In an effort to help the public and lawmakers understand the unique role of the emergency department team and to bolster support to overcome the many challenges we face, ACEP launched a campaign in May 2013 called “Saving Millions.” The campaign includes a series of print ads, radio messages and coordinated editorials in influential communications nationwide. To learn more, click on the “Saving Millions” banner above.
Other Legislative Initiatives
Oklahoma ACEP was instrumental in 2010 in preventing the Oklahoma Board of Medical Licensure from allowing emergency medicine doctors to advertise as being board-certified if they took an alternative pathway rather than going through the ABEM and AOBEM process.
Oklahoma ACEP is also developing a “mini-internship” whereby state legislators and media reps can rotate in state emergency departments. This could become invaluable in efforts to deal with the increasing number of issues created by legislative budget cuts impacting our emergency departments. The mini-internship program involves inviting your local legislator(s) to shadow you in your emergency department.
Oklahoma ACEP will provide you with user-friendly materials based on similar successful programs in other states, including an outline of steps needed to set up and complete the visit.
OKACEP Legislative Intern Program
OKACEP has a program that assists our members in getting a local OK legislator to their ED so this official can better understand the impact of the OK economic, medico-legal environment on emergency medicine. Of the 36 responders, 18 said they would definitely participate and 13 said they would consider it.
This program is based on the successful NJ-ACEP program. They received grant money to provide the administrative support [money no longer available from national ACEP]. OKACEP does not have an administrative support structure to do a lot of the leg work. For those of you belonging to groups [e.g. Baptist, Morningstar], consider using your office staff to support the local EP.
We are currently preparing our website with several resources and will notify members when this is ready to be accessed. Expected completion by end of November. A step-by-step outline of procedure will be provided on the site.
You can identify your legislators at Capitol Connect’s website. Those wishing to participate will follow steps below:
- OKACEP will provide list of our members and their legislators on our web site. Those wishing to participate will follow steps below.
- EP go to ACEP website where resources for the whole project are nicely laid out.
- See addendum Talking Points. This can be reviewed by EP to consider for focusing during shift.
- Also on our web will be a power point presentation covering some key issues.
- EP will post scheduled dates and provide feedback when done. This information is auto entered to spreadsheet that OKACEP administration can track and provide results to our members. See what the site looks like below or see it via hyperlink. Evaluations from EPs and legislators will be collected via online survey and distributed to OKACEP membership. Potential for some action items coming from our Board.
- We have also attached an invitation letter template for you to use to invite your legislator to the ED.
Contact for any concerns/questions/comments: Gabe Graham-OK-ACEP