Group size should not be the single deciding factor. Inc. The following is an excerpt from EmPressions, EmCare s quarterly physician newsletter, which addresses frequently asked questions concerning large CMGs. A large group is a relative term used by most people to describe a group that is larger than their own. This name can be given to groups of two, three, or four hospitals or given to groups that have several hundred hospital emergency departments. Large groups offer administrative support to EDs human resources, legal, compliance, risk management, recruiting and scheduling, billing and collecting, which enables the physicians to focus on patient care and ongoing training and education.
Large groups operate in the background, mostly unseen by the local physician group on a daily basis.
A successful emergency department operation is a team of professional physicians, led by a good director, who are dedicated to the advancement of EM in their community. This is true no matter who runs the contract. There are many advantages to working with a large group. As mentioned above, the large groups can provide resources at a very high and consistent level, whereas an independent group has to go out and hire these services on their own. Even if independent groups depend on hospitals for these resources, physicians often find limitations regarding quality and availability of options.