Thanks to an
incredibly well run campaign by the CMA Delegation, and to an incredibly good
candidate, Dr. Ron Bangasser was elected to the AMA Council on Medical Services
(CMS) by a wide margin. CMS is where AMA socioeconomic policies are developed
en route to the AMA Board of Trustees and AMA House of Delegates. Congratulations
Ron!
In his address to the AMA House of Delegates, Dr. Bangasser said that physicians for too long have been quietly, individually, donating that pint of blood ... eating the cost of an antibiotic ... scrounging for an extra pair of crutches ... working a system to get a patient into the system. "It's left our profession not just a pint, but a quart low in spirit, pride, and good feelings about ourselves and what we do." Doctors are resigned to thinking that this is the way the practice of medicine is going to be, that somebody else is going to be calling the medical shots. Urging his colleagues to fight back, he said, "It's not time to give up ... it's time to step up and fix the system ... make it work for us and our patients. We have not only the opportunity, we have the responsibility to take "what's broke and fix it."
Dr. Bangasser went on to say, "I hear doctors muttering in hospital hallways
and physician lounges, that it's a horrible time to be in medicine, and that
they'd never want their children to follow in their footsteps. Those physicians
are wrong. It's not a bad time in medicine, it's the best time. Because when
things are at their worst, when systems are failing, it offers an opportunity
for brand new thinking - the best, the brightest thinking. In this room are
the best and the brightest. We're smart, we're problem solvers. We can create
new systems, new ways. Together we can do it."
