Emergency Medicine Board Certification for Career EM Physicians Trained in Primary Care

The Board of Certification in Emergency Medicine® (BCEM) was developed by the American Board of Physician Specialties® to offer board certification to highly qualified physicians who specialize in emergency medicine. In order to ensure that qualified applicants have the opportunity to pursue board certification in their area of expertise, BCEM offers an opportunity for candidates who completed residency training in Emergency Medicine as well as physicians who were trained in primary care but have chosen to work in the emergency room.

This is important because, traditionally, in order to be board certified in Emergency Medicine, residency training in an emergency department was required. The problem is that many family physicians have worked in their community’s ERs to meet the need of the hospital. In many cases, these professionals have years or decades of expertise in Emergency Medicine and BCEM makes physicians who have indisputable expertise in the emergency room and primary care residency training eligible to pursue board certification.

To be a candidate for board certification in Emergency Medicine, a physician must:

• Have completed a residency in emergency medicine

-OR-

• Have completed a residency in family practice, internal medicine, pediatric medicine, or general surgery and practiced emergency medicine for a minimum of five years on a full-time basis, while accumulating a minimum of 7,000 hours of ER time during this period.
  • Graduate training in an approved EM Fellowship can be accepted in lieu of five years’ experience

The ultimate goal is to ensure that the best and brightest ER physicians in North America have the opportunity to become certified in their chosen field. Board certification is more than an honorary title, and many hospitals are beginning to require that their physicians be certified in their specialty area, which is why it’s so important that recruiters and hospital administrators know the unique opportunity that we offer at BCEM. If your emergency room is staffed by highly experienced primary care physicians, they should be encouraged to pursue board certification through our organization.

To learn more, contact us today. The ABPS is the official certifying body of the American Association of Physician Specialists, Inc.®