt, etc). Both are academic centers. Our hospital has 3 dedicated ER psychiatrists, but we're also a ~1,000 bed hospital with a 65 bed ER.

 

[comp1]

I don't think I've seen just an ED psychiatrist in California. Maybe USC or UCLA-Harbor? There are some CL psychiatrists who cover both medical floors and the ED. The majority of those I know are academic and even have some (ugh) outpatient responsibilities. Better setup is to do ED, med floor consults and inpatient since it's all flexible that way, but you stay busy and you're personally responsible for what you admit. Salaries aren't going to vary much inpatient versus outpatient. You're looking at $280k-$300k. There's just not much need for a pure ED psychiatrist. Social workers can write holds and ED MDs know how to type in Zyprexa. The interesting stuff happens after the ED.

 

[slowthai]

An overly broad question, but what's the inpatient market like?

 

[calvnandhobbs68]

How common is it for the average ED to have a psychiatrist on staff?

This seems confusing based on your opening post….so did you hear that ED psych jobs are plentiful or do you not know anything about the job market?

Others already said this but there are very few pure ED psych jobs, especially outside of big academic centers. Most places will have a social worker doing the eval for a hold and doing the actual placement work. There may be psychiatrists than consult to the ED for some evals but that's usually along with them doing CL or inpatient or something else, they aren't really "on staff" only for the ED.

I mean this makes sense, there's basically no speciality that has a dedicated role ONLY for emergency room consults and it's a huge money loser for hospitals.

 

[sloh]

Salaries aren't going to vary much inpatient versus outpatient. You're looking at $280k-$300k.

Isn’t income ceiling much higher for inpatient bc psychiatrists can see a higher volume and be done by noon, allowing them to cobble together other gigs in the PM?

 

[soundnin]

An overly broad question, but what's the inpatient market like?

Given your responses, are you based in the US? Who did you get your information from regarding the opening question? The job market can be simply split as inpatient versus outpatient work if that answers your question. Some inpatient markets (geographically) are more saturated than others.

 

[comp1]

"Ceiling" isn't really a thing relative to salaries, at least in terms of being able to work more to make more. Salaries are what you are paid for a full time (40 hour per week) job, almost always with benefits. Salaries are different than the max amount of income you could possibly make in a given amount of time.

 

[psych_0]

Isn’t income ceiling much higher for inpatient bc psychiatrists can see a higher volume and be done by noon, allowing them to cobble together other gigs in the PM?

1,000%.

 

[slowthai]

Given your responses, are you based in the US? Who did you get your information from regarding the opening question? The job market can be simply split as inpatient versus outpatient work if that answers your question. Some inpatient markets (geographically) are more saturated than others.

Yeah, I'm stateside. For the ED stuff, it was from an attending I recently talked to. He said that ED/crisis center/urgent care jobs are a dime a dozen.

Thanks, I was wondering about the inpatient side.

 

[jbomba]

"Ceiling" isn't really a thing relative to salaries, at least in terms of being able to work more to make more. Salaries are what you are paid for a full time (40 hour per week) job, almost always with benefits. Salaries are different than the max amount of income you could possibly make in a given amount of time.

Bingo. And this is my approach to maximizing my "hourly rate" with multiple jobs as I have discussed on here before. I found jobs that could easily be performed at the same time. Inpatient gig, with a tele ER gig, with an outpatient practice. Its very easy to step into your office to field a tele consult or outpatient tele visit, then go back to seeing inpatients. At the end of the day I may have seen 12 inpatients, 5 tele consults, and 4 outpatients in a span of 8 hours and am making "neurosurgery money" on an hourly basis.

 

[comp1]

Bingo. And this is my approach to maximizing my "hourly rate" with multiple jobs as I have discussed on here before. I found jobs that could easily be performed at the same time. Inpatient gig, with a tele ER gig, with an outpatient practice. Its very easy to step into your office to field a tele consult or outpatient tele visit, then go back to seeing inpatients. At the end of the day I may have seen 12 inpatients, 5 tele consults, and 4 outpatients in a span of 8 hours and am making "neurosurgery money" on an hourly basis.

That's impressive. That volume is definitely not for me, but it's impressive.

 

[FlowRate]

I don't know if they're currently hiring, but (back 4-5 years ago when I was looking for my first job out of residency) the local university system was hiring for multiple ED psych. Goal was in-person consultation at mothership and telehealth consultation to satellites.

 

[ObsequiousAplomb]

Bingo. And this is my approach to maximizing my "hourly rate" with multiple jobs as I have discussed on here before. I found jobs that could easily be performed at the same time. Inpatient gig, with a tele ER gig, with an outpatient practice. Its very easy to step into your office to field a tele consult or outpatient tele visit, then go back to seeing inpatients. At the end of the day I may have seen 12 inpatients, 5 tele consults, and 4 outpatients in a span of 8 hours and am making "neurosurgery money" on an hourly basis.

How do you balance being on time for your outpatients with the consult gig? Or do you sometimes run a little behind on OP like all the other specialties feel comfortable doing?

 

[jbomba]

How do you balance being on time for your outpatients with the consult gig? Or do you sometimes run a little behind on OP like all the other specialties feel comfortable doing?

I have Like 45 min to get back to any consult, so I'll always schedule half hour off between every two outpatients. So unless I get a call right when the hour starts I'm always good. Hasn't happened yet.

I'm also only seeing like 4-6 outpatients per day max. So not a huge number either

 

[Candidate2017]

An overly broad question, but what's the inpatient market like?

If you want an inpatient job, you got it. But do you really want it? If you want a good inpatient job, you will have to look harder.

 

[Candidate2017]

Isn’t income ceiling much higher for inpatient bc psychiatrists can see a higher volume and be done by noon, allowing them to cobble together other gigs in the PM?

Yes, and income ceiling is also much higher for outpatient psychiatrists who cobble together inpatient gigs in the AM 🙂