Mission

The American Academy of Emergency Medicine (AAEM) is the specialty society of emergency medicine. AAEM is a democratic organization committed to the following principles:

1. Every individual should have unencumbered access to quality emergency care provided by a specialist in emergency medicine.
2. The practice of emergency medicine is best conducted by a specialist in emergency medicine.
3. A specialist in emergency medicine is a physician who has achieved, through personal dedication and sacrifice, certification by either the American Board of Emergency Medicine (ABEM) or the American Osteopathic Board of Emergency Medicine (AOBEM).
4. The personal and professional welfare of the individual specialist in emergency medicine is a primary concern to the AAEM.
5. The Academy supports fair and equitable practice environments necessary to allow the specialist in emergency medicine to deliver the highest quality of patient care. Such an environment includes provisions for due process and the absence of restrictive covenants.
6. The Academy supports residency programs and graduate medical education, which are essential to the continued enrichment of emergency medicine, and to ensure a high quality of care for the patient.
7. The Academy is committed to providing affordable high quality continuing medical education in emergency medicine for its members.
8. The Academy supports the establishment and recognition of emergency medicine internationally as an independent specialty and is committed to its role in the advancement of emergency medicine worldwide.

President’s Message

November 2014

Not since Catholic Healthcare West (now rebranded as DignityHealth) announced its plan to buy the MSO (management services organization) portion of EPMG (now reorganized as a part of EMP) in 1998 has controversy swirled like that surrounding publicly-traded Tenet Health’s plan to put multiple EM, anesthesiology, and hospitalist exclusive service contracts out to bid at its 11 California hospital facilities. Tenet reportedly sent out RFPs (requests for proposals) sometime in June to EmCare, TeamHealth and ApolloMD, all publicly held entities. Emergency medicine, anesthesia and hospitalist contracts were all placed on the auction block, with essentially no input from the medical staff at the Tenet facilities. Tenet’s managers hoped to eliminate stipends to hospitalist and anesthesiology services by using ED profits to subsidize these specialties. Tenet’s plan sparked the formation of The Coalition for Quality Hospital Care³, which represents the hundreds of affected physicians and serves as a focal point for information relevant to Tenet’s activities in the contracting matter.

Several months earlier, a Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) administrator at one of HCA’s southern California hospitals approached the longstanding local EM groupat that facility and asked that the group, which had provided decades of excellent service, “talk to EmCare.” EmCare had become a subsidiary of Envision Healthcare, which went public in August 2013. HCA subsequently announced a “joint venture” with EmCare, and a significant number of independent EM groups lost their contracts to EmCare.

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For past president’s messages, click here.

Newsletter

Read CAL/AAEM’s latest newsletter here.

CAL/AAEM Membership

As a resident of the state of California, the California State Chapter Division of AAEM (CAL/AAEM) board of directors would like to extend a special invitation to you to join CAL/AAEM. In addition to your state chapter championing for individual physician rights and workplace fairness, CAL/AAEM membership benefits would include:

1. Western Journal of Emergency Medicine, print and electronic subscriptions (Residents and Students receive an electronic-only subscription. An option to upgrade the Resident/Student membership to include a paper subscription to WestJEM is available for $25.)
2. CAL/AAEM News Service email updates and information
3. Latest LLSA summaries online. (Access the materials, for CAL/AAEM members only).
4. Discounted registration fee to the CAL/AAEM pre-conference educational event at the annual AAEM Scientific Assembly
5. Discounted registration fee to the annual California ACEP Scientific Assembly and Yosemite conference
6. Free introductory legal advisory service for workplace fairness issues
7. Supporting medical student education and conferences in the state
8. Supporting California Legislative initiatives and the annual Emergency Medicine Legislative Leadership Conference in Sacramento
9. Free network opportunities and up-to-date information through CAL/AAEM social media

Click here to apply for membership.

Contact

Visit CAL/AAEM’s website here.

Mailing Address:
California Chapter Division of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine (CAL/AAEM)
555 East Wells Street, Suite 1100
Milwaukee, WI 53202-3823
Email: info@calaaem.org
Tel: (800) 884-2236
Fax: (414) 276-3349

Updated March 18, 2015