American College of Emergency Physicians

The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) is the first and largest professional organization of emergency medicine physicians in the United States. It is headquartered in Irving, Texas.^[1] As of 2012, ACEP has more than 28,000 physician members.^{[citation needed]}

The college exists to support quality emergency medical care and the physicians who provide it. ACEP believes that “quality emergency care is a fundamental right and unobstructed access to emergency services should be available to all patients who perceive the need for emergency services.”

Active membership in ACEP is available to physicians who have:

1. completed an ACGME-approved emergency medicine residency
2. completed an AOA-approved emergency medicine residency.
3. been certified by any other emergency medicine certifying body recognized by ACEP
4. been practicing as emergency physicians since before 2000 (a/k/a "Legacy" physicians)

Fellows use the designation FACEP ("Fellow of ACEP"). In order to earn this designation, an ACEP member must demonstrate at least three years of active involvement in emergency medicine as the physician's chief professional activity, exclusive of training, as well as multiple additional accomplishments in the areas of organizational leadership, education, research, and administration.

ACEP is not a board certification granting organization. Board certification in emergency medicine is administered in the United States by organizations such as the American Board of Emergency Medicine and the American Osteopathic Board of Emergency Medicine.

ACEP History

ACEP was founded in 1968 by a group of physicians who shared a commitment to improving the quality of emergency care. The organization set out to educate and train physicians in emergency medicine to provide quality emergency care in the nation’s hospitals. In 1979, emergency medicine was officially recognized as a medical specialty, a milestone for ACEP and its members. Board certification granting organizations soon followed, and in 1980 the first certification exam was given. In 2000, ACEP changed its governing documents to make active or full-voting membership available only to residency-trained and board-certified emergency physicians, a change that remains controversial. The organization today counts approximately 28,000 of the country's 600,000 emergency physicians, emergency medicine residents and medical students as members. ACEP exisits to promote quality emergency care and to that end provides support and services such as:

•The development of evidence-based clinical policies

•Funding emergency medicine research

•Providing public education on emergency care and disaster preparedness

•Legislative and regulatory advocacy efforts

•Providing continuing medical education (CME) in the form of educational conferences, textbooks, internet-based training, professional references and periodicals

•Publishing Annals of Emergency Medicine, a specialty peer-reviewed scientific journal

See also

• American Academy of Emergency Medicine

References

External links

• ACEP homepage

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