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Welcome !
The Association of Emergency Physicians
(AEP) is an association for all practicing Emergency Physicians, regardless
of residency training and/or board certification status. AEP exists to
represent the "in the trenches" Emergency Physicians, those who
primarily practice clinical Emergency Medicine.
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The Latest ED Numbers
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Several recent studies presented the
current snapshot of Emergency Departments and brings up the question of
Manpower issues in Rural Emergency Medicine. As expected, we continue to
lose Emergency Departments in the face of an ever increasing number of
patient visits.
Dr. Carlos Camargo and his team at Mass.
General, in cooperation with EMNET-USA, performed an exhaustive review of
Emergency Departments in the US, and compared this data to
numbers from 2001. They found a total of 4809 EDs with 113 Million
visits/year. While we have lost a net of 66 Emergency Departments in the
last couple of years, our number of visits has increased by 11%.
While the average "Urban"
hospital has 30,000 visits, the average "Rural" hospital sees
7,800 visits, for an average ED volume of 18,000 patient visits each
year. A striking 1/3 of the EDs in the country have less than 10,000
visits a year.
No.of Visits/yr : No.
of EDs this size
- < 10,000 : 1526
- 20-29,000 : 763
- 30-39,000 : 574
- 40-49,000 : 370
- 50,000+ : 505
An interesting point brought out in the
study is that the 843 Emergency Departments at "Critical Access
Hospitals" have an average volume of 2500 visits a year. This status
of hospital has increased from 11 to 18 % in the last couple of years,
while the number of teaching hospitals has remained stable.
For more information see
www.EMNET-USA.org
The Changing Profile
of US Emergency Departments: 2001-2003 Carlos Camargo, JR, MD, DrPH,
Christina Ahn, Sunday Clark, ScD, and Ashley F. Sullivan, MS,MPH. Harvard
Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital Poster Presentation, ACEP
Scientific Assembly, October, 2006, New Orleans, LA
Read More
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AEP Being Proactive
in Florida
WORKS !!!
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After AEP president Jeff Bates, MD, met
with over a dozen Florida legislators in
Tallahassee
to oppose two bills regarding board certification by BCEM, the issue was
dropped once again. While AAPS has worked hard to maintain their status
in Florida,
only AEP was there to stand up for them as an outside organization.
AEP is an advocate for all Emergency
Physicians regardless of training or certifications.
Read the Formal AEP letter to the
Florida Legislature
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Join Us in Las Vegas in
October
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This year's AEP meeting will feature a
lecture by Tony Dajer, MD, the ER doctor on duty at NY Downtown hospital
on 9/11/01. He is FP trained and a lifetime member of AEP.
In addition, our meeting will take place
with the AAFP Emergency Medicine and Urgent Care Conference in Las Vegas. Our
membership continues to grow from the FP training programs. With ACEP not
allowing membership after 2000, AEP is the only home for the Emergency
Physicians recently trained in other fields.
Read More...
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USAEM: The United States Alliance of Emergency Medicine offers
FREE membership to All AEP members
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A fresh new organization has been
created to include Nurses, and Medics with the Doctors who are working to
staff our nation's ERs. The idea is that the 30,000 ER docs working with
the 100,000 ER nurses and 800,000 Medics can together make a difference
and implement some of the IOM recommendations.
For FREE membership for all AEP members
see their website
Read more...
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Call for New Board
Members
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The Annual AEP Board Members elections
are just around the corner. With our recent growth, we have had a large
number of interested members step forward to join the board of directors.
If you would like to become more active in AEP, either a lot or a little,
please contact us ASAP and we will find something for you.
Contact us via: AEP@AEP.org
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New Benefits of
Membership
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 The Board of Directors has authorized, for a limited
only, Lifetime Membership dues
reduction to three annual payments of $750 or a one time fee of $1995.
- 10% discount on PEPID ED for your handheld
Palm, Windows devices and BlackBerrys
- 10% discount on Epocrates for your handheld
Palm and Windows devices
- $194 savings on Emergency Medicine Reports for
75 CME or $4.70 a credit hour
- Links to free and discounted CME sites
These discounts are definitely worth the $250 AEP membership
fee.
Read More...
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Physician Shortages:
An AAMC report
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For over 20 years the growth of new
allopathic medical schools, medical school enrollment, and residency
training program slots has been nearly flat, due to an expected
oversupply of physicians. While there has been debate over this position
for the last decade it is now clear to many that the US is
headed for a serious physician shortage.
Enthusiasm for the presumed benefits
from HMOs, and the improvements in health care technology have now been
tempered by the realities of medical liability, increased regulation,
increasing female admissions to medical school, and the increased
utilization of health care services. Additionally, the expected
improvement in the America
public's health has been replaced with an aging and obese population.
On September 30, 2006, Edward Salsberg,
Director of the Center for Workforce Studies of the American Association
of Medical Colleges (AAMC), presented a report to the Texas Medical
Association, Physician Distribution committee indicating that most states
and over 12 specialties have reported a serious physician shortage.
A quick solution is not clear as well
over 25% of the residency program spots in this country have been filled
with foreign medical graduates for sometime. To just increase residency
slots in Emergency Medicine or Family Practice will simply steal US
medical school graduates from other fields or force the recruitment of
even more foreign medical graduates.
Data was presented to the committee
which shows the medical schools providing the largest numbers of graduates
to the US
residency programs. A remarkable finding is that the schools with the
greatest number of graduates in residency programs today are not even US
schools. St. George's University in Grenada
is the number one school and Ross
University in Dominica
is number two. The third school supplying the largest number of medical
school graduates is the University
of Illinois.
It is now clear that we must build new
medical schools, and increase the enrollment in the existing schools.
However, the best case scenario presented to the committee is that this
will require no less than 15 years before we will see those graduates in
the workforce. The bottom line number presented to the committee is a
need for a 39% increase in the next 15 years.
The grandfather process into the ABEM
boards was closed in 1988 as it was believed that in less than 20 years
there would be enough emergency medicine residency-trained graduates to
fill all of the emergency department physician positions in the US. We
are now 18 years into the process, and based on the current data it seems
that it will be at least another 20 years if in fact it will ever occur.
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AAPS Lawsuit in NY
State
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The honorable Judge Charles L. Brieant
of the US District court has deemed that the case of AAPS vs. NY-DOH has
merit and will go forward. He denied the motion by the NY-DOH lawyers to
dismiss the case, as indicated in his opinion.
"Listening to the rhetoric from ER
docs about this case, I find that there is much almost willful
misunderstanding about the basis for AAPS' complaint."
Read on...
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First Response
Coalition receives AEP support
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Recent tragedies have exposed serious
deficiencies in America's
emergency response capabilities. Too often, first responders cannot
communicate with each other and lack the ability to access critical
information. The FRC is committed to providing first responders with the
resources they need to make a safe and effective emergency response.
Read on...
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Interesting
Sites
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