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VOLUME 16, ISSUE 4 common JULY/AUGUST 2009 SENSE THE NEWSLETTER OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF EMERGENCY MEDICINE PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Leadership in Emergency Medicine Larry D. Weiss, MD JD FAAEM Emergency medicine’s growing list of significant problems We limited the size of this program to minimize any requires many more emergency physicians to take an interference with the rest of the educational programs. We active role in advocacy. AAEM remains active in a wide also wanted to limit the size of the audience to facilitate variety of issues despite our limited resources. Further discussion. increasing our membership will give us additional resources to pursue our agenda, but we also need a larger Our board felt gratified to know our members had a core of committed advocates to improve the productivity strong interest in the leadership track. We hope you will of our committees. channel that interest toward a greater involvement in our advocacy efforts. Joining a committee is an easy way to Our board still spends much of its time performing begin advocating for your specialty. You may easily find committee work. Over the past year, we strengthened a list of our committees by going to our website at www. INSIDE our committee structure, resulting in devolution of some aaem.org/committees/. Perhaps we will host another THIS ISSUE activities to appropriate committees. I hope to accelerate leadership program when we have a sizeable number of this process, improving our productivity and broadening new committee members. the scope of our activities. 1 In my opinion, maintaining your AAEM membership makes President’s Message We offered a leadership development track at our Scientific you a leader in emergency medicine. Furthermore, the Assembly in Phoenix as part of an effort to significantly title “FAAEM” identifies you as a board certified specialist 3 increase the number of AAEM members directly involved at the top of your profession. Taking the extra step of in national advocacy. We invited members who already Washington Watch direct involvement in AAEM will give you the satisfaction showed leadership potential by their activity in our of making a significant contribution to your specialty, committees and who otherwise served AAEM through 6 advancing our mission and helping emergency physicians their past involvement. and our patients. I hope you will make that important AAEM Activities Unfortunately, we had to limit the size of our leadership decision and get involved. track. This generated complaints from other attendees. 11 AAEM Sponsored & Endorsed Conferences 14 AAEM/RSA Activities 23 To sign up for AAEM or AAEM/RSA Job Bank membership, go to www.aaem.org/membership or call 800-884-2236. 1 Editor’s Letter David D. Vega, MD FAAEM It is that time of year when more than 1,500 residency-trained physicians are added to the emergency medicine EDITOR’S workforce. Congratulations to those who are starting out on this exciting new stage of their careers. This is also a great time for all of us to reflect a bit on the important role that board certification plays in protecting our patients and our specialty. Most of us are already well-versed in the issues surrounding board certification, but we must be careful Letter not to let our guard down. This can be dangerous, as exemplified by the stealthy establishment and acceptance of alternative board certification in some areas. The need for vigilance continues. Most emergency physicians are well aware of the critical role that board certification plays in ensuring that patients receive the best possible care. However, many of our patients, colleagues in other specialties and politicians are probably not aware of this or, quite frankly, do not really care. At a recent meeting of my county medical society, I had the opportunity to speak with several state representatives, of whom none had a clear understanding of board certification and its importance to patient care in the emergency department. We must continue to take every opportunity to educate the public on the importance of board certification. Residency training is now required by both the American Board of Emergency Medicine (ABEM) and the American Osteopathic Board of Emergency Medicine (AOBEM), to be eligible for certification in emergency medicine. In the early development of our specialty, it was necessary and appropriate to have practical experience serve as a substitute for formal training in emergency medicine. Incredible advances have been made since that time, and “on the job training” can no longer be accepted as the standard for delivering the best in emergency patient care. It is only through structured, closely supervised and standardized training that a physician can be guaranteed to attain the expert level of knowledge and abilities required for the safe and effective delivery of emergency medical care. continued on page 9 Articles appearing in Common Sense are intended for the individual use of AAEM members. They may not be duplicated or distributed without the explicit permission of AAEM. Permission is granted in some instances in the interest of public education. Requests for reprints should be directed to Jody Bath, Managing Editor, at: AAEM, 555 East Wells Street, Suite 1100, Milwaukee, WI 53202, Tel: (800) 884-2236, Fax: (414) 276-3349, Email: [email protected]. AAEM Mission Statement The American Academy of Emergency Medicine (AAEM) is the specialty society of emergency medicine. AAEM is a democratic organization committed to the following principles: Officers 1. Every individual should have unencumbered access to quality emergency care provided by a specialist in emergency medicine. Larry D. Weiss, MD JD 2. The practice of emergency medicine is best conducted by a specialist in emergency medicine. President 3. A specialist in emergency medicine is a physician who has achieved, through personal dedication and sacrifice, certification by either the Howard Blumstein, MD American Board of Emergency Medicine (ABEM) or the American Osteopathic Board of Emergency Medicine (AOBEM). Vice President William T. Durkin Jr., MD MBA 4. The personal and professional welfare of the individual specialist in emergency medicine is a primary concern to the AAEM. Secretary-Treasurer 5. The Academy supports fair and equitable practice environments necessary to allow the specialist in emergency medicine to deliver the Tom Scaletta, MD highest quality of patient care. Such an environment includes provisions for due process and the absence of restrictive covenants. Immediate Past President Joseph Wood, MD JD 6. The Academy supports residency programs and graduate medical education, which are essential to the continued enrichment of Past Presidents Council emergency medicine, and to ensure a high quallity of care for the patients. Representative 7. The Academy is committed to providing affordable high quality continuing medical education in emergency medicine for its members. Board Members 8. The Academy supports the establishment and recognition of emergency medicine internationally as an independent specialty and is Kevin Beier, MD Christopher Lee, MD committed to its role in the advancement of emergency medicine worldwide. Andrew Mayer, MD Membership Information Lisa D. Mills, MD Fellow and Full Voting Member: $365 (Must be ABEM or AOBEM certified in EM or Pediatric EM) Mark Reiter, MD MBA Indrani Sheridan, MD *Associate Member: $250 Andy Walker, MD Emeritus Member: $250 (Must be 65 years old and a full voting member in good standing for 3 years) Joanne Williams, MD Affiliate Member: $365 (Non-voting status; must have been, but are no longerABEM or AOBEM certified in EM) YPS Director – David D. Vega, MD International Member: $125 (Non-voting status) AAEM/RSA President 2009-2010 AAEM/RSA Member: $50 (voting in AAEM/RSA elections only) Michael Ybarra, MD Student Member: $50 (voting in AAEM/RSA elections only) JEM Editor – Ex-Officio Board Member *Associate membership is limited to graduates of an ACGME or AOA approved Emergency Medicine Program. Stephen Hayden, MD Send check or money order to : AAEM, 555 East Wells Street, Common Sense Staff Suite 1100, Milwaukee, WI 53202 David D. Vega, MD, Editor Ryan Shanahan, MD, Resident Editor Tel: (800) 884-2236, Fax (414) 276-3349, Email: [email protected]. Jody Bath, Managing Editor AAEM is a non-profit, professional organization. Our mailing list is private. 2 Recent Court Cases Involving EMTALA WASHINGTON Kathleen Ream, Director of Government Affairs Estate of Murdered Woman Allowed to Pursue choosing not to exercise jurisdiction over the negligence claims. The plaintiff appealed. Watch EMTALA Claims On April 6, 2009, the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled The Ruling that a third party (i.e., the estate of a patient’s wife) may pursue Because any one of the grounds would have been sufficient for claims under EMTALA against a hospital that released a patient with the district court to grant summary judgment to the defendants, the a mental illness who, ten days after discharge from the hospital, federal appellate court addressed each argument. murdered his wife. In this case, a representative of the estate of 1) Standing – The court determined that “the civil enforcement Marie Moses-Irons, the plaintiff, appealed the district court’s decision provision, read in the context of the statute as a whole, plainly to grant the motion of Providence Hospital and Medical Centers, Inc. does not limit its reach to the patients treated at the hospital… and Dr. Paul Lessem, the defendants, for summary judgment and [and that] EMTALA’s plain language belies defendants’ argument dismissal of the plaintiff’s claims (Moses v. Providence Hospital and that Congress intended to deny non-patients the right to sue Medical Centers Inc., 6th Cir., No. 07-2111, 4/6/09). in every circumstance.” Using this reasoning, the federal court The Facts concluded that the plaintiff had standing to sue pursuant to On December 13, 2002, Moses-Irons took her husband, Christopher EMTALA.

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