A STUDY OF THE WORKFORCE IN EMERGENCY-MEDICINE

Study objective: Emergency medicine has progressed significantly since its initial recognition as a medical specialty. Relatively little fac tual information is known, however, regarding who or how many physicia ns practice emergency medicine. The pur pose of this study is to deter mine the total number of physicians practicing clinical emergency medi cine during a specified period, to describe certain characteristics of those individuals, and to estimate the total number of full-time equi valents (FTEs), as well as the total number of individuals needed to s taff those FTEs. Methods: Data were gathered from a survey of a random sample of 2,062 hospitals drawn from a population of 5,220 hospitals reported by the American Hospital Association as having, or potentiall y having, an emergency department. The survey instrument addressed ite ms such as descriptive data on the institution, enumeration of physici ans in the ED, as well as the total number working during the period J une 1, 1997, through June 14, 1997. Demographic data on the individual s were also collected. Results: A total of 942 hospitals responded (a 45.7% return rate). These hospitals reported a total of 5,872 physicia ns were working during the specified period, or an average of 7.48 per sons scheduled per institution. The physicians were scheduled for a to tal of 297,062 hours. The average standard for FTE was 40 clinical hou rs per week. This equates to 3,713 FTEs or 4.96 FTEs per institution. The ratio of persons to FTEs was 1.51:1. With regard to demographics, 83% of the physicians were men and 81% were white. Their average age w as 42 years. As to professional credentials, 58% were emergency medici ne-residency trained and 53% were board certified in emergency medicin e; 46% were certified by the American Board of Emergency Medicine. Con clusion: Given that there are 4,945 hospitals with EDs and given that the data indicate there are 4.96 FTEs per ED, the total number of FTEs is projected to be 24,548 (standard error=437). Given further that th e data indicate a physician/FTE ratio of 1.51:1, we conclude that ther e are 36,990 persons (standard error=683) needed to staff those FTEs. When adjusted for persons working at more than one ED, that number is reduced to 32,026.