Fall 2012: From the President Larry Slaughter, MD, FACEP

Fall 2012: From the President Larry Slaughter, MD, FACEP


POSTED IN: Fall 2012,

Have you ever wondered how you got to where you are today? For me, going into medicine was a pretty natural choice based on a crappy set of encyclopedias and a kid’s curiosity. I have to thank my father for the encyclopedias because when I was young he succumbed to a traveling encyclopedia salesman’s pitch and we subsequently had a set of encyclopedias that covered most of the basics but did not really give much detail. My father suffered from primary sclerosing cholangitis and it was in that illness that I first started thinking about being a doctor and going into medicine. So there I was trying to figure out the liver’s function and I naturally went to this set of encyclopedias and found them quite lacking. This was 1974 and there was no internet. Ok, technically there was but not in the user-friendly form of today. There was no Google or UpToDate. All I had was this sad little encyclopedia with a barebones description of the liver stuck between an entry for Live, as in not dead and Liverpool, the city. My curiosity, which I got from my mother, would not let me settle for the trivial entry. I mean this was making my dad, who had a commanding presence as an ex-Mizzou football player, sick. It had to be big. Or that is how I framed the question as a 12 year old.

So started my quest to be a doctor. It led to an undergraduate degree, Medical degree and residency from the University of Missouri-Columbia. If you are an avid reader of these newsletters you will recall that my first job out of residency was as Medical Director of the Emergency Department at Memorial Hospital in Jefferson City. I joined ACEP as I realized I was woefully unprepared for the job and ACEP had so many great resources to educate me. As they say, ACEP saved my bacon. The leadership and management resources they have available for members helped me immensely.
When the group at St. Mary’s Health Center in Jefferson City approached me about a job, I jumped at the chance. The quality and genuine kindness of my partners has made that decision one of the best I ever made. Twenty years later I’m still there.

I was asked to join the Board of Directors for the Missouri College of Emergency Physicians when one of my partners deftly dodged an offer to join the Board that was made to him by the late Dr. Bill Jermyn. My partner stated very smoothly, “Larry does those things for our group.” Bill subsequently contacted me and I agreed. Ten years later, I feel lucky to have been associated with such a talented group. I’ve been impressed with the level of dedication and commitment the board brings to this work. We as MoCEP members are fortunate to have such a gifted and intelligent group working for us.

I have a number of goals over the next few years that I would like to accomplish. First, I would like to increase our Missouri College of Emergency Physicians membership by pursuing a couple of different initiatives. I plan to visit each of the residencies in the state and speak to them about the benefits of membership in ACEP and MoCEP. My hope is this will get the residents thinking about becoming more involved and hopefully drive membership as it has in many of the other chapters around the country. A second goal I have is to visit a number of the smaller, rural ER’s in the state over the next 2 years. As many of you know, I have an interest in rural emergency medicine and think Missouri is a state that needs to support and recognize those providers and facilities that provide care for our rural citizens. I would also like to do some strategic planning with the MOCEP Board of Directors. I have to give credit to Jonathan Heidt for this last idea. As we look towards the future, I believe it is important that we as a board take time to recognize where we have been, and more importantly where we plan to go, and how we plan to get there. I look forward to spending time with the board as we work outlining this plan for the future of emergency medicine in the state of Missouri.