| Detail | For this role |
|---|---|
| Department | Clinical and Medical |
| Level | Mid level |
| Reports to | Head of Department (Clinical) |
| Direct reports | Casualty Medical Officer, Emergency Medical Technician |
| Experience | 2 to 6 years of emergency department work after postgraduation |
Emergency Physician job description template
Copy this job description, replace the text in square brackets and post it on your careers page or a job portal.
Job title: Emergency Physician
Department: Clinical and Medical
Reports to: Head of Department (Clinical)
Location: [City], [office, branch or site]
About the role
An Emergency Physician runs the emergency department, seeing every kind of patient who walks or is wheeled in: heart attacks, strokes, road accidents, poisonings, breathlessness and high fevers. They triage, resuscitate, stabilise and decide whether each patient needs admission, surgery, transfer or discharge. The role is shift-based and round the clock. A good emergency physician makes fast, sound decisions, runs resuscitations calmly, documents medico-legal cases properly and keeps the department flowing on the worst nights.
Key responsibilities
- Triage and assess patients on arrival, deciding within minutes who needs resuscitation, urgent treatment or routine review.
- Lead the resuscitation of cardiac arrest, major trauma, shock and respiratory failure, including airway control and defibrillation.
- Activate the hospital's heart attack, stroke and trauma pathways, and push for the target times for ECG, CT and specialist response.
- Perform emergency procedures such as intubation, central lines, chest drains, fracture splinting and wound repair.
- Use bedside ultrasound to assess trauma, shock and breathlessness, and to guide procedures.
- Register medico-legal cases for accidents, assaults, burns and poisonings, preserve evidence and inform the police outpost as per hospital protocol.
- Decide the next step for every patient, whether admission, OT, ICU, transfer or discharge, and call the right specialist with a clear summary.
- Supervise casualty medical officers and emergency technicians during the shift, and hand over pending patients at shift change.
- Prepare the department for mass casualty events through drills and a clear chart of who does what.
- Review deaths, delays and patients who left without treatment, and suggest fixes to the head of the department.
Requirements
- MD, DNB or MEM in Emergency Medicine, or MD in Medicine or Anaesthesia with emergency experience
- Valid registration with the National Medical Commission or a State Medical Council
- ACLS and ATLS certification, with PALS as an advantage
- 2 to 6 years of emergency department work after postgraduation
KRAs and KPIs for a Emergency Physician
Key result areas for the appraisal form, each with a KPI you can measure every month or quarter.
| Key result area | How to measure it |
|---|---|
| Triage time | 95 percent of patients triaged within 10 minutes of arrival |
| Critical pathways | ECG within 10 minutes for chest pain and CT within 25 minutes for suspected stroke in 90 percent of cases |
| Department flow | Median stay in emergency of 4 hours or less before admission, transfer or discharge |
| Medico-legal records | 100 percent of medico-legal cases registered and fully documented within the shift |
| Resuscitation quality | Every cardiac arrest documented and debriefed within 24 hours |
| Left without being seen | Patients leaving before assessment below 2 percent of monthly arrivals |
Skills and tools
Tools used day to day: Defibrillator and monitor, Transport ventilator, Point-of-care ultrasound, Video laryngoscope, Blood gas analyser, Emergency module of the HIS.
Reporting line and career path
Next roles: Head of Department (Clinical), Medical Director
Interview questions for a Emergency Physician
- Four patients arrive together after a bus accident and you have two resuscitation beds. How do you triage?
- A young man with chest pain has a normal first ECG. What do you do before sending him home?
- How do you handle a medico-legal case where the family refuses to let you inform the police?
- The surgical team is not answering your calls about a patient with a ruptured spleen. What do you do?
- Describe a resuscitation that went badly and what you changed afterwards.
- How do you keep the department moving when every ward bed is full?
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What does an emergency physician do?
An emergency physician treats patients who arrive with urgent problems such as heart attacks, strokes, injuries, poisoning and severe infections. They triage, resuscitate and stabilise patients, perform emergency procedures, handle medico-legal cases and decide who needs admission, surgery, transfer or discharge. The work runs in shifts, day and night.
What is the difference between an emergency physician and a casualty medical officer?
A casualty medical officer is usually an MBBS doctor who handles first assessment and stabilisation in emergency. An emergency physician holds a postgraduate qualification in emergency medicine or a related specialty, leads resuscitations, takes final decisions on complex cases and supervises the casualty medical officers on the shift.
Is emergency medicine a recognised specialty in India?
Yes. Emergency medicine is a recognised postgraduate specialty in India, taught as MD and DNB courses, and some hospitals also run master's programmes in emergency medicine. Many emergency departments are still led by physicians and anaesthetists with emergency experience, but specialist-led departments are becoming common.