ACEP Now: How would you encourage other physicians to follow in your footsteps away from the bedside to tackle issues in Congress or a state legislature?

Dr. Peck: My path may be a little bit different. I became an entrepreneur first, then gained some valuable experience while living in a nursing home for three months. One thing about emergency doctors is that we’re problem solvers, right? That’s our job. We’re just really good at figuring things out. Those skills we learn in emergency medicine translate to entrepreneurship for sure, making something from nothing. But they’re also useful in policy and politics, especially the ability to be calm when things are hectic, or somebody you disagree with is yelling at you. As emergency physicians, we’re still trying to find solutions. Having the confidence to know that those skills are so transferable will take a little bit of the fear out of making the jump and putting their hat into the ring. I think we need to highlight that at ACEP a little bit more, letting people know that the skills and knowledge emergency physicians have are extremely valuable and something the country needs. When you can change the very way Medicare works or work to preserve physician payment vs. hospital payment with inflation, you have the capability to help literally every physician in the country. 

ACEP Now: What are you hoping to accomplish in Congress?

Dr. Peck: Making sure physician payments keep up with inflation. There’s a chart I’ve seen that shows physician payment on one line, and it’s just flat while hospital payments are skyrocketing up the chart. That can only be fixed through Medicare reform. At the federal level, we also can work on legislation that considers incentives and value, and by value, I mean not only quality but patient experience. There’s a lack of understanding by politicians about what patient experience really is – what an end user experience is. Right now, there’s no incentive to get people out of the emergency department by hospital administrators. Congress doesn’t write laws that requires CMS to consider patient experience in the way we should. We don’t have a 4-hour rule anymore, and it’s why there’s no incentive to get people out of the emergency department by administrators. circle-plus