On behalf of the Puerto Rico Chapter Board, I would would like to thank all of the presenters that attended the 2019 Caribbean Congress of Emergency Medicine held in San Juan. It was a weekend full of brilliant presentations that I am certain will help all of us in our everyday practice. I also want to extend the thanks to all of the ACEP members who contributed to a successful conference, without you this would not have been the success it was.

In this year and next, the chapter has two main objectives. First, in conjunction with national ACEP, we are going to have an aggressive social media campaign to promote our specialty. With that in mind, we cannot emphasize how important it is that you do your part, as Emergency Physicians. If you receive or come across a promotional video emphasizing the importance of our specialty, please forward it to Adriana Alvarez, our Chapter Executive and she will work with me or your current Puerto Rico Chapter Board to get this video disseminated.

Secondly, we want Residents to get more involved at the chapter level. We want to give them a sense of belonging and have them stay in Puerto Rico, to expand the specialty. If you have any suggestions on how we an reach this goal, please do not hesitate to contact me.

EMRA Award

On behalf of the Puerto Rico Chapter Board, we'd like to congratulate Dr. Eileen N. Guzman-Rojas and all of her colleagues for their hard work with EMRA. They received an award from EMRA in the amount of $350 for the Puerto Rico Annual Student - Resident Regional Meeting.

The goals for this regional meeting are noteworthy. They are the following:

Provide a meeting ground for students, residents and faculty with a shared excitement for EM;
Promote networking;
Discuss controversies within the specialty and;
Provide career advice and guidance for students interested in EM

Residents, if you have any suggestions on how we can support you. Please share it with the chapter.

Welcome New Members!

A special welcome to the new members of the Puerto Rico Chapter. We are excited to have you. You may wonder if you should get involved with Puerto Rico ACEP or EMRA or the national office? We encourage you to please get involved!

If you are unsure about how to get involved, feel free to contact the chapter directly via email.

Jose Osvaldo Alba, MD

Christian M. Repollet-Otero, MD

Elisa M. Arrillaga, MD, FACEP

Veronica A. Santiago, MD, MPH

Maria Uzcategui-Santos, MD

Daniella M. Santiago-Haddock, FAAEM

Yamilette Rivera, MD

Kamen Yan Huang, MD

Stephanie Hornedo

Stephanie Rivera

Analaura Santiago Perez

FROM NATIONAL ACEP

Congress Needs to Hear from Emergency Physicians about Surprise Billing

The ACEP DC office hosted an ACEP members only Surprise Billing Advocacy townhall on August 5th. Laura Wooster, Associate Executive Director, ACEP Public Affairs, provided an update on Congressional activity and spoke about the importance of utilizing the August congressional recess while legislators are back home to advocate for emergency physicians and patients. ACEP offered tips to effectively engage your legislators and a toolkit with resources to facilitate effective outreach. A link to the archived townhall is available here. And, you can login here to access the ACEP members-only surprise billing advocacy toolkit. Related resources are available to view and share here. For updates on ACEP’s federal advocacy activities, join the ACEP 911 Grassroots Network here.

Explaining the AUC Exemption

We've heard that some of your hospitals are already implementing the 2020 AUC requirements, so we drafted a sample letter you can personalize to help you explain the emergency exemption to your administrators. Download it on the AUC section of our EHR advocacy page.

Point-of-Care Tools - 3 New Smart Phrases

3 new Smart Phrases are available on the ACEP Website on Suicide Prevention, Tobacco Cessation and Why Antibiotics Were Not Prescribed for a Viral Infection. Smart Phrases are blocks of text that can be copied and pasted into a hospital's electronic health record (EHR) system to automatically create discharge papers for common ED presentations. We've created these smart phrases to help you seamlessly disseminate the most important information your patients will need to manage their conditions after leaving the ED. View all Smart Phrases.

Articles of Interest in Annals of Emergency Medicine - Summer 2019

Sam Shahid, MBBS, MPH

Practice 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.

New Policy Statements and Information Papers

During their June 2019 meeting, the ACEP Board of Directors approved the following new policy statements and Information papers. For a full list of the College's current policy statements, consult the ACEP Policy Compendium.

New Policy Statements:

Advanced Practice Provider Point-of-Care Ultrasound Guidelines

Compensated Time for Faculty Academic Administration and Teaching Involvement

Medical Cannabis

Safe Discharge from the Emergency Department

Separation of Children from Caregivers

The Role of Emergency Physicians in the Completion of Death Certificates

New Information Papers:

Best Practices in Testing Adults and Adolescents for Chlamydia and Gonorrhea in the Emergency Department

Models for Addressing Transitions of Care for Patients with Opioid Use Disorder

Care Under Fire: EDs, Gun Violence and Threat Assessment

ACEP19 Pre-Conference

Saturday October 26th from 1:00 – 5:00 PM

Threat management is an evidence-based, multidisciplinary team approach to identifying people at risk of engaging in targeted violence - including mass shootings - and intervening before they attack. Cost: $250. Learn More Here!

Approved for AMA PRA Category 1 Credit^TM

ACEP EM Specific X-Waiver COURSE

ACEP19 Pre-Conference

Saturday October 26th from 8:00 AM - 5:30 PM

This course will provide the tools to turn lives around with best practice addiction treatments and satisfies 8 hours of training required by federal law to prescribe buprenorphine, the most effective treatment for opioid use disorder.

While most “X Waiver” training courses are developed for and led by psychiatrists and office-based addiction specialists, this recently approved version of the course was written by a team of EM docs, specifically for EM Docs. The MAT-EM course minimizes lecture in favor of case-based discussion and participants will emerge from the course not only credentialed to register for their DATA 2000 (X) waiver but prepared to manage all aspects of emergency care of OUD patients.

Approved for AMA PRA Category 1 Credit^TM

ACEP Members: $70 | Residents: $50 | Non-Members: $100. Register Here.

Funding for this initiative was made possible (in part) by grant no. 1H79TI081968 from SAMHSA. The views expressed in written conference materials or publications and by speakers and moderators do not necessarily reflect the official policies of the Department of Health and Human Services; nor does mention of trade names, commercial practices, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.

Registration Open for the EMBRS Course

Interested in research but not sure where to start? The 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. This course targets: Junior faculty with limited research experience; Physicians in academic and community centers who are interested in research basics; Physicians who have as part of their duties involvement in research, including mentoring young researchers; Fellows in non-research fellowships. Click here to learn more and to register. The next course will take place Dec. 2-7th, 2019 (session 1) and April 14-16, 2020 (session 2).

News from the American Board of Emergency Medicine

August 2010

ABEM Security Systems Enhancements

ABEM takes the protection of all our users’ data and information seriously. We will soon be undertaking system enhancements to help maintain the security of your data. The change most users will notice is the need to reset their password the first time they sign in.

See You at ACEP19!

ABEM will be attending ACEP19, and will have a booth in the exhibit hall. Visit booth # 2012 and have an ABEM director or staff member answer your questions. Hope to see you there!

Nominations to the Board of Directors

Do you know someone who would be a great addition to the ABEM Board of Directors? Then nominate the ABEM-certified physician of your choice! The physician must be clinically active. Click here to view nominee requirements and required documentation. Nominations are due December 1, 2019, and the Board will elect two new members at its February 2020 meeting.

Puerto Rico Chapter

c/o National ACEP

4950 West Royal Lane

Irving, Texas 75063-2524

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