Are you concerned about where emergency medicine is going and who is working for your personal concerns?
Emergency physicians face a wide variety of challenges in an era of rapid change. We must be united to protect our specialty and to protect our patients.
The Texas College of Emergency Physicians is your voice for those concerns.
Texas Gains Dramatic Rise in Emergency Doctors
AUSTIN, Texas —The Texas College of Emergency Physicians (TCEP) announced a dramatic rise in Texans’ access to emergency medical care at a press conference held this morning at the State Capitol. Senator Troy Fraser reported that the state’s gains in emergency physicians result directly from medical liability reforms passed in 2003.
“I am thrilled that my constituents in the counties I represent now have access to board-certified emergency physicians providing critical care where previously they had none or very limited access to this care,” said Senator Fraser. “House Bill 4 has produced the results we were aiming for when we passed medical liability reforms during the 78th Texas Legislature.”
Data released by the Texas Department of State Health Services, the Office of Rural Community Affairs, the Texas Medical Board and the Texas Alliance for Patient Access quantifies this significant increase in board-certified emergency physicians in Texas. Seventy-six counties have experienced a net gain in emergency physicians since the passage of medical liability reforms five years ago, including 39 medically underserved counties and 30 counties that are partially medically underserved. Click here to read complete report.
Dr. Fite's Article
EMphasis Report for Government Relations
Committee (2/09)
I am so proud of our TCEP members. Although I lack 100% official confirmation, I am almost certain we had the most physicians of any specialty at the TMA First Tuesday on February 3. We had more than thirty emergency physicians present. We expect about the same number of emergency physicians to attend on March 3 as well. Government Relations committee members Dr. Bruce Moskow and Dr. Sam Roberts will be hosting a special orientation event the night before at their Austin-based office, and we hope that will encourage attendance by TCEP members who might otherwise be reluctant to go to the Capitol.
During the February First Tuesday, one of the highlights was a press event arranged by our lobbyist, Mignon McGarry, to call attention to the increase in numbers of physicians, particularly emergency physicians and on-call specialists, now practicing in Texas due to the tort reform of 2003. The press event was held along with Senator Troy Fraser and featured Dr. Bobby Greenberg, who is in the district covered by the senator. TCEP members were everywhere on camera, and it produced great publicity! Click to read entire article.
Mignon McGarry's Weekly
This Week in Texas—July 15, 2010
Sen. Brian Birdwell (R-Granbury) has been sworn in and former Sen. Kip Averitt (R-Waco) has officially withdrawn his name from the November general election ballot. That clears the way for the Republican and Democrat county chairs in the ten counties that make up Senate District 22 to choose their respective nominees for the November ballot. The parties have until August 24th to make their selections. The Republican chairs are not required to choose Birdwell and the Democrats get a second chance since no one had filed to run for the seat in the Democratic primary. Stay tuned.
Campaign finance reports for the first six months of 2010 are due at the Texas Ethics Commission today. Expect them to begin showing up on the commission’s website as soon as tomorrow. To see how much money your favorite candidate has on hand, go to http://www.ethics.state.tx.us/php/cesearchSimple.html and type in their name.
Texas has been named America’s Top State for Business 2010 by CNBC. Those of you in Austin today can swing by Katz’s Deli on 6th street to watch a live broadcast touting the strength of the Texas economy.
Texas Compared with the Nation
Texas ranked 21st in the nation with an overall C grade for its support of an emergency care system to meet the needs of its residents. Its score was helped by an outstanding grade for its Medical Liability Environment. No state performed better in that important category than the Lone Star State. But Texas' overall grade was hurt by a poor performance in Access to Emergency Care.
