The American College of Emergency Physicians' National Report Card on the State of Emergency Medicine was released on Tuesday, December 9, 2008, a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.  

VACEP is pleased to report that Virginia's rank moved up significantly from an overall ranking of 46 to an overall ranking of 23. The state's score improved from a D+ in 2006 to a C, placing it above the country's overall score of C-. The new report card contains twice the measures of ACEP's first report card in 2006, as well as a new category for disaster preparedness, which makes it more comprehensive, though not directly comparable to the previous report card.

Overall, this report is good news for Virginia residents. The report found:

• The state is well prepared for a large-scale emergency, in fact we got a B+ in that category.
• Virginia improved in several areas on the report card, including public health education and injury prevention. Specifically, the state increased the percentage of young children who were immunized and the percentage of 65+ adults who received vaccines.
• The state also increased the number of board certified emergency physicians per 100,000 people.
• However, more work needs to be done to improve access to emergency care.

The report specifically recognized Virginia's achievements in the category of disaster preparedness, including: 

• The number of nurses and physicians registered in the state based Emergency System for Advance Registration of Volunteer Health Professionals program 
• Virginia's civil liability protection for health care workers during a disaster event 
• The state's written plan specifically for patients with special needs 
• Our state's plans to supply medications for patients with chronic conditions and dialysis during a disaster
• Virginia's accreditation by the Emergency Management Accreditation program

VACEP issued a press release with more detail on the report, which includes some comments on the report from Lt. Gov. Bolling.

While we are pleased that Virginia's score has improved overall, we still have more work to do to improve access to emergency care. We plan to continue to work in the 2009 General Assembly session with state lawmakers on what the report card means for Virginians and the future of emergency medicine in our state. We’ll also discuss the connection between holding the line on the medical malpractice cap and Medicaid reimbursements and not losing further ground in access to care, as stated in the press release.

Please call Gwen Harry, Executive Director of VACEP at 757.220.4911 if you have questions about the report or if you need any assistance with media inquiries. We look forward to sharing more information about the results.

To view Virginia Report Card only, click here. (PDF) and for VACEP Report Card Talking Points, click here.

Audio: Virginia jumps from 46 to 23 in report card on emergency medicine

Dr. Carl Wentzel's NPR/WCVE 88.9 public radio interview  listen now

To see a live Webcast of the ACEP Report Card s release, please go to:

www.visualwebcaster.com/EmergencyMedicineReportCard .

The National Report Card and supporting materials are available online at www.EMReportCard.org .