Thinking of going into this field in the next few years.

Background: EMT x 8 years, about 4 with a municipal FD as an EMS volly.  Physician (family and emergency med) currently.  Have done some planning for big events, but thatsbeen a long time.

I have the Montgomery GI bill to burn. Wondering if getting a Masters in Disaster management, or something similar, is necessary or helpful.

Expected salary?  Weekly time commitment?  Speaking to some rural depts, might be only a few hours weekly, all the way to full time for big cities.
Pros?  Cons?

Masters of public admin seems to be the ticket around here.

Physician is great, I guess depending on state the company would have a medical director, and that could be you! Or you could be credentialed to physician level by the Med director.

EMS is a fellowship of emergency medicine. Usually just a one year fellowship. There are opportunities out there without board certification/fellowship but they are going to become fewer and fewer over time. If in a rural area you might be able to find some place. Urban and fire dept (as opposed to inter hospital transport) is going to be more competitive. My place has probably half a dozen EMS fellowship trained EPs and they all seem to be constantly on the lookout to add another EMS agency to their list of medical directorships.

Personally, I have no interest in it. It’s a bunch of administrative stuff. You have to write the protocols the EMTs and paramedics follow and then they spend a bunch of time reviewing charts to make sure the agencies are following the protocols as written. Quality assurance essentially. Also a bunch of time interfacing with the Management at local hospitals. Some Time teaching, but the paramedics teach each other also, so not as much as I would have guessed.

Our guys don’t have their own jeep or do scene calls Except as the occasional ride along, But there are some fellowship programs that do, also some fly a doc.

Yeah, I don't plan on an EMS flowship.  3 year residency and a 1 yr fellowship is enough.

I'm in WI.  I'm from L.A.  this whole state, minus MKE, is rural   but seriously,  I'm rural now.

I'm not looking for clinical, so admin and teaching is fine.  This idea is the "get out of the hospital" job at some point in the future.

I'm guessing a rural area would be a county level position?  I can't imagine every little town and volly  squad needs their own med. Director.

I suppose I should look at the flight companies too.

I can answer some of the above...

Per WI State Statute, each agency has their own Medical Director. From the Emergency Medical Responder groups up to the Paramedic level. Potentially 15 to 20 groups per county. Now most EMR groups will follow their local ambulance services in picking their Medical Director, but there isn't a requirement to.

Very few County wide agencies, most are based on municipality. WI is a home rule state, so the lowest level municipality generally has a significant amount of control over a lot of things, such as who their ambulance service is provided by.

There is a potential requirement coming to be Board Certified EM and EMS to be an EMS Medical Director. Haven't read too much into it as I am not a physician.

If you are a practicing ED Doc in WIsconsin, get to know your local EMS crews and see if you can go for a ride along. Additionally, you might already work with a number of EMS Medical Directors depending on where and what you are doing now.

Edit: Most EMS Medical Directors in WI are not full time, actually I don't know of any.

@MedicBob

Thanks for the info.

I feel terrible for our medical director. He hustles and hustles and them some dumb ass fire assistant chief gets big ideas to make fire ems profitable.