Dr. Savoy Brummer accepted the award for Emergency Department Director of the Year on April 29 and told audience members in his speech that the specialty will succeed in a challenging health care climate because that’s what emergency physicians do.

“Maintaining this mission, maintaining our passion, has enabled our specialty to evolve and grow in its structure and integrity and outreach,” said Dr. Brummer, the Medical Director at Memorial Hospital in Belleville, Ill. “We’ve gone from a specialty that provided a safety net to patients to indeed being the skeleton and foundation for hospital deliverables.”

Blue Jay Consulting, in collaboration with ACEP and the Emergency Medicine Foundation, recognizes, as ED Director of the Year, an individual who has demonstrated exemplary collaborative skills in the emergency department. This collaboration is vital to producing the highest quality of patient care.

Dr. Bummer took home the fourth annual award largely because of his work since arriving at Memorial Hospital in January 2012. Working with all departments in the hospital and with input from numerous staff members, Dr. Brummer decreased patient wait times and increased the number of board-certified emergency medicine specialists in his department.

When he found out that St. Louis University had no community emergency department rotation – and that residents graduated from their emergency medicine residency without this crucial experience – he reached out to the residency director to establish Belleville Memorial as the official clinical rotating site for second- and third-year Saint Louis University emergency medicine residents. As a result, the Saint Louis University Department of Medicine has requested that Memorial be the clinical emergency medicine rotation site for third- and fourth-year medical students starting in the fall of 2013.

In addition to his duties as Medical Director, Dr. Brummer participates and chairs numerous hospital, community, and civic organizations.

At the ED Director of the Year ceremony, held in Dallas in conjunction with the Emergency Department Director’s Academy, a video introduced the audience to colleagues of Dr. Brummer, who praised him for willingness to help in any situation, no matter how small. After the video, Dr. Brummer spoke about going through a crucible when first taking over his position. But after fighting through difficult circumstances, he was able to emerge with a renewed sense of energy and focus.

Dr. Brummer, who sat with family and members of the ACEP, EMF and Blue Jay, thanked his wife for helping him get through challenges.

He said emergency medicine is going through its own set of challenges. But the specialty, too, will emerge from the crucible. “We’ve always been the voice of the voiceless, the champions of the powerless,” he said. “That has been our core ethos. There’s a reverence in what we do. That’s why it’s the best job in America.”

Dr. Brummer serves as Vice President of Practice Development for CEP America and is the Chair-Elect for the ACEP Democratic Group Practice Section.