ABOUT THIS EPISODE
This Soundbite from the Vault packs three genuinely useful sections into one digestible clip, and each one stands on its own.
It opens with something most emergency medicine physicians quietly wonder about before making the pivot: what does it actually feel like to work in a ketamine clinic after years of shift work?
Dr. Nico Grundmann, founder of Ember Health in New York and an emergency physician with an MBA from Stanford, gives a refreshingly honest answer. The schedule changes. The mental model changes. The relationships you build with patients are unlike anything the ER allows. And for the right person, all of that is exactly the point.
The middle section pulls back the curtain on what patient care can actually look like. From the first call to the four-visit induction series to long-term maintenance care, Dr. Grundmann walks through the full patient journey at Ember, including their 84 percent real-world treatment response rate and why they believe the care coordination model is what drives it.
It closes with the three things Dr. Grundmann would tell anyone opening their own ketamine practice. Not generic advice. Specific, hard-won pillars that have shaped how Ember operates across five New York City locations and more than 2,200 patients treated.
What You'll Gain:
· An honest account of what actually changes when you move from emergency medicine to a ketamine clinic, including the parts most people do not talk about before making the leap
· Why care coordination takes up 30 to 40 percent of the day at Ember and what that means for EM physicians who are used to handing off at the end of a shift
· A clear picture of what the patient journey looks like inside a well-run ketamine practice, from first consultation through long-term maintenance care
· Why Ember's real-world treatment response rate of 84 percent outperforms the published academic data of 75 percent and what Dr. Grundmann believes is driving that difference
· The three pillars Dr. Grundmann would share with any provider opening their own ketamine clinic, built from years of operational experience across multiple sites
Episode 65 show notes:
00:00:00 Teaser: "This isn't a role where you clock out and you're done."
00:00:13 Episode Introduction
00:01:25 What Is It Actually Like to Work in a Ketamine Clinic After Years of Shift Work?
00:03:20 Who Is a Good Fit: Longitudinal Care, Fixed Schedule, and Panel Management
00:05:00 For the Right Person It Checks Every Box: What the Fulfilling Version of This Work Looks Like
00:07:58 What Does the Patient Journey Actually Look Like from First Call to Treatment?
00:10:30 Real-World Treatment Response Data: 84 Percent at Ember vs. 75 Percent in Published Literature
00:12:33 Three Pieces of Advice for Anyone Opening Their Own Ketamine Clinic
00:14:36 Episode Ending
Thanks for listening
Selected Links From the Episode:
Want to go deeper? This soundbite comes from Episode 040 – Episode 40 - Scaling Ketamine Clinics: From Pilot to Five Locations with Dr. Nico Grundmann, where we cover the full conversation including how Nico built Ember from a one-room pilot site to five locations in New York City and the systems thinking behind all of it.
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