Focus on the Family of Medicine
Be involved at all levels

Family is important to me. And the family of medicine is near and dear to my heart. Ours is one of the noblest professions. And if we were allowed to practice it in the way we were taught, ours would be a simple, hard-working life. We are, after all, the best and brightest, the dedicated and the committed. We have gone through years of teaching and training, and honed ourselves into the best clinicians we can be. But more and more in the last few years, third parties have intruded on our practices and interfered with so much that it borders on meddlin’. And it causes harm to our patients by delays and outright denials of care. That is why we need to band together.

Many of my friends have asked why I am so involved in organized medicine. Do I love going to meetings? Do I have loads of free time I need to fill? (You might remember I have a six-year-old son who plays every sport known to man.) Do I need any more chaos added to my hectic schedule? No. I am involved because I care. I care about what is going on with my profession. I care what regulations affect my ability to practice medicine. I care about the kind of care my patients receive. If all the special interest groups band together to push for their agendas, and we are silent, who wins? We have seen this over and over.

We are a diverse group, but the things we have in common are that we are physicians, we have had similar training, and we care about our patients. You can spend time sitting in the physicians’ lounge, or you can watch some television, or have a leisurely dinner—or you can meet with other physicians who care about our profession and try to fight the changes being thrust on us. We are besieged on multiple levels, and this requires a multilevel solution. We have problems locally, on the state level, and on the national level. We have formed cliques—whether they be specialties, hospital staffs, counties, or IPAs, then we have set out to look out for our own interests. While we are bickering among ourselves, the game is being won elsewhere.

But we have to come together and iron out our differences. We need to work out our disagreements internally and then present a united front to the world. We need to continue to meet with insurance companies until we find a middle ground that is better for us, for our patients, and for them. We need to meet with legislators until they understand the real issues, and not what the special interest groups have told them.

The Texas Medical Association is strong and does well on the battlefield. The American Medical Association needs to be more like TMA, but it cannot be changed from the outside. More of us need to join and change the direction to one that is more focused and effective. It is imperative that we have a strong voice on the national level.

I recall an AMA meeting where the Speakers of the AMA asked delegates to vote against a resolution that would allow alternate delegates to be on reference committees. The discussion after the request was about how knowledgeable the speakers were, and how they would not have asked this of us if it were not important. I listened and then I asked to speak. I told them that their diversity was in their alternate delegates. Their women were alternate delegates. Their minorities were alternate delegates. Their young people were alternate delegates. A vote against the alternate delegates was a vote against diversity, and that was not what they wanted to do. If I had not been there, they would have made the wrong decision for the wrong reasons. It is all a matter of point of view. The more people who participate, the more point of views we have represented and the better decisions we make.

You can be involved at different levels. The first is financial. When you belong to organized medicine, you give us strength in numbers. Your dues fund our advocacy programs. You also have access to communications that will tell you the direction we’re heading. We strive to make our communication a two-way effort and value membership feedback.

The next level of involvement is through service. If you have a special interest, share it. If you have a special expertise, use it. Our strength has been in hearing different opinions so the best possible conclusions can be reached.

Join TEXPAC. No matter what your politics are, TEXPAC supports politicians who support physicians. Membership starts at only $125 a year. To join, contact Tracy Knight, DCMS director of public affairs, at 214-948-3622 or tracy@dallas-cms.org.

Join on all levels. We are being besieged on all sides.

I know I am preaching to the choir, but when you notice a colleague is not a DCMS member, let him know you noticed. We have to start taking back our profession. It takes all of us. Family is important.

Copyright 1997-2001, Dallas County Medical Society.
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