Letter from your Councilors

Happy New Year QIPS Members! In the spirit of continuous quality improvement, I hope that 2020 is an even better year for you than 2019.

Allow us to introduce ourselves, we are your QIPS representation on the ACEP council for 2020. Bobby Redwood MD, MPH, FACEP will be your councilor and Bill Dalsey MD, FACEP will be your alternate councilor. What does that mean exactly? It means that we are here to make your voice heard!

The ACEP council is a legislative body similar to the U.S. House of Representatives. Every year, we get together and discuss the most current issues in emergency medicine and vote on the direction that our college should take on a whole host of issues. The issues up for a vote come from us, the members, in the form of council resolutions.

Council resolutions are basically an ask of the ACEP board of directors, coming from the ACEP members. They help the Board prioritize issues of importance to the ACEP membership and commit resources to accomplishing these objectives. Allow us to oversimplify: "Dear board of directors, we think X and Y are important and would like you to take action Z. Will you please dedicate ACEP staff time and financial resources towards getting action Z done in the next calendar year?" If the majority of the council agrees with the resolution, then the matter will be referred to the board and your ideas will turn into action.

For example, in 2019 QIPS co-sponsored two important resolutions supporting Implicit Bias Awareness and Training as well as Pay Transparency for emergency physicians. Both of last years' QIPS resolutions were successful, that means that, as you read this newsletter, those resolutions are being translated into action plans by ACEP committees. By this time next year, our specialty will have evolved because of the hard work of the QIPS members and leadership who drafted and shepherded our resolutions through the council.

Of course, writing a successful resolution requires some background research, process know-how, and consensus building—that’s where we come in! Please send us your ideas for a resolution and we will help you craft a resolution, get the resolution approved by QIPS leadership, and submit the resolution under the QIPS section to the ACEP council. If there are any issues or ideas that you feel passionately about consider creating a resolution to help move your issues forward within Emergency Medicine. Take a stand, shape your specialty, and most importantly, EMAIL YOUR QIPS RESOLUTION IDEAS TO Bobby Redwood AND William Dalsey BY FEBRUARY 28, 2020.

Diligently yours,

Bobby & Bill