Nominations for ACEP leadership awards, board of directors, and ED director of the year are due this month. Also, ED physicians working in freestanding emergency centers get their own section

Freestanding Emergency Centers Section Added

At its January meeting in Dallas, the ACEP Board of Directors approved the addition of a section for emergency physicians working in Freestanding Emergency Centers (FECs).

Slated to become ACEP’s 33rd section, the Freestanding Emergency Centers Section was formed under the leadership of emergency physician Joe Ybarra, MD, of Harlingen, Texas. Dr. Ybarra expects the new section to begin with 119 members. The main objectives of the new FEC Section are to:

• Host a collaborative dialogue regarding pertinent FEC issues optimizing emergency-medicine values as espoused by ACEP.
• Educate ACEP members, the medical community, and the public about what FECs are, what they do, and how they fit into the patient’s circle of health care providers.
• Collaborate with ACEP leadership in establishing a national set of standards for FECs that could be referred to as a unified national resource for legislatures, physicians, and the medical community.
• Keep ACEP membership relevant to those who don’t practice in hospital emergency departments and to keep ACEP as a voice for all ED physicians (whether they practice in hospital EDs or FECs).

For more information on this section or to join, go to: www.acep.org/freestanding section.

Award and ACEP Leadership Position Nominations Deadlines Coming This Month

• Nominations for ACEP’s Board of Directors are due Feb. 14.
• Nominations for 2014 Leadership Awards also are due Feb. 14.
• The deadline to nominate your colleague for Outstanding Emergency Department Director of the Year is Feb. 17.

The ACEP Nominating Committee is accepting individual, chapter, and section recommendations for Board of Directors candidates. Nominations must be accompanied by a current curriculum vitae. To qualify for a Board position, a candidate must:

• Be highly motivated to serve ACEP and be committed for three years for a Board position;
• Be an ACEP member in good standing with no delinquent dues;
• Be an ACEP member for at least five years;
• Show evidence of ACEP involvement in both national and chapter activities (such as current or past chapter officer, current or past national committee leadership, current or past Council membership, or current or past section leadership); and
• Show chapter and/or section support for candidacy.

Please submit nominations to:

Kevin Klauer, DO, EJD, FACEP
Chair: ACEP Nominating Committee
PO Box 619911
Dallas, TX 75261-9911

Nominations may also be e-mailed to kklauer@acep.org or faxed to 972-580-2816. All nominations must be postmarked, e-mailed, or faxed no later than Feb. 14.

Elections for the Board of Directors will occur on Sunday, October 26, during the 2014 Council meeting in Chicago.

Please contact Sonja Montgomery at 800-798-1822, ext. 3202, or by e-mail at smontgomery@acep.org if you have any questions about the nomination process.

Leadership Awards

ACEP’s Award Program has been developed to recognize all members for significant professional contributions as well as service to the College. All members of ACEP are eligible to participate in one or more of the College’s award programs. Nominations for Leadership and Excellence Awards are due by Feb. 14. An article outlining each of the awards and the nominations process was published in the January issue of ACEP Now (www.acepnow.com). Members also can find information at www.acep.org/awards.

ED Director of the Year

For the fifth consecutive year, Blue Jay Consulting, the Emergency Medicine Foundation (EMF), and ACEP will recognize and celebrate exemplary collaborative skills in the emergency department with the Outstanding Emergency Department Director of the Year Award. Nominations are being accepted now through Feb. 17. The award nominee must be an active or life member of ACEP and be serving in a leadership position in an emergency department. The nominee must demonstrate significant contributions to the department in the following categories:

• Collaboration with nursing
• Quality patient care
• Operational effectiveness
• Education
• Community service
• Synergistic approach to leadership within the hospital or hospital system

The nominee must demonstrate collaborative relationships with nursing and ancillary departments to implement and improve operational and clinical standards based on evidence-based practice. The nominee will create and sustain a high degree of patient satisfaction with emergency care delivery and will implement creative and innovative strategies to address emergency department throughput.

The selection panel, which will consist of appointees from EMF and Blue Jay Consulting, will judge the entries. The awardee must be present at the ACEP Emergency Department Directors Academy, Phase II, in Dallas on April 29, 2014. All entries must be completed and received via the Web site no later than Feb. 17, for consideration by the selection panel. Entries are limited to seven pages, plus an abbreviated curriculum vitae.

For more information, go to www.emfoundation.org/medicaldirectoraward.