From the Chair: A Section Meeting You Won’t Want to Miss

Michael L. Becker, MD, FACEP

Greetings, fellow section members. Your section leadership has been hard at work planning for the upcoming meeting. We have some great topics to discuss and some guest speakers lined up.  Please see the outline and rough schedule for discussion topics and agenda.  Please let us know if you have other items that you would like discussed.  I hope to see you all in San Diego.

Where: Mission Beach A on the 3^rd Floor of the Seaport Tower in the Grand Hyatt

When: Tuesday October 2, 11a-2p

Agenda:

11:00 Meet and greet/lunch provided by Vituity

11:15 Welcome, review of last year’s events, and introductions

11:30 Topics for discussion

• Democratic or Independent?

Over the past year we have had discussions about how democratic groups could collaborate.  Are there opportunities to work together to support quality initiatives, get health insurances at cheaper rates, or improve recruiting strategies?  Are we limiting our reaches by defining our section to serve democratic groups?  Of course anyone can join the section, but might there be small independent non-democratic groups that might find value in the section.

The devil of course is always in the details. The definition of independent group could have wide variability.  Does it include only single site groups, single owner contracts, publically traded groups, or does there need to be some physician ownership.  Could it include contract management groups that only have a few sites?  Would the missions of these types of groups differ from those of a democratic group?  Expanding the scope to small independent groups could exclude large democratic groups.

I can certainly see advantages and disadvantages to each viewpoint.  We felt that this topic warranted some discussion at the upcoming meeting and if there is further interest we can create some work teams over the next year.

12:00 Update from the Board and Council

• Stephen Anderson MD FACEP to discuss new bill by representative Raul Ruiz MD FACEP and other updates from the board.

http://newsroom.acep.org/2018-07-18-ACEP-Applauds-Bill-to-Protect-Due-Process-for-Emergency-Physicians

• Update on Contract Transitions. Jay Mullen MD MBA FACEP was a key member in the creation of the ACEP white paper on contract transitions, available here:

Jay will provide an update.

• David Tulsiak MD FACEP to provide an update from the ACEP Council

12:30 Elections

Thanks for the privilege of serving as the section chair.  As the chair elect Rob Thomas will be assuming the role of chair.  Below are the positions and candidates.  Feel free to put your hat in the ring, either at the section meeting or by emailing our section liaison Craig Price (cprice@acep.org). 

Currently the position of newsletter editor has no candidates.  Participating in these positions is a great way to make friends, connections and learn about emergency medicine.  Time commitment is usually no more than a few hours a month, but can be more if you have special visions for the section. 

Chair Elect: Jay Mullen MD FACEP

Newsletter Editor:  Please volunteer

Councilor: David Tulsiak MD FACEP

1:00 Update from Vituity Savoy Brummer MD

1:15 Guest Speakers

For the past few years we have had guest speakers to talk on various topics.  In the past two years we have talked about contracts (how to keep them and how to loose them) as well as the variety of democratic groups in the section.  This year we will be discussing how some groups around the country are currently collaborating with one another. 

Roneet Lev MD is the founder and president of IEPC (Independent Emergency Physicians Consortium) an organization providing collaboration and services to over thirty independent emergency departments in California.

Liam Yore MD is the president of North Sound Emergency Medicine and is part of the Pacific Northwest Emergency Physicians Collaborate. 

I am sure their talks will generate some lively discussion and ideas.   

Hope everyone is having a good summer and hope to see you soon.  Make sure to take time for yourselves and your family.  Thanks to Lisa Maurer MD FACEP Wisconsin for submitting the next article.