I have been watching ER since the beginning, and we've seen Mark's various promotions and demotions. Well, I was thinking about this the other day and realized I have no clue what he is now! I seem to remember him getting demoted last season maybe...are Mark and Kerry still co-head-honchos, or is she top dog now? And what exactly is the ER heirarchy anyway? Thanks for any help!

-- Becky (pattonrd@muohio.edu), April 13, 2000

Answers

I believe that Kerry is Chief of Emergency Services, which is the job she was trying so hard to get when they got Amanda Lee. Kerry stabbed Mark in the back to get the title. Mark is an attending. He didn't get demoted, just blind sided by Kerry who was trying to kiss up to Romano.

-- Casey S (steinbec00@netscape.net), April 13, 2000.

I'm pretty sure that this is right. As of the begining of Season 6 Kerry is head of the emergency department. I think that Mark is still an attending.

-- Jen (sjcpuma@yahoo.com), April 13, 2000.

OK. So let me get this straight. Romano is the chief of staff for the whole hospital (replacing Anspaugh who replaced Morganstern). Then Kerry is the chief of emergency medicine, and also an attending with Mark. How many attendings does the ER usually have? And who was chief of emergency medicine before Kerry (not counting Amanda Lee)? I noticed that the position "chief resident" got a lot of scripts and air time in the first few seasons. Who is chief resident now, I don't remember who replaced Kerry when she was promoted to attending. Sorry if I'm rambling, I'm just trying to get it all straight.

-- Becky (pattonrd@muohio.edu), April 13, 2000.

Here's the current hospital hierarchy:

Romano is Chief of Staff of the whole hospital.

Elizabeth is (Associate?) Chief of Surgery - in charge of the surgeons.

Kerry is Chief of Emergency Medicine - in charge of the ER. The history of this position is a grand saga. Morgenstern was originally the Chief (he was also Chief of Surgery). When he left, Kerry took over temporarily as Acting Chief. During Season 5, they did the big "talent search" and hired Amanda Lee for the job. She turned out to be wacko, and eventually Romano took over as Acting Chief. At the beginning of this season, Romano became Chief of Staff and promoted Kerry to Chief of the ER.

Ansbaugh is a senior surgical attending.

Mark and Luka are Attendings.

Benton is a Trauma Fellow. He's done being a resident, but he's not an attending yet.

Chen and Carter are 3rd year residents. One of these two will almost certainly get the Chief Resident spot next season... there have been quite a few episodes this year that have mentioned Carter's aspirations to the position. So far they have not made any mention (that I am aware of) of who the current Chief Resident is, but it is definitely not any of the main characters.

Cleo and Dave are 2nd year residents.

Carol is back to being a regular nurse. They have not made any mention (that I am aware of) of who replaced her as Nurse Manager.

Abby is a 3rd year med student, doing one of those unrealistically long ER rotations, in the grand tradition of Carter and Lucy.

-- Lynn (lynn@wordsmyth.org), April 14, 2000.

Thank you so much, Lynn. That really helps.

-- Becky (pattonrd@muohio.edu), April 14, 2000.

I don't know anything about hospitals that I haven't seen in the show but...

Shouldn't Chen be behind Carter? When she was on the show before they were at the same level but then she quit. Now she's back, but shouldn't that have put her behind at least a year?

-- Rusty Priske (rusty.priske@hrdc-drhc.gc.ca), April 18, 2000.

Can't really answer the question about Chen being behind Carter, but he did lose a year when he spent a year in surgery and then returned to the ER. That puts them a little closer together, but I don't know if it makes up for it all. I thought he was ahead of her now, but not as far as you'd think because he had the year in surgery.

-- Diana (dilynne@juno.com), April 18, 2000.

I had originally assumed that Chen would be a year behind Carter. But the NBC ER page says that she's a 3rd year resident.

-- Lynn (lynn@wordsmyth.org), April 19, 2000.

Chen wouldn't be behind Carter because he lost a year when he was a surgical intern and she lost a year when she "quit."

-- Teddy (richarr@earthlink.net), June 28, 2001.