We had a very successful chapter meeting last month at Flemings. If we can find sponsorship, the chapter will have a fall meeting. The agenda will include review of resolutions prior to national convention which will be held October 27-30th in Denver.

The chapter would like to grow its presence in the state legislatively. Ultimately, we would like our chapter administration to be based on the state level. We met with Sam Stinson, who has been a wonderful resource for several other medical societies in the state. He works as the chapter lobbyist, schedules meetings, coordinates CME, and does chapter administration. However, this is very costly. We currently do not have the revenue to make this change.

We are currently trying to find a way to create a revenue stream. We discussed an education course for rural midlevel providers. The discussion included partnering with Nebraska Medical or doing our own online course. When talking to midlevel providers, they were more interested in clinical guidelines and protocols based on symptoms. Please email me your suggestions and thoughts.

There was also an interest in purchasing Nebraska ACEP shirts. That info will be sent via email in the next several weeks. We will use this to generate a little revenue for the chapter.

Jordan Warchol represented our chapter at the Leadership and Advocacy Conference in Washington, DC. The conference was held May 5-8th. Her summary follows this report.

Leadership & Advocacy Conference - Update

Jordan M. Warchol, MD, MPH

Have you ever wanted to give a politician a piece of your mind? Or make them pay attention to something you care about? ACEP’s Leadership & Advocacy Conference (LAC) gives emergency physicians the opportunity to do just that.

I was able to attend this year’s LAC in Washington, DC on behalf of the Nebraska ACEP chapter. Each year, ACEP picks one or two major policy focuses for the conference. This year the topics chosen were Balance Billing and mental health in the ED.

ACEP has been working closely with legislators on both sides of the aisle and in both arms of Congress to develop a federal solution for the balance billing problem that is fair to patients and emergency physicians. The current proposal would introduce a process known as single-offer arbitration which has been popularized by Major League Baseball.

This process would allow physicians and insurers an avenue to settle disagreements over out of network bills and would remove patients from the middle of these complex scenarios. Nebraska EPs should closely watch this process on the federal level as it is a current topic of discussion in the Unicameral as well.

As we all know, mental health emergencies are becoming more common in our departments every day, and we seem to have fewer and fewer resources to adequately care for these patients. ACEP brought this concern straight to legislators during LAC, explaining to them how policy changes could help patients obtain access to outpatient mental health resources as a bridge to care after a mental health emergency visit. The discussion also covered the need for inpatient mental health care, including emergency stabilization centers, as a way to provide more effective care for this population of patients than is able to be provided when they are boarded in the ED for days on end.

I was able to meet with legislative staff in the offices of Senators Deb Fischer and Ben Sasse as well as Congressman Don Bacon. If you are passionate about either of these topics, or other needs you see daily in your department, I urge you to reach out to your legislators with your stories. I would also encourage all of Nebraska’s emergency physicians to consider attending LAC in the future to experience the thrilling feeling of advocating for our patients and our profession.

Adriana's Corner

Have you ever traveled to another country to provide emergency care? If you have, please share your experience. We'd love to hear about it!

Welcome New Member!

Christian Oarhe, MD

FROM NATIONAL ACEP

States Find Tool for Quick Legislative Response

Harry J. Monroe, Jr. Director, ACEP State and Chapter Relations

Those of us that work on state legislation often struggle with the pace of activity, particularly as deadlines approach for bills to get out of committee or as the end of the session nears. When ACEP rolled out engagED as a new social media platform for member communication and collaboration, I am not sure that it was really thought of as a new tool for advocacy efforts, but its value has been shown by at least a couple of chapters. READ MORE

New Policy Statements, PREP and Information Paper

During their April 2019 meeting, the ACEP Board of Directors approved the following new or revised policy statements/PREP/information paper:

New Policy Statements:

Salary and Benefits Considerations for Emergency Medical Services Professionals

Small Motorized Recreational Vehicles

Violence Prevention and Intervention in Emergency Medical Services Systems

Revised Policy Statements:

Crowding

Domestic Family Violence

Patient Support Services

Violence-Free Society

Revised Policy Resource and Education Papers (PREPs):

Resource Utilization in the Emergency Department: The Duty of Stewardship

New Information Paper:

Influenza Emergency Department Best Practices

Articles of Interest in Annals of Emergency Medicine - Spring 2019

Sam Shahid, MBBS, MPHPractice Management Manager, ACEP

ACEP would like to provide you with very brief synopses of the latest articles and articles coming soon to Annals of Emergency Medicine. Some of these have not appeared in print. These synopses are not meant to be thorough analyses of the articles, simply brief introductions. Before incorporating into your practice, you should read the entire articles and interpret them for your specific patient population. View synopses here.

Point of Care Tools

ACEP's point-of-care tools are transforming care at the bedside. We've recruited the field's top experts and thought-leaders to develop tools our members can trust and deploy in the clinical setting. The evidence-based, clinical content provided in these tools ensures that you are providing the best possible care to the patients in your emergency department. Tools can be found on topics:

AFIB – Management of Atrial Fibrillation
ADEPT – Confusion and Agitation in the Elderly
BUPE – Use of Buprenorphine in the ED
DART – Recognition and Treatment of Sepsis
ICAR2E – Identification of Suicidal patients
And more..

Check out all of ACEP's point of care tools!

Free eCME Courses

Two New Clinical Policy Courses from ACEP eCME

These two new courses give you the tools to better evaluate, diagnose, and treat patients presenting in the ED with Suspected Acute Venous Thromboembolic Disease or Suspected Non-ST-Elevation Acute Coronary Syndrome. Earn CME and stay up-to-date on the latest policy and techniques to provide the very best care for your patients. Free to ACEP Members, including Resident and International Members. $15 for Nonmembers. Click the links below to learn more.

Clinical Policy: Critical Issues in the Evaluation and Management of Adult Patients Presenting to the Emergency Department With Suspected Acute Venous Thromboembolic Disease

Clinical Policy: Evaluation and Management of Emergency Department Patients With Suspected Non–ST-Elevation Acute Coronary Syndromes

Approved for AMA PRA Category 1 Credit^TM.

FREE Annals of EM ACEP eCME Course

ACEPs FREE eCME course Managing Opioid Withdrawal in the Emergency Department with Buprenorphine will help you to identify opioid withdrawal symptoms and determine if medication-assisted therapy (MAT) for opioid use disorder (OUD) should be considered. This Annals of Emergency Medicine course is designed for emergency physicians who want to increase their knowledge in the latest emergency medicine advances and their applications as well as fill in gaps in knowledge where additional education and training may be necessary. Go to the course.

Registration open for the ACEP/CORD Resident’s Teaching Fellowship

Do you have a resident aspiring to an academic career? Want to give them the jump start they need? Spots still open for the ACEP/CORD Residents Teaching Fellowship this fall (Aug. 6-8 2019) – sign up soon as these seats go fast! Register here.

Registration Open for the EMBRS Course

Emergency Medicine Basic Research Skills (EMBRS) is a 9-day, 2-session program where participants learn how to identify clinical research opportunities and become familiar with clinical research and outcomes. Participants are also eligible to receive an EMF/EMBRS grant based on their research grant application. Click here to learn more or email ACEP's Academic Affairs to register. The next course will take place Dec. 2-7th, 2019 (session 1) and April 14-16, 2020 (session 2) in Dallas, Texas.

Nebraska Chapter

c/o National ACEP

4950 West Royal Lane

Irving, Texas 75063-2524

View Web Version