“Education and engagement are the key first steps to making everything work better in emergency medicine,” Dr. Kass noted. “Things in emergency departments are challenging today. We need to do more for ourselves and our patients—if not us, then who?”

Monday’s lineup featured presentations and discussions that were all about empowering individual emergency physicians to own their future. Powerful talks on “Influencing Your Workplace from Within” and “Policy Leadership: Opportunities for Emergency Physicians to Govern” provided insights into opportunities for emergency physicians to advocate and lead for the changes needed to improve our practices and the healthcare system.

Tony Cirillo, MD, FACEP, and Ugo Ezenknwele, MD, FACEP, share a laugh between legislative meetings. (Click to enlarge.)

As one of the panelists for the “Opportunities to Govern” session, Brendan G. Carr said the creative mindset of an EM physician is an asset in government, as well. “There is enormous opportunity to take the ideas that exist within emergency medicine— the way that we think about health care delivery and our role in the health care delivery system—and bring that strategy to the government and carve out for them what it ought to look like. There’s hunger for it.”

Breakout lunch sessions included three interactive panel discussions: “Beyond the Burnout: It’s Not Just You,” “Shaping the Future, Confronting the Past: Fostering the Next Generation of Health Equity Leaders,” and a training session for ACEP’s new “Advocacy Leaders” group.

EM physicians caught up with old friends during the NEMPAC VIP Reception hosted at Top of the Hay. (Click to enlarge.)

Not to be outdone, the afternoon sessions were just as powerful, including presentations on “The Workforce of Emergency Medicine: Update and Next Steps,” “Dobbs v. EMTALA – Emergency Medicine after Roe,” “The State of Advocacy: EM Success Stories from State Legislatures,” and Advocacy Breakout Sessions on “Scope of Practice Update and Tools You Can Use,” “Advanced Advocacy: Influencing from Home” and “How ACEP Advocacy has Turned into Laws.”

One of the most impactful presentations was “What Determines Your Paycheck (and How it Can be Influenced).” This presentation by Drs. Jordan Celeste, Nicholas Cozzi, and Jay Mullen provided an easily understandable breakdown of the very complicated system of emergency medicine practice economics and reimbursement. By truly understanding the current realities of reimbursement for ED care, emergency physicians are better equipped to advocate for themselves and for changes to the health care system. (After LAC23, Dr. Celeste wrote a guest blog explaining some of the key points from her session that you can read at acep.org/regsandeggs.)