Happy March to everyone!
I feel honored and humbled to be writing this as your newly elected Alaska ACEP President. I first want to thank Carl Heine, our Past-President. His guidance, encouragement and leadership these past four years have been tremendous. We are fortunate to have his national ACEP experience, enthusiasm for this state and our profession. He continues to do amazing work lobbing in Juneau fighting for our profession and our patients.
My personal vision for Alaska ACEP these next two years is to provide an avenue where we can learn from and work with each other as emergency providers. I believe we are stronger together and the "cross polination" that happens with shared experiences will help us grow and weather the continued challenges facing our state and our profession.
Alaska ACEP Chapter Board
As we move into 2015, I feel honored to work with a great Board that represent many different hospitals and practice styles in the state. They are as follows:
Please feel free to contact any one of us with any questions or concerns.
Journal Club
In an effort to help connect people and ideas, we had our first Journal Club on Friday, February 27th. It was a fun and informative night.
Hats off to the JBER clan. Not only were they the motivating force to make it happen, but were the best represented and did the work choosing and presenting the articles. A special thanks to Drs. Coombs and Papacostas for presenting interesting articles. A special congrats is also in order for Dr. Parris. While we had a hard time getting the announcement out about the Journal Club because one of many reasons, the weather in Dallas (please accept my apology for the delay), Dr. Parris completed the Iron Dog and made it out of weathered in Nome to make it in time. Amazing as always!
Thanks to everyone for taking the time to come. We had representation from four hospitals and a lively discussion. I know I learned a lot and will change some things in my practice because of the discussion. Feel free to review the articles if you missed it, and keep your eyes open for another survey for another Journal Club in late summer. I hope to see you there.
Please click on the links below to download the articles.
Intranasal Ketamine vs Fentanyl for Analgesia 2015
Nurse Administered Ketamine 2012 (third world environment)
Randomized Trial of Propofol vs Ketofol at 1:1 or 4:1 Mixtures 2014
Ketamine
The Journal Club was timely and helpful, especially with the uncertainly from the state nursing board on the role off nurse administered Ketamine. Thanks to the nurses Sam Jones and Emily Stevens, the case for nurse administered Ketamine in the Emergency Department was brought forward. After a lengthy conversation, it was decided that based on existing policy statement nurses can give Ketamine for sedation and intubation as long as there is a licensed provider available. However, they still have a policy it cannot be given by nurses for pain control, unless it is a post-operative opioid tolerant patient. This will be our next step to try and clarify this, so our nurses are covered giving a very safe and increasingly used medication. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
Drug Data Base and Electronic Medical Records
Another goal of 2015 is to help support the Alaska Drug Data base and improve information between hospitals, specifically to reduced duplicated efforts and better coordinate care for high utilizers of the emergency system. With the current budget cuts, we have been pushing the state that these efforts will help save the state money, as similar efforts saved Washington's States Medicaid $33.6 million in fiscal year 2013. We have been working with the State and elected representatives as well as other interested parties such has hospital CEO's, non-profits like the Mat-Su Health Foundation to paint a picture of how this change could not only provide better care, but save the state money. If you have any interested in helping with this, a political bone in your body or any good contacts that would help move this forward please contact myself or the political mover, Dr. Heine, your Past-President.
The state is also working on a care coordination for frequent ED visitors. It is called AMCII. I am just learning about it, but click here to read about it. They will likely come to our next meeting so we can all learn more.
Upcoming Events
The spring and summer are turning out to be jammed back with emergency medicine fun with lots of events. Three great conferences are coming to the state and one in Seattle is relatively close.
Seattle, Washington
April 22nd-24th, 2015
Washington ACEP will hold their Summit to Sound Northwest Emergency Medicine Assembly and involves an inexpensive cadaver lab. Click here for more information.
Anchorage, Alaska
May 21st-23rd, 2015
Mike Levy will hold the 8th Annual Resuscitation and Critical Interventions Conference (RACI). It is a great event to hear national leaders talk about what is new in resuscitation, talk about challenges in our state and meet other providers. Click here for more information.
Anchorage, Alaska
May 22nd at 6:00 pm
Is the tentative date and for the next Alaska ACEP Chapter Meeting. More details to follow. Save the date!
Girdwood, Alaska
June 8th-12th, 2015
34th Annual Series Emergency Medicine & Acute Care or better know as the Rick and Jerry show is coming back to Alaska. Rick Bukata and Jerry Hoffman are bringing some of the top educators in emergency medicine to the state. Click here for more information.
Hospital Updates
I am hoping to expand this section, so every group can post an update here including what's new, maybe if they are looking for doctors, changes in service lines and so forth. Here is a quick update for now and feel free to send me your hospitals updates for the next e-newsletter.
Providence Anchorage
Officially certified as a trauma 2 center marking a milestone change in trauma care in the state. Congratulations!
ANMC
Re-certified as a trauma 2 center and building a helicopter pad.
Mat-Su Regional
March 17th will go live with a transfer center that will coordinate all transports in and out of the hospital.
1-844-MAT-SU-GO.
Well, that's all I have for this quarter. Hope everyone is well. Thanks for all you do. Please let me know if there is anything you would like to see in the next e-newsletter.