May at VACEP: To-Dos, Task Forces, Tragedy
A May 2021 message from our Executive Director
I sent a GIF to our communications partner in early May, after we both received a flurry of emails from Board members covering multiple emergency medicine topics, task forces, and to-dos. The GIF – a cartoon man with six arms, each furiously multitasking — felt perfect for the moment. I took a step back, regrouped, and dove in.
Needless to say, May was a big month for VACEP, and one that lays a foundation for how our members practice emergency medicine and advocate for it going forward.
On May 4, we held a Workforce Report Town Hall, diving deeper into this year’s ACEP report that predicts a likely oversupply of emergency physicians by 2030. Listen to the town hall on our podcast page, Safety.Net (stream it via Bluetooth during your commute) or read the highlights in an abridged transcript. You can also watch it and get more information on the as-yet-unpublished report on our dedicated Workforce Report page.
With news that the DEA no longer requires an 8-hour training course to prescribe buprenorphine for substance-use disorder patients, VACEP’s Joran Sequeira and Jessie Nguyen created step-by-step instructions on how to register to prescribe the life-saving drug as a bridge to Medication-Assisted Treatment.
In Virginia, we are nearly halfway through our first year with the new balance billing prohibition law. It went into effect January 1 and protects patients from getting billed by an out-of-network (OON) health care provider for emergency services at a hospital. VACEP wants to hear from our members about the financial impacts of the legislation on your practice, specifically in relation to the arbitration process. Learn more and help us.
We are getting closer with our partners at the UVA Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy (ILPPP) and VHHA to develop clearer guidelines and an algorithm to help EPs decide whether they need to pursue a Medical TDO for patients who lack capacity. More to come there soon.
Also underway are several other initiatives where the end result is tangible improvements to your individual practice. The Board will soon meet in person for the first time in months on June 9 to review our current and future priorities.
Projects from our cohort of Leadership & Advocacy fellows are coming to a close. We are proud of their incredible work this year, looking forward to welcoming our next round of fellows (final deadline for applications is May 31).
All that said: the entire month of May carried the weight of loss, after an accident claimed the life of former VACEP Leadership and Advocacy fellow and rising star Cat Agustiady-Becker (read more about her in this newsletter). We hold her family, especially her husband Jacob and three young sons, in our thoughts and hearts. While we continued with the business of the College, the air was heavy. And we will continue to honor her, and her dedication to emergency medicine, in our work going forward. A formal resolution recognizing Cat is underway.
Thanks to all of you for your tireless efforts to advocate for and evolve the practice of emergency medicine.
— Sarah Marshall, VACEP Executive Director
