Hemant Vankawala, MD, FACEP
TCEP President

President's Message

Our lives and our practice of medicine have changed so much over the past few months. I want to take a moment and thank you for your work, and to thank our families for making sacrifices and dealing with the stress and uncertainty in the times of COVID-19. The business of the college continues daily. TCEP has been working diligently to protect the practice of emergency medicine in Texas...

TCEP Working for Emergency Physicians During COVID-19 Pandemic

While TCEP members are dealing with the pandemic on the front lines, TCEP staff, our lobbyists and members have been hard at work behind the scenes to assist. Here are a few things we have been working on:

Partnerships and Communication
• Daily coordination with TMA, ACEP and other organizations to share activities and gather information for website and outreach. Staff participates in daily briefing calls with TMA and other stakeholders and provide daily updates to key TCEP and ACEP leaders.
• Plus more efforts.

Personal Protective Equipment
• Letters were written to Governor Abbott about the PPE shortage for emergency physicians and staff. While they understand our concerns, the problem of getting PPE is a worldwide issue.
• Plus more efforts.

Financial Support
• Letter sent to Secretary Anzar, US Department of Health & Human Services, asking that emergency physician groups be prioritized for CARES funding.

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Ryan Joseph, DO, DTM&H

No PPE for Me?

Personal Protective Equipment or PPE, has typically been a fleeting thought in most Emergency Medicine (EM) Physician’s minds during our careers. We’d casually put some gloves on to examine the next patient, or perhaps don a yellow gown in the case of a procedure or a trauma patient. For most of us...

Diana Fite, MD, FACEP – TCEP Past President – will be installed virtually as the incoming President for the Texas Medical Association. Although TexMed 2020 was unfortunately canceled due to COVID-19, TCEP is extremely proud to have Diana continue to ‘Fite’ on behalf of Texas Emergency Physicians. Congratulations, Dr. Fite!

Tune in this Saturday May 2nd
to Watch TMA’s 155th President Take Office

Diana L. Fite, MD, will take office as TMA’s 155th president this Saturday. Visit TMA’s Facebook page at noon Saturday to watch a live broadcast of her installation and address.

ACEP Stands Behind Emergency Physicians

 

Sandra M. Schneider, MD, FACEP

ACEP first notified its members of the potential spread of Covid-19 into the US on January 20th, the day the first US citizen was diagnosed with Covid (he had traveled to Wuhan during their outbreak). The first community-acquired disease in the US occurred in Washington State on 2/26. It quickly became apparent that the disease was in the US and was spreading ...

Medical Student Update

Lenexa Morais, TCEP MSC Chair 2019-20

Texas Medical Schools Response to COVID-19 and Volunteer Resources

As the pandemic has come to affect many aspects of our daily lives, medical education has also been shaped by COVID-19. Nearly a month ago ...

Brian Eby, MD, TLAF Fellow

Droperidol: Everyone loves a Good Comeback Story

For those starving for a non-COVID headline, I bring good news. Droperidol has returned to the US market after a two-decade hiatus. Banished from the US after its 2001 black box warning for deaths related to QT prolongation and torsades de pointes, droperidol was reintroduced here in 2019. Since then ...

TCEP in the Media

Several TCEP Members have been involved in a variety of media interviews. Here are some highlights in case you missed them.

TCEP President Elect, Robert Hancock, DO, FACEP
Gillian Schmitz, MD, FACEP
Allison Haddock, MD, FACEP
Cedric Dark, MD, MPH, FACEP

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Kenneth Alan Totz, DO, JD, FACEP

Quinolone Quagmire

If you’ve had the opportunity recently to watch television, listen to the radio, or surf the web, you’re sure to have run across an attorney advertising their prowess in pursuing “unscrupulous” pharmaceutical companies ...

ACEP Names New Executive Director

As the next step in a career dedicated to improving health care, Susan Sedory, MA, CAE, will assume the role as the American College of Emergency Physicians’ (ACEP) next Executive Director. Ms. Sedory will build on ...

At TMLT, we have you covered. No matter how your job evolves.

We know that seeing patients and providing excellent care is your primary goal. And we work hard to find new ways to support you. Contact us today to learn more about what TMLT can do for you at 800-580-8658 or www.tmlt.org.

TMLT - protection for a new era of medicine.

TMLT offers KN95 masks at no cost to policyholders fighting COVID-19

 

Texas Medical Liability Trust (TMLT) is offering KN95 respirator masks — a crucial piece of personal protective equipment (PPE) — to its policyholders on the front lines of the COVID-19 emergency in Texas. While supplies last, the masks are being provided at no cost to physician policyholders in need of this PPE.

Financial Support for Health Care Practitioners

 

Hilton Providing Up to One Million Free Hotel Nights Through May 31 for Medical Personnel

 

TMLT Provides 10% Additional Dividend in Response to COVID-19 Crisis

 

TCEP Members at work during COVID

Jessica Best, MD – Dr. Best is practicing intubations for suspected COVID patients. Wearing an N95 mask, goggles, a halo and a toga. It takes about 2 minutes to put on all the gear. You need some help to don and doff the PPE. We are using a plastic intubation box to limit exposure to the patient. We are also using video assisted intubation, hard to see in the photo but I am using a McGrath. We have a system, and know exactly who will be in the room, limiting exposure to non-essential staff. Currently we have very low volumes, and almost no critically ill patients who are suspected of having COVID.

Justin W. Fairless, DO, LP, FACEP – The Texas Emergency Medical Task Force (TX EMTF) is a response system that was developed in 2009 by the Texas Department of State Health Services (TDSHS) to augment emergency health care during a disaster or significant incident.  After the first US Ebola case arrived in Dallas in 2014, a specialized component of the TX EMTF, the Infectious Disease Response Unit (IDRU), was developed to respond to high consequence infectious disease incidents.

The first ever deployment of the TX EMTF's IDRU was in February 2020 in response to the first cases of CoVID-19 that arrived at Lackland AFB in San Antonio, TX.  The IDRU worked in conjunction with the CDC, HHS DMAT Teams, and local health authorities to care for the first CoVID-19 patients in Texas, many of whom arrived from the Diamond Princess cruise ship.  The IDRU was stationed at the Texas Center for Infectious Disease, a 75-Bed Negative Pressure Isolation hospital designed for TB patients.

TCEP Board Member Dr. Justin Fairless and TCEP Past President Dr. Gerad Troutman, as well as several other TCEP members, served as EMTF IDRU Physicians for this deployment.

Dr. Jim Williams – Here's a photo of intubating patient who went south fast - septic shock on pressors, respiratory failure. Negative pressure room is nice to have but very small as you can see.  Also video laryngoscopy not working so had to perform direct laryngoscopy.  Fortunately went very smoothly.

Sara Andrabi, MD – We trained to practice in a field where you never know what can come through the doors of the hospital. We work in field that is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. While others are closing their workplaces, we are ramping up ours. We run towards the crazy that everyone else is running away from. We are in this together!

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