who works the hospital on call shifts

[jimjones]

For smaller cities, what docs are on call at the hospitals to cover the ER at night. Are there FP's and IM's and a surgeon, or always EM, or how does it work?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[tonem]

Emergency physicians work shifts (w/ no call) so night or day isn't an issue for staffing.
I think (in general) any licensed doctor can "moonlight" in the ED now because there is a shortage of EM trained physicians. The ACEP is trying to limit staffing in emergency rooms to EM trained doctors so that may change if they are successful. In trauma centers there is always a surgeon on the premises whether or not the ED staff is EM trained. Non-trauma centers don't take trauma patients unless they come in on their own. In that case an on-call surgeon is called in or the patient is transferred to a trauma center. Hope that answers your question.

 

[UCMonkey]

I worked in a small community hospital for several years. Here's what we did: For anyone who came to the ER and needed a specialist (i.e. ortho, surgeon, cardio, etc) and didn't have one for us to call (from their HMO or whatever), the ER had a list of local docs on call each day. For codes, the ER doc responded no matter what, day or night. During the day, though, if the patient's own doc happened to be in the hospital or some other doc responded and got to the patient before the ER doc, then the ER doc would generally get there and just come right back.