One commented that door-to-doctor time was originally designed to assess adequate ED coverage, not measure individual physicians. Times for individual physicians can be affected by the shifts they work. Wait times go up, and satisfaction scores go down. Physicians are frustrated by nonclinical leadership that sees only multicolored charts and graphs that do not represent what truly happens at the bedside. One EM Doc cited a New York Times article from January 2016, “How Measurement Fails Doctors and Teachers .”

ZDoggMD will be speaking at this year’s Leadership & Advocacy Conference.

One argued that “to improve, we must measure.” Many said that most of the metrics are not under our control. One said that some of the most important things we do in emergency medicine—practice compassion and empathy—cannot be measured nor should they be. There are only demerits given for “lost efficiency” when spending time with grieving families. Some of the most important parts of what we do include reassurance for the souls who come to us scared and hurting. It is up to us to advocate for our patients with the administrators and policymakers.

ZDoggMD at LAC

ZDoggMD, an internal medicine physician who is known for music videos, parodies, and comedy sketches about medical issues and working as a physician, is coming to the ACEP Leadership & Advocacy Conference, March 12–15, 2017, in Washington, D.C. He is the only non-emergency physician on EM Docs, voted in by the membership because of his advocacy efforts for the practice of medicine. Now he has a better understanding of emergency medicine challenges and he will be meeting us in D.C. to help us advocate for real solutions to the opioid crisis and to discuss social media, resiliency, and how to be a leader in Health 3.0 that we are building together.

Subgroups

Since we have a no-advertising and a no-recruiting policy, with only emergency physicians on EM Docs, we have a few free subgroups:

• Doc to Doc Rental and Homes for Sale: (multispecialty) for vacation rentals or when one of our colleagues is relocating.
• Doc to Doc Job Connect: (multispecialty) no recruiters are allowed on this page, but we allow physicians to connect with one another when there is a need to fill a position or when someone is considering a career change.
• EMDOCS Mentoring Medical Students Interested in EM: when they match, they can stay on as mentors and also join the main EM Docs group.
• Physician Entrepreneur: a place where we can support our colleagues who have created a useful tool or service.
• EM Docs Education: where conferences, board review courses, books, and educational opportunities can be announced and discussed.

EMPOWR Events

EM Docs are getting together outdoors through EM Physician Outdoor Wellness for Resiliency (EMPOWR). Have your local event! Just make it happen and take photos to encourage others to do the same.

EM Docs Meet-ups/EMPOWR events

At ACEP16, we met at 6 a.m. for group runs, and we had the outdoor terrace area designated for EM Docs at the Opening Party in Las Vegas.