Working in multiple specialties.

[jpl291]

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Is it possible for a emergency medicine doctor to work in family practice. Also, could you become board certified in family practice without doing an additional residency?

 

[MLT2MT2DO]

You would have to do a combined residency.

Currently there are 4 AOA EM/FP residencies:
http://www.opportunities.osteopathi...essionid=f0304265743d375dbba74d773e384e7d5578

And only 2 ACGME EM/FP residencies.

At the end you would be BE for both specialties.

 

[jpl291]

So all of the docs that are board certified in multiple specialties did multiple residencies?

 

[JaggerPlate]

Technically, you can do whatever the hell you want. Your license will say 'unrestricted medicine and surgery,' but what keeps the IM doc from performing Neurosurgery is ethics, malpractice, and privileges (as far as I know). If you wanted to do something like become boarded in EM and then run some type of primary care clinic/urgent care clinic while you're not doing hospitals shifts, I really don't see how you'd run into much trouble at all. Probably really wouldn't do too much malpractice wise, but you CAN'T advertise yourself as a BC FM doc. You can say 'BC physician,' 'EM specialist practicing FM,' 'FM expert,' etc, but I think this isn't too uncommon, especially in more rural areas. However, if you did want to be BE/BC in both fields, you'd have to complete 2 residencies or a combined one.

 

[Styria]

You could do it the other way around. There a number of family practice physicians who work in the ER at small hospitals.

 

[Terpskins99]

You would have to do a combined residency.

Currently there are 4 AOA EM/FP residencies:
http://www.opportunities.osteopathi...essionid=f0304265743d375dbba74d773e384e7d5578

And only 2 ACGME EM/FP residencies.

At the end you would be BE for both specialties.

If you really like the flexibility of doing both, I think this is a nice option. I believe pretty much all smaller hospitals have the occasional locum tenens ER attending coming in every other week or so. These docs have their regular 9-5 practice at a clinic and/or inpatient ward.

Technically, you can do whatever the hell you want. Your license will say 'unrestricted medicine and surgery,' but what keeps the IM doc from performing Neurosurgery is ethics, malpractice, and privileges (as far as I know). If you wanted to do something like become boarded in EM and then run some type of primary care clinic/urgent care clinic while you're not doing hospitals shifts, I really don't see how you'd run into much trouble at all. Probably really wouldn't do too much malpractice wise, but you CAN'T advertise yourself as a BC FM doc. You can say 'BC physician,' 'EM specialist practicing FM,' 'FM expert,' etc, but I think this isn't too uncommon, especially in more rural areas.

This is a bit of an understatement. While it is true that large city ER's will hire EM-boarded attendings first, in the smaller town hospitals the ER's will probably be staffed by doctors that did not complete an EM residency. EM is a pretty new residency and there simply aren't enough EM trained folks available. As long as you've completed a primary care residency (family medicine/internal medicine), thats often enough qualification for securing an attending position at a smaller hospital ER.

 

[JaggerPlate]

This is a bit of an understatement. While it is true that large city ER's will hire EM-boarded attendings first, in the smaller town hospitals the ER's will probably be staffed by doctors that did not complete an EM residency. EM is a pretty new residency and there simply aren't enough EM trained folks available. As long as you've completed a primary care residency (family medicine/internal medicine), thats often enough qualification for securing an attending position at a smaller hospital ER.

Good to know! I said that because I worked at an ER in a big urban city for a few years and all the DO/MDs there were BC/BE in EM, but I've known people who've worked in rural hospitals with IM, FP guys in the ER, and also EM guys who owned urgent care/FM type clinics ... so kind of extrapolated I guess 👍

 

[MedicineMike]

You could do it the other way around. There a number of family practice physicians who work in the ER at small hospitals.

This is exactly right. My ex-gf's father was a FP physician during the week, but switched off with a few other docs, on 1-2 wknds a month, as the ER attending. This was in a very small town far from any big city. The medical facility is smaller compared to big cities, but big for the town it was in. I think the smaller towns have problems keeping a full-staff of EM physicians and have to recruit the FP docs from nearby clinics.

Also, the clinic he worked at throughout the week was affiliated/owned by the same people as the hospital. Say for example he works at "Smith Clinic" and the hospital was named "Smith Medical Center of *insert small town*" I think working the ER may have been part of his contract.

Hope this helps.