SPOTLIGHT: Jeremy Finkelstein, MD - President & CEO, EGPA
Will you be attending ACEP16 in Las Vegas? If so, make time to come by Booth #S2421 and meet Dr. Jeremy Finkelstein, of Emergigroup Physician Associates. He will be available to speak with you face-to-face and discuss the emergency physician openings within the Houston Methodist Hospital System Emergency Departments and freestanding EDs.
Don't Wait! Schedule your time today by emailing a copy of your CV to EGPA@EMrecruits.com.
Jeremy Finkelstein, MD
Medical School: University of Maryland
Residency: University of Texas
Residency Specialty: Emergency Medicine
Current Position: Section Chief, Emergency Medicine, Houston Methodist Hospital; President and CEO, Emergigroup Physician Associates (EGPA)
What is you favorite pastime outside of the emergency department?
Playing tennis tournaments, traveling, and wine collecting.
Who gave you your best career advice? What was it?
My parents provided the best advice, but they never actually said it out loud...they led by example with hard work, long hours, and passion for perfection. Luckily I inherited that gene!
As far as sage advice, I would say a chief resident who told me to learn how to do procedures many different ways from many different practitioners, so that you were prepared if a patient required a different approach to the problem.
What's the most exciting thing on the horizon? Personal or Professional.
Professionally, it would be the work I am doing acquiring and consolidating privately held ER practices to compete with the large contract management groups.
Personally, it is raising two young teenage boys!
If you were just starting your residency now, what would you do differently?
Not a thing. I had a great balance of work and play time. Actually, it was mostly work, but when we played, we played hard! I'm a work-a-holic by nature, so letting go is a struggle, but in this specialty particularly you have to find some outlets and leave it behind you. Even if only for a short time.
How will things change in emergency medicine during the next decade?
My hope is that technology catches up in medicine with the rest of the world. Right now EMR's are a major disaster, in fact creating more work when they should be creating efficiency. It has been a real disappointment and a career dissatisfier. Industry wise, moving forward the push will be continued consolidation of medical practices, hospitals, and insurers as the dollars for healthcare contract. Safety in large numbers will be the name of the game and it will apply to ER practices as well. You simply cannot compete with the CMG's in terms of economies of scale they bring to the table. Lastly, freestanding EDs, if not legislated out of existence, or driven out of business by the payers, will continue to put pressure on staffing of traditional hospital-based EDs, further tightening the labor market.
Most awkward encounter with a patient.
Oh, having practiced emergency medicine for 20 years, there are so many to choose from! It's hard to pick a favorite. Working a Friday night shift in a full ER, I became frustrated with a patient with multiple lacerations to repair as I knew it would tie me up forever. I angrily asked him, in front of his family, if he was drunk or high since he was slurring his speech and would not cooperate. Turns out he had multiple sclerosis, and only then did I notice his personal wheelchair in the room. Oops! He had fallen through a glass door due to weakness. I spent the next hour eating humble pie with the family, feeling like an idiot, as I sat and repaired the wounds. I learned a powerful lesson that night...
