FLAAEM News - November 2007
Greetings to all FLAAEM members from your board of directors!
If you are a member of AAEM and live in Florida, we hope that you are
also a member of your Florida state chapter, FLAAEM. However, joining
AAEM does not automatically make you a state chapter member. There is a
separate application for our organization. You can find it on the AAEM
website under state chapters at
www.aaem.org/statechapters/flaaem_app_2007.pdf. If you haven't
joined yet, we urge you to do so. There are many things we can achieve
at the state level, but we need your support. There is strength in
numbers and the greater our membership, the more we can accomplish for
you, the Florida ED doc! This is an update on what we have been working
on so far this year. We will be providing regular reports in Common
Sense and on the website, as well as through our list serve.
Item #1 - List serve
We established a list serve for all FLAAEM members. This is a vehicle to
distribute information to our members, as well as a potential forum for
conversations and dialogue. The address is
flaaem@lists.aaem.org
Item #2 - Elections
We held special elections this year, utilizing online balloting. Results
were as follows:
President
Dr. Mark Foppe
Vice President
Dr. Ken Scheppke
Treasurer/Secretary
Dr. Aryeh Pessah
Directors
Dr. Douglas Lee
Dr. Victor Andres Sasson
Associate Director
Dr. Tobey Williams
The executive committee had previously voted to amend the bylaws to
increase the number of directors and to create an associate director
position to represent the associate members as well as a resident
position, currently vacant, on the board. Dr. Joel Stern remains on the
board as Immediate Past President.
Item #3 - Donation to AAEM Foundation
The board voted to donate $1000 to the AAEM Foundation to support their
important legal battles in the state of Texas. We encourage all FLAAEM
members to make individual donations as well.
Item #4 - Dr. McNamara Visiting Mount Sinai Residents
On October 24th, Dr. Robert McNamara visited the emergency medicine
residency program at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach to give
his lecture on the state of emergency medicine. This is part of our
ongoing effort to make our residents aware of the realities of the
corporate practices in our state. Many thanks to Dr. Beth Longenecker,
the Residency Director at Mount Sinai, for her assistance in organizing
this important meeting.
Item #5 - BOD Meetings
In March 2007, a FLAAEM meeting was held at the 13th Scientific Assembly
of AAEM in Las Vegas. A FLAAEM meeting will be held during the next AAEM
SA in Amelia Island, Florida, February 7 - 9. All are welcome to attend,
exact time and location to be announced.
Item #6 - Board Certification Issues
In July 2007, the BOD of FLAAEM worked with Rep. Homan on the EM
questionnaire for the Physicians Workforce Bill before the Florida
Legislature to ensure that board certification was included. On July 17,
2007, Mark Foppe, DO FAAEM, spoke at the FENA state meeting regarding EM
physician certification. FENA has agreed to support attempts at
legislatively addressing this issue.
Item #7 - Other Legislative Issues
Dr. Mark Foppe, FLAAEM President, and Dr. Joel Stern, FLAAEM Immediate
Past President, will be attending the FMA's Council on Legislation
Meeting regarding the On-Call crisis in Florida and joint efforts of
FMA, FOMA and FLAAEM to get sovereign immunity for EM physicians and
specialists who take calls for the ED. This will take place during the
FMA Board of Governors Meeting in Tampa on October 26th. As you can see,
there are a lot of exciting things happening with our organization. We
are looking forward to seeing everyone at the Scientific Assembly in
Amelia Island this coming February.
We would also like to extend our best wishes for a speedy recovery to
Tom Derenne, who was recently injured in a serious car accident. Tom has
been working very closely with us this year, and his assistance has been
invaluable. Tom, our thoughts and prayers are with you.
Joel Stern, MD FAAEM
Immediate Past President FLAAEM
drj1000@msn.com
