The Story of SEMPA

As a result of this request for collaboration on emergency medicine physician assistant practice utilization guidelines, the Society of Emergency Medicine Physician Assistants (SEMPA) was founded in March 1990 at the American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA) Annual Conference held in Los Angeles. Bylaws were written and the Society of Emergency Medicine Physician Assistants was incorporated in the state of California on January 30, 1992 as a mutual benefit, nonprofit corporation.

The original (1990) motivation for establishing SEMPA included the following:

• Guidelines on the Role of the Physician Assistant in Emergency Medicine
  • In response to ACEP, for data to assist them in the generation of guidelines on PA Utilization in the emergency department
• Representative Body
  • As a representative organization for emergency medicine PAs and their interests
• Information and Practice Issues
  • To gather and disseminate information related to important issues affecting PA practice in emergency medicine (including specialty related CME)
• External Regulation of Emergency Medicine PAs
  • To advise PAs of the potential external regulatory agencies or other professional organizations seeking to exert regulatory control over PA practice (e.g. specialty certification)

The mid-1990s was a period of steady growth for SEMPA throughout the country, gaining members from all regions and encompassing emergency medicine PAs from all backgrounds and from EDs of all varieties: urban trauma centers, academic medical centers, suburban and rural hospitals. In addition, SEMPA’s student membership grew with those students becoming colleagues and leaders. Regional Directors were elected to the Board of Directors serving as representatives for their geographic constituents. The Regional Director positions were later discontinued as the number of board director-at-large positions brought the total board number up to nine (9) board members with representation of all regions of the country and types of emergency medicine practice settings.

SEMPA’s growth was not limited to its membership. The recognition of SEMPA as the representative body of the nation’s emergency medicine physician assistants was demonstrated most clearly with our expanding role in collaborating with our physician colleagues at ACEP and our recognition as a specialty organization by AAPA. Additionally, SEMPA’s growing recognition coincided well with AAPA's continued efforts to develop its external relations with organized medicine. By this time SEMPA members were invited to serve as liaisons on various ACEP committees and workgroups. As a result, in 1995, AAPA and SEMPA formally agreed to appoint the first joint liaison to ACEP.

Today, SEMPA representatives serve on multiple ACEP Committees, including: Academic Affairs; Clinical Data Registry; Disaster Preparedness and Response; Education; Emergency Medicine Practice; EMS; Federal Governmental Affairs; Medical-Legal; Public Health/Injury Prevention; State Legislative Regulatory; Rural; and the Advanced Practice Provider Ultrasound Section.

With expansion and growth came the complexities of time demands and organizational skills that could no longer be sufficiently administered solely by a group of dedicated, but busy, working EMPA volunteers. SEMPA leaders determined that in order to accomplish its long-term goals and best serve its members, the services of an association management services (AMS) company would be in order. SEMPA worked with two different AMS companies, before contracting with ACEP for association management services in 2010. This decision catapulted SEMPA into a professional, fully responsive, member-driven organization dedicated to our mission and our specialty.

As SEMPA comes to the end of its third decade of existence, the organization remains true to the original goals at its founding:

• SEMPA continues to provide ACEP guidance, data, and the PA perspective through representatives on various committees, survey and publication of reports as well as continued input on the now well-established team-based care model utilizing PAs in emergency medicine practice settings.
• SEMPA continues to be the recognized representative organization for physician assistants in the specialty of emergency medicine and is well represented in the house of medicine.
• SEMPA continuously advocates for EMPAs.
• SEMPA disseminates information to its membership on all matters affecting their practice as EMPAs.
• SEMPA annual conference — once only a dream — has become a world-class educational offering drawing hundreds of EMPAs from across the country.
• SEMPA continues to discuss issues related to specialty recognition, postgraduate training, emergency medicine workforce deliberations and to represent EMPAs in regard to potential threats of external regulation of the practice of EMPAs.

From a small group of former postgraduate residents trying to get their finger on the pulse of the nation’s PAs in emergency medicine, SEMPA is proud to have grown into a highly respected and dedicated group of emergency medicine PAs whose sole purpose is to represent those who — along with our emergency department team — provide the highest quality emergency care to patients across the nation.