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Emergency Medicine Physicians: Job Description

Make immediate medical decisions and act to prevent death or further disability. Provide immediate recognition, evaluation, care, stabilization, and disposition of patients. May direct emergency medical staff in an emergency department.

The Daily Work of Emergency Medicine Physicians Perform?

The day-to-day responsibilities of emergency medicine physicians cover:

• Select, request, perform, or interpret diagnostic procedures, such as laboratory tests, electrocardiograms, emergency ultrasounds, and radiographs.
• Evaluate patients' vital signs or laboratory data to determine emergency intervention needs and priority of treatment.
• Perform emergency resuscitations on patients.
• Stabilize patients in critical condition.
• Perform such medical procedures as emergent cricothyrotomy, endotracheal intubation, and emergency thoracotomy.
• Analyze records, examination information, or test results to diagnose medical conditions.
• Consult with hospitalists and other professionals, such as social workers, regarding patients' hospital admission, continued observation, transition of care, or discharge.
• Conduct primary patient assessments that include information from prior medical care.

What Emergency Medicine Physicians Need to Know

Effective emergency medicine physicians draw on a mix of skills and domain knowledge.

Most Important Skills

These are the skills most important for this role, rated on an importance scale of 0 to 5:

Core Knowledge

Other Emergency Medicine Physicians Job Titles

Common job titles for this role include:

• Attending Emergency Physician
• Attending Physician
• Critical Care Intensivist
• Critical Care Intensivist Physician
• Critical Care Physician
• Disaster Medicine Physician
• ER Doctor (Emergency Room Doctor)
• ER Physician (Emergency Room Physician)

How Many Emergency Medicine Physicians Are There?

There are roughly 2,333,594 emergency medicine physicians working in the United States today. Demand is forecast to decline by -2.4% over the projection horizon.

How Much Do Emergency Medicine Physicians Make?

Statistic	Value
Annual median	$59,902
Hourly median	$28.80
10th percentile	$39,580
25th percentile	$49,741
75th percentile	$70,062
90th percentile	$80,223

Compensation varies based on experience, location, and industry.

Emergency Medicine Physicians Salary by State

State	Annual median salary
Kentucky	$239,100
Oklahoma	$178,900
Alaska	$168,040
California	$158,100
Georgia	$139,990
Utah	$137,530

Pay by U.S. Region

Compensation for emergency medicine physicians shift depending on where you work. These regions lead on median pay:

Region	Median annual wage	Share of U.S. jobs	Location quotient
Southeast	$80,646	24.7%	2.06
Far Western US	$23,415	4.5%	2.03
Southwest	$20,642	4.8%	0.84

Top Metro Areas

Metro area	State	Median annual wage	Employment
Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN	OH	$220,570	350
Syracuse, NY	NY	$203,470	100
Oklahoma City, OK	OK	$178,900	80
Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC	NC	$172,640	50
Salt Lake City-Murray, UT	UT	$142,560
Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA	GA	$139,990	2,760
Rochester, NY	NY	$72,690	140

Which Industries Hire Emergency Medicine Physicians

Most emergency medicine physicians are found across these industries:

Industry	Employment	Median annual wage
Health Care and Social Assistance	32,250	n/a
Educational Services	590	$73,250
Administrative and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services	410	n/a
Management of Companies and Enterprises	210	n/a

The table below shows some of the most common industries where those employed in this career field work.

Tech Stack

• Medical software: Epic Systems (hot technology)
• Medical software: MEDITECH software (hot technology)

What the Workplace Is Like

The work environment for emergency medicine physicians is shaped by the following characteristics:

• Exposed to Disease or Infections
• Indoors, Environmentally Controlled
• Contact With Others
• Telephone Conversations
• Face-to-Face Discussions with Individuals and Within Teams

Getting Started in This Career

The role falls in Extensive Preparation Needed (Job Zone 5), indicating the level of preparation typically expected.

Related Careers

Similar Occupations

• Physician Assistants (Primary-Short)
• Registered Nurses (Supplemental)
• Acute Care Nurses (Supplemental)
• Critical Care Nurses (Supplemental)
• Clinical Nurse Specialists (Supplemental)
• Nurse Practitioners (Supplemental)
• Anesthesiologists (Primary-Long)
• Cardiologists (Supplemental)

Where to Study

Aspiring emergency medicine physicians commonly pursue programs in:

13 programs across 4 majors

• Combined Medical Residency/Fellowship Programs
• Multiple-Pathway Medical Fellowship Programs
• Emergency Medicine Residency/Fellowship Programs
• Pediatrics Residency/Fellowship Programs

Health Professions and Related Programs

2 programs across 1 majors

• Medicine

Sources

Statistics shown above are sourced from the following authoritative sources:

• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) for employment and wage data by state and industry.
• BLS Employment Projections for total employment and growth forecasts.
• O*NET (Occupational Information Network) for skills, knowledge, tasks, work activities, work context, technology, and education-zone data.

SOC code: 29-1214.00 (Emergency Medicine Physicians).