The American College of Emergency Physicians

1.The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) was founded in 1968, The founders of it were physicians, who were devoted to the sphere of their work and aimed at increase of the quality of emergency care. ACEP started to educate physicians in emergency medicine in order to secure high quality emergency care in the nation’s medical facilities. In 1979 there was an important even for ACEP and its members, as emergency medicine was acknowledged as the 23d medical specialty. The American Board of Emergency Medicine was established in 1980, it was created as the certifying body for this specialty and the first certification exam was held in the same year. “ACEP passed another historic milestone when criteria-based membership requirements were implemented. Starting January 1, 2000, board certification or residency training in emergency medicine became a prerequisite for active or full-voting membership.” (American College of Emergency Physicians).  The American College of Emergency Physicians

Nowadays ACEP could boast with around 33.000 emergency physicians, medical students and emergency medicine residents. The key aim of the American College of Emergency Physicians is to offer the top quality emergency care and provide support for emergency physicians and their patients. There is a concrete program, worked out by the College in order to make the quality improvement process continual. The important points of this program are: The American College of Emergency Physicians

• funding of the emergency medical research
• public education on emergency care
• providing disaster preparedness practices
• development of evidence –based clinical policies
• legislative support
• publishing of the scientific medical journal in the corresponding sphere of medicine

Generally ACEP is the greatest and the oldest national medical specialty organization, operating for physicians, working in the field of emergency medicine. The educational resources of ACEP are highly appreciated and it remains the primary information resource for the representatives of this specialty. The American College of Emergency Physicians has worked out the statement of values, the key points in which are:

• provision of top quality emergency care to all individuals, who need it
• involvement of only qualified and credentialed emergency physicians
• utilization of the portion of knowledge in the sphere of emergency medicine with the aim of constant development and refinement
• emergency physicians are seen obliged to make their contributions into improvement and development of quality emergency care.

This College is governed by an elected Board of Directors with the same functions as a corporation’s board has. Continuing medical education is one of the key principles, which is supported by emergency physicians, thus they constantly update their knowledge and do their best to adjust to rapidly changing field of emergency medicine. “The College also sponsors the specialty’s Scientific Assembly, the nation’s largest meeting of emergency physicians. This four-day annual event is an intensive educational forum for physicians, nurses and ancillary emergency health care practitioners. It encompasses more than 350 hours of clinical and management courses at the basic, intermediate and advanced levels. In addition, approximately 350 companies exhibit at the Assembly.” (American College of Emergency Physicians).  The American College of Emergency Physicians

2. The American College of Emergency Physicians has the task of monitoring of the health care environment and problematic and challenging issues of the emergency physicians and their patients. Evaluation of health care reform is included in to the list of the Code of Ethics issues of ACEP with the aim of providing support for qualitative delivery of emergency medical care. There is a list of major issues, confronting the sector of healthcare professionals, including cost containment, the interface of public health and emergency care and other critical aspects in American health care.

It is really difficult to talk about sustainability in the sphere of medical care without consideration of cost containment. “The number of ED visits continues to rise at a rate greater than that of population growth, exemplified by an increase in ED visit rates from 352.8 to 390.5 per 1000 persons from 1997-2007. Over this time period, ED utilization by Medicaid patients had the highest rate of growth.” (American College of Emergency Physicians).  Statistically America is one of the leading countries in relation to spending on health care per capita. This explains the presence of numerous benefits like for example shorter waiting times and access to specialty care, advanced diagnostic practices and easy access to primary care. Certainly Americans got used to these services and this level of quality and this means that cost containment should be done without reducing of them. The American College of Emergency Physicians supports the position that there is no place for compromise with quality of health care for the sake of cost containment. Instead const containment should be possible thanks to improvement of the management and communication, reductions of waste and redundancy.

In case patients experience problems with timely access to primary care, they would most probably visit the Emergency Department. The reasons could be different, either too busy schedules or lack of the availability of the physician. One of the approaches, offered in order to manage this problem is preventive services. “A study from Stanford University Medical School found that 90 percent of EDs nationwide offer preventive care services. These results illustrate the conflict that EDs face between addressing underlying health problems that result in repeat visits while also preserving their mission of providing acute care.” (American College of Emergency Physicians).The American College of Emergency Physicians

Emergency medicine is currently confronting the issue of overcrowding of hospitals and the need to solve this problem in local and national levels. There is at the moment no agreement, whether it is correct to offer ED facilities for non-urgent visits for example. Such practices might change the scope of the whole emergency care sphere.  The expanded health insurance coverage might lead to ethnic disparities, as usually people, who do to have their insurances, belong exactly to disadvantaged backgrounds. The emergence sphere thus faces the challenge of the reduction of these disparities with the help of transformation of their care. Emergency medicine needs well-prepared plan for managing these challenges and making steps in the correct direction. Even if emergency specialists are flexible enough, it is not clear at the moment, whether they should provide the patient care in psychiatry or similar spheres, as there is little to no chance for close follow-up.