Democratic Groups

The first three principles of AAEM's new Vision Statement, "The Blueprint for Securing Emergency Medicine's Future," read:

The ideal practice situation in Emergency Medicine affords each physician an equitable ownership stake in the practice. Such ownership entails substantive responsibility to the practice beyond clinical services.
Emergency physicians should have control over their professional fees. It is they who earn them by toiling at the bedside.
The role of Emergency Medicine management companies should be to help physicians manage their practice. The practice should be owned and controlled by the physicians and not by a management company.

Each of these principles speak directly to the needs for emergency physicians to form and establish democratically-organized practice groups. A long-time advocate for this type of practice environment, AAEM is often asked by its members how they can go about organizing their own group. The following articles have run in past issues of Common Sense and provide a great deal of practical advice in this very area.

How To Set Up a Democratic Emergency Medicine Group by Anita Ziemak, MD FAAEM, and Phyllis Troia, MD FAAEM
So You Want To Start a Group by George Innes, MD FAAEM