I’ll try to be brief. I’m a very experienced (read “old”) ER doc in civilian practice for 25 years. I have always wanted to join the military (tried USUHS for medical school) but was declined due to eyesight impaired in one eye and was refused a waiver. Now EM is apparently in demand and waivers are possible.
The thing that drives me crazy about civilian EM is the constant demand from administration to meet throughput metrics (to make sure they maximize their reimbursement) while they demand high patient satisfaction scores with decreasing resources, “but don’t you dare sacrifice quality” simultaneously. They are competing metrics that cannot be all met simultaneously.
Is this a thing in military emergency medicine? I have no problem with paperwork/ administrative responsibilities. It goes with the job. And I understand military medicine does that in spades. But the civilian clinical environment is just littered with figurative mines everywhere. I’m considering Navy and Air Force. Would I be dealing with the same issues?
Also, I understand that hours worked depends on staffing/ etc but how many hours per month can I expect to work on active duty? Don’t mind hard work, just curious.
Thank you!
The thing that drives me crazy about civilian EM is the constant demand from administration to meet throughput metrics (to make sure they maximize their reimbursement) while they demand high patient satisfaction scores with decreasing resources, “but don’t you dare sacrifice quality” simultaneously. They are competing metrics that cannot be all met simultaneously.
Is this a thing in military emergency medicine? I have no problem with paperwork/ administrative responsibilities. It goes with the job. And I understand military medicine does that in spades. But the civilian clinical environment is just littered with figurative mines everywhere. I’m considering Navy and Air Force. Would I be dealing with the same issues?
Also, I understand that hours worked depends on staffing/ etc but how many hours per month can I expect to work on active duty? Don’t mind hard work, just curious.
Thank you!