A record number of almost 500 attendees, including more than 100 emergency medicine residents, participated in this year’s ACEP Leadership and Advocacy Conference in Washington, D.C.

One of the meeting’s highlights featured emergency physicians descending on Capitol Hill in record numbers, with 359 visits made to Congressional offices.

As a result of ACEP’s coordinated advocacy efforts, ACEP’s “Access to EMS Act” had 89 co-sponsors in the House and 11 in the Senate, as of May 1.

Putting a spotlight on the issues facing emergency departments nationwide, the 2009 Access Act proposes three solutions—a bipartisan commission to examine key access issues, including crowding and on-call availability; additional payment through Medicare for EMTALA-related care performed in the ED; and the development of national boarding and diversion standards.

During the Leadership and Advocacy Conference, NEMPAC raised about $57,000, including $30,000 from the Florida Emergency Physicians.

It was the second year that Dr. Vidor Friedman has organized his group into giving this large amount.

In addition, 40 new members were added to the ACEP 911 Legislative Network.

For the first time, ACEP used several interactive media tools during the conference.

Some members were given video cameras and asked to post their meetings on Capitol Hill, twitter updates streamed throughout the conference, and real-time experiences were published on ACEP’s blog, The Central Line (www.thecentralline.org).

These innovative efforts, which are still online at www.acep.org/lac, brought the ACEP advocacy experience to both our members and non-members.