Comments on: Scalpel comment on "Qualifications"

By: docwhisperer

docwhisperer — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 03:08:43 +0000

Hi, Our hospital has had to deal with this issue on an up close and personal level for the community and the medical staff. If you read my post “Disposable Doctors” on http://www.docwhisperer.wordpress.com you’ll see where I, my colleagues, and our patients stand. ACEP allows the non-ER trained and non-ABEM certified docs to join, but they are treat them like second class stepchildren and they do not advocate on their behalf at all. So save your money Scalpel!

By: scalpel

scalpel — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 02:23:33 +0000

Fortunately, it looks like I’m not eligible anyway. I’d forgotten how expensive all these societies are.

By: GruntDoc

GruntDoc — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 02:20:32 +0000

You shouldn’t give them any money. Their primary interest is the residency trained, BC EP.

You are being shut out in that you cannot join AAEM, correct. I don’t know if they’d go to bat for you or not, frankly, I don’t know the gritty details of the cases they’ve been involved in.

By: scalpel

scalpel — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 02:02:57 +0000

All I saw on the AAEM site was them repeatedly saying “the standard is board certification.” Although they admit that there is a shortage of boarded docs, they don’t even give a polite nod to those of us who aren’t.

Now obviously I’ve been wrong before, and recently, so correct me if I’m wrong. But it sure doesn’t seem like they are going to bat for me or my leprous brethren. Ignoring us is the same as shutting us out, and my previous statement applies to them: why would I give them money if they want to exclude me from work?

By: GruntDoc

GruntDoc — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 01:32:28 +0000

Geordon,
I’m a member of ACEP because they’re the “Big Tent” organization of EM. I’m a member of AAEM becuase they’re more supportive of the individual docs, having gone to bat for several individual EM docs and at least one group over unfair contract issues.

Which brings me to answer Scalpel’s question, and the answer is that while AAEM is not hostile toward legacy docs in the ED, they want to make residency training / ABEM/ABOEM certification the standard, and as soon as possible. I think their aim is ultimately correct, but their timeline is somewhat short.

Plus, I cannot see a reason (if eligible) to be a member of one and not the other.

By: scalpel

scalpel — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 01:03:16 +0000

It would appear from my cursory review of the AAEM site that they are less hospitable toward legacy docs than ACEP. Am I reading them correctly?

By: Geordon

Geordon — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 00:25:11 +0000

For the record, I’m a Fellow of both ACEP and AAEM, and believe all new-hires in any ED should be EM residency grads. The training and standards exist for a reason.

Why do you belong to both, rather than either one? I’m just curious, particularly when I just finished reading (with a grain of salt, mind you) “The Rape of Emergency Medicine” from the AAEM web page.

By the way, the new HTML buttons seem to work just fine. :)

By: scalpel

scalpel — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 16:02:18 +0000

You guys playing cards?

By: GruntDoc

GruntDoc — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 13:11:20 +0000

You know you’re warped when the word legacy makes this pop to mind:

Hoover: Kent is a legacy, Otter. His brother was a ’59, Fred Dorfman.
Flounder: He said legacies usually get asked to pledge automatically.
Otter: Oh, well, usually. Unless the pledge in question turns out to be a real closet-case.
Otter, Boon: Like Fred.

maybe it’s just me, or that I’ve been up all night.

By: GruntDoc

GruntDoc — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 13:04:42 +0000

It’s been my pleasure. This doesn’t fix the Board Certification problem, but being an ACEP Fellow would help come job-switching time.