For the second consecutive year, ACEP’s Scientific Assembly set a new attendance record. More than 4,700 emergency medicine specialists registered for all 4 days this year. Total attendance, including 1-day registrations, was well over 5,600. The previous attendance record was set in 2008, when more than 4,500 emergency physicians attended the conference in Chicago. Next year’s Scientific Assembly will be in Las Vegas, Sept. 28 to Oct. 1, 2010.

Along with featuring nationally recognized faculty members, the 2009 Scientific Assembly had many activities that annually make this conference the premier emergency medicine event.

Council Shapes College Policy

Members of the ACEP Council adopted several resolutions during its 2009 meeting in conjunction with Scientific Assembly. The Council is made up of representatives from all 53 chapters, 30 sections, and the Emergency Medicine Residents’ Association.

Resolutions can be proposed by chapters, sections, or individual ACEP members, and are deliberated during the Council’s annual meeting. The resolutions then become College policy when they are reviewed and approved by the ACEP Board of Directors at the end of Scientific Assembly.

One of the items adopted this year is a resolution that ACEP prioritize addressing the workforce shortage by “lobby[ing] appropriate governmental entities and work[ing] to remove any barriers to increasing the number of residency programs slots that are available in emergency medicine.” The ­resolution also calls on ACEP to “investigate broadening access to ACGME or AOA accredited EM residency programs to physicians who have previously trained in another specialty.”

Another resolution dealt with public safety and asked that “ACEP endorses, supports, and advocates that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration mandate the provision and endorse the usage of appropriate restraint devices on school busses.”

The Council also considered a resolution to define boarding time in the nation’s emergency departments. There was much discussion among Councillors about a 2-hour time frame that was included in the original resolution.

The amended resolution that was adopted, however, does not include a time frame. Instead, it requests that “ACEP adopt a policy statement which officially defines the ‘boarded patient’ as one who remains in the ED after notification of the need to admit to inpatient service and ends when the patient leaves the department.” It also calls for “ACEP [to] continue its involvement with national organizations developing measurements for patient through-put.”

With testimony about the benefits of poison centers, including training for residents in toxicology and surveillance for public health issues, the College also adopted a resolution that “ACEP form a task force to investigate strategies to support poison centers.”