Condition: Critical

The US Healthcare system is collapsing.

Emergency Departments across the country are closing. Emergency Medicine physicians are in high demand now, as more physicians leave while the patient volume continues to skyrocket.

People stopped caring about us seemingly weeks into the pandemic, and then they vilified us.

Those who aren’t paying attention to the state of those currently in medicine, and more importantly the pipeline of those entering or potentially entering medicine, need to start paying attention and becoming significantly concerned.

I am already more than concerned. I’m watching this happen in real time. The system is already collapsing. The exodus from healthcare is well underway, and fewer are going to choose to enter these primary care, emergency medicine, and critical care fields. I know because I am part of that exodus, and yet I receive phone calls from recruiters for emergency medicine physician job opportunities multiple times daily, some offering exorbitant rates for positions requiring significant travel.

I have gone from working full time in emergency medicine to working only a third as much in the emergency department. As I have become eligible to take the board-certification exam in Addiction Medicine, having proven sufficient experience and expertise in the field, I now spend the rest of my time outside of emergency medicine working across the continuum of care for patients with substance use disorders.