2008 Woodie Awards
Pocket Doc
Issue date: 9/4/06 Section: Pulse
- Page 1 of 1
When did you know you wanted to be an ER physician rather than another type of doctor?
My case is unusual. I still expect to be a baseball player when I grow up. I'm clinging to the hope that some team needs a "veteran" catcher with a weak bat, a so-so arm but can "throw some leather." I'm just keeping this medical thing until I catch on with a team.
I actually started out as an intern at another large, but inferior, University Hospital in the city that rhymes with Bicago in the department of orthopedic surgery. I found the surgeons' personality-they tend to think of themselves as comparable to Tom Cruise in Top Gun-didn't agree with me. Serendipitously, I had a taste of emergency medicine and found the adrenaline-junkie, risk-taker in me was wild about it. The rest is history.
A word of warning: Anyone thinking a good lifestyle is a reason to head into emergency medicine, let me point out that at age 53 and 28 years of clinical practice, I am one of the very old timers of emergency medicine. That's largely due to the fact that it is a physically, mentally and emotionally demanding specialty that tends to burn out people after 15 years or so. In the last year, despite my seniority, I worked until 1 a.m. on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, and an average of 3 weekend days (or nights) a month.
Most emergency physicians will work their share of night shifts for the entire span of their careers. They will work on their anniversary, their birthday, during their kid's piano recital, baseball games, etc. And, while no one is going to feel sorry for the earnings of an emergency physician, it is well below any surgeon's. An ER physician will bill for services rendered like any physician, but collect much less. At UIC and several urban and suburban Emergency Departments that I know well, collections are in the 30 percent range; that is, for every dollar billed, 30 cents are collected. This makes emergency physicians, without a doubt, the largest specialty contributors to charity care with no other specialty even in the same game.
Due to the frequent encounters with high risk patients, emergency physicians can expect to be a defendant in a malpractice lawsuit every 4 years, as well as subpoenaed to testify (for free as a public duty) at DUI, rape, assault, child abuse, etc. trials frequently. They will be verbally and physically threatened by unstable, intoxicated, dangerous (and sometimes armed) individuals who may bite, punch, scratch, and bleed on us. Quite often, these patients harbor infectious diseases, like HIV, which they may attempt to transmit to us as we care for them by spitting at us.
My personal experience: I have been bit in the face, had a finger broken, punched several times, choked, and physically wrestled with patients. The best verbal threat: a scary guy in full leather restraints when I practiced in the city where I lived. This patient looked me in the eye and said very seriously that when he got out, he was going to rape my wife and murder my children.
On the other hand, I can't imagine another job with so many opportunities to make a positive difference in so many peoples lives, even save them quite frequently. You can go home at the end of the day and look in the mirror and feel good about yourself. Nowhere else is there such a team feeling as an emergency department that has weathered crisis together. Nowhere else do nurses, doctors, techs and clerks all work as such a team. I have to admit: I'm a little biased. I actually got married, no lie, to an emergency nurse in an emergency department by the hospital chaplain.
What time of the month is a woman least likely to get pregnant?
You didn't pay attention in sex education class did you? Since you ask this question, I might assume that you are not using condoms and therefore you are in a stable, long term, meaningful and trusting relationship and are comfortable that there is no risk of acquiring sexually transmitted diseases. A woman is least 1ikely, indeed impossible, to become pregnant while she is menstruating. A day or two before or after menses is fairly safe for not becoming pregnant also, beyond that nothing is certain. There are variations in time of ovulation such that it might come early or late on any given month; you can never know for sure. There are also sperm that can live for days in the uterus and fallopian tubes waiting to ambush an unsuspecting ovum; you don't know who has these SuperSperm. The best bet: use condoms until you are ready to become a parent.
Dr. Ralph and Dr. George are Emergency Room physicians with the University of Illinois at Chicago's Medical Center.
As with all medical advice, consult your physician before beginning any regimen or if symptoms persist for more than 5 days.
Send your anonymous questions to pulse@chicagoflame.com.
My case is unusual. I still expect to be a baseball player when I grow up. I'm clinging to the hope that some team needs a "veteran" catcher with a weak bat, a so-so arm but can "throw some leather." I'm just keeping this medical thing until I catch on with a team.
I actually started out as an intern at another large, but inferior, University Hospital in the city that rhymes with Bicago in the department of orthopedic surgery. I found the surgeons' personality-they tend to think of themselves as comparable to Tom Cruise in Top Gun-didn't agree with me. Serendipitously, I had a taste of emergency medicine and found the adrenaline-junkie, risk-taker in me was wild about it. The rest is history.
A word of warning: Anyone thinking a good lifestyle is a reason to head into emergency medicine, let me point out that at age 53 and 28 years of clinical practice, I am one of the very old timers of emergency medicine. That's largely due to the fact that it is a physically, mentally and emotionally demanding specialty that tends to burn out people after 15 years or so. In the last year, despite my seniority, I worked until 1 a.m. on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, and an average of 3 weekend days (or nights) a month.
Most emergency physicians will work their share of night shifts for the entire span of their careers. They will work on their anniversary, their birthday, during their kid's piano recital, baseball games, etc. And, while no one is going to feel sorry for the earnings of an emergency physician, it is well below any surgeon's. An ER physician will bill for services rendered like any physician, but collect much less. At UIC and several urban and suburban Emergency Departments that I know well, collections are in the 30 percent range; that is, for every dollar billed, 30 cents are collected. This makes emergency physicians, without a doubt, the largest specialty contributors to charity care with no other specialty even in the same game.
Due to the frequent encounters with high risk patients, emergency physicians can expect to be a defendant in a malpractice lawsuit every 4 years, as well as subpoenaed to testify (for free as a public duty) at DUI, rape, assault, child abuse, etc. trials frequently. They will be verbally and physically threatened by unstable, intoxicated, dangerous (and sometimes armed) individuals who may bite, punch, scratch, and bleed on us. Quite often, these patients harbor infectious diseases, like HIV, which they may attempt to transmit to us as we care for them by spitting at us.
My personal experience: I have been bit in the face, had a finger broken, punched several times, choked, and physically wrestled with patients. The best verbal threat: a scary guy in full leather restraints when I practiced in the city where I lived. This patient looked me in the eye and said very seriously that when he got out, he was going to rape my wife and murder my children.
On the other hand, I can't imagine another job with so many opportunities to make a positive difference in so many peoples lives, even save them quite frequently. You can go home at the end of the day and look in the mirror and feel good about yourself. Nowhere else is there such a team feeling as an emergency department that has weathered crisis together. Nowhere else do nurses, doctors, techs and clerks all work as such a team. I have to admit: I'm a little biased. I actually got married, no lie, to an emergency nurse in an emergency department by the hospital chaplain.
What time of the month is a woman least likely to get pregnant?
You didn't pay attention in sex education class did you? Since you ask this question, I might assume that you are not using condoms and therefore you are in a stable, long term, meaningful and trusting relationship and are comfortable that there is no risk of acquiring sexually transmitted diseases. A woman is least 1ikely, indeed impossible, to become pregnant while she is menstruating. A day or two before or after menses is fairly safe for not becoming pregnant also, beyond that nothing is certain. There are variations in time of ovulation such that it might come early or late on any given month; you can never know for sure. There are also sperm that can live for days in the uterus and fallopian tubes waiting to ambush an unsuspecting ovum; you don't know who has these SuperSperm. The best bet: use condoms until you are ready to become a parent.
Dr. Ralph and Dr. George are Emergency Room physicians with the University of Illinois at Chicago's Medical Center.
As with all medical advice, consult your physician before beginning any regimen or if symptoms persist for more than 5 days.
Send your anonymous questions to pulse@chicagoflame.com.
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