Her acceptance speech is posted below:
Good afternoon, Delegates and Honored Guests. It is a privilege to accept the office of President of the Arizona Osteopathic Medical Association and continue to move forward with the work of our Immediate Past President, Dr. Lori Kemper, and our Past President squared, Dr. Chip Finch, both of whom have given me awfully big shoes to try to fill, but both of whom I know will be right here, serving AOMA and helping me steer our organization on the right track in this time of change. I look forward to working with our excellent staff – Mandy, Flannery, Tammy, and Teresa who maintain the continuity of the AOMA year after year.
I also want to take a special moment to say that I would not be here or have any success without the gifts that I have been blessed with. Not only was I lucky enough to be given the intelligence to make it through college and osteopathic school, God also blessed me with a wonderful family – my husband, Dr. Mike Ward is here with me today. Without him and our awesome children, Katie, Cameron, and Nick, there is no way I would have the strength, the courage, or the motivation to do all of the things that I do. My mom and step-dad and Mike’s parents also live just around the corner from us in Lake Havasu which also makes serving our profession a little easier – knowing that I have my family support system right there for all of us. Finally, my dad lives far away in Florida, but he is only a phone call or an email away and he is here this week to support me as I take the office of the president. He always told me that I could do anything. So, to my family – thank you for everything!
My friends in this great osteopathic profession – we are faced with something scary right now – change. Dr. Nichols talked to us yesterday about “Back to the Future” and I agree with her that there is really no difference in what we need to do in terms of caring for our patients. We need to continue to practice the D.O. way – teaching our patients that the body has the inherent ability to heal itself as long as there aren’t impedances to that healing process, talking to them about prevention, knowing them as PEOPLE, not as symptoms. Taking the time to grab a blanket for the child who is cold or get a cup of water for a husband who doesn’t want to leave his wife’s bedside. Going the extra mile to welcome a medical student or resident into the osteopathic family – not letting that part of our identity slip away even though we don’t have as many osteopathic hospitals anymore. These are the little things that set us apart. However, we will now be practicing medicine in a new era. We will need to change. We will need to grow. We will need to become resources for our patients and for our communities and for our elected officials.
Change can be very important because first of all it allows for new technology and new ways of doing tasks that can make the tasks more efficient and cost effective. As well, change can be uncomfortable, but can make someone stronger and more knowledgeable in the long run.
There are many definitions of “change.” These include:
- to make the form, nature, content, future course, etc., of (something) different from what it is or from what it would be if left alone: to change one's opinion; to change the course of history.
- to become different: Overnight the nation's mood changed.
- variety or novelty: Let's try a new restaurant for a change.
- coins of low denomination.
There's an old Chinese saying, "What makes one tired is not the high mountain far away, but the sand in one's shoes."
There was a recent worldwide survey of physician attitudes about their work. It will probably not surprise you that North American physicians are the most unhappy in the entire world. It's the constant "sand in our shoes." Each of us could write a book about what makes up that sand. It's lots more than payment issues. It's interference with our ability to make necessary decisions for our patients, fears about unfair medical liability cases, pressure on time spent with patients. All the things that hinder our power to heal, all the things that leave us drained and disheartened.
We need fundamental change in our health care system for ourselves, for our patients, for our nation. Right now annual health care costs exceed $2 trillion. That's 16 percent of our nation's GDP. Costs are estimated to reach $4 trillion and 20 percent of GDP in 10 years.
We are the most innovative, resilient, determined, self-reliant and creative nation in the world. Our health care system is, in many ways, the best of the best – in others it isn’t. It is hard to say if the new health care law will make it the best overall or not, but change is likely to come for all of us because of this new law.
We need to come together to deal with what is driving our national debate about health care and that is cost. It is no different in other countries. Even before the global financial meltdown, concerns about cost took center stage. And now, concerns about cost will be the all-consuming issue.
Our ability to care for patients is threatened by the uncertainty of the annual wrangling with Congress over Medicare fees. And what is the response by our critics? "Oh it's easy," they tell us. "Why don't you just work harder and see more patients?" I’m not so sure that can really be done – there are only so many hours in the day for physicians to see patients and see them with excellence. Individually, we don't think too much about it. On April 1, a 21% cut in Medicare reimbursement to physicians went into effect, but it was held off to see if Congress could “fix” it. As you know, this fix called the SGR was left out of the health care reform act because it would have shown that the health care bill would add too much to the deficit. Instead, for two weeks, physicians were not paid for their services by Medicare. In spite of this, we continued to see Medicare and Tricare patients, not knowing how much we would be paid for seeing them. A lot of people think that doctors are wealthy and we can take it, but I don’t know one other business that could sustain that kind of treatment.
Who should be making the decisions about appropriateness of care, about overuse or misuse? It is our professional responsibility. We will likely not be alone in these decisions, but we can't be left out.
I’m sure you remember this pivotal question during one of the presidential debates? "Is health care a right, a privilege or a responsibility?" Whatever we think individually, the broad population seems to be moving toward believing that health care is a right. The Declaration of Independence states that we as Americans have the right to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness. These are rights to actions, not rewards from other people. Under the American system, you have a right to health care if you can pay for it – if you can earn it by your own action and effort. No one has the right to the services of any professional individual or group simply because he wants them and desperately needs them.
But who will pay for this so called right? Who will define the parameters of this right to health care? Everyone can’t have everything and society should not have to and can’t afford to provide everything. Deciding these “rights” and “responsibilities” will take time, thought, and difficult decision making. Personal responsibility will have to be laid out. What will be expected from the individual and what will be expected from society?
Are we prepared to participate in the debate? Because the debate is going to happen. It is not just about us. But physicians and patients will have to live with the outcomes. That's why we have a big role to play. Doctors need to stand up and let their voices be heard.
We're in a time when our country is demanding change. Let's harness that energy for our patients and ourselves. For sure, this is for us - we have to remove the sand from our shoes. But it is for so much more than us.
As Hillel said so many centuries ago, "If I am not for me, who will be for me? If I am only for me, what am I?"
There are about 100 D.O.s in our House of Delegates and 650 in the AOMA. There are 2700 licensed osteopathic docs in the state and by 2020, we expect to have 95,400 D.O.s in the United States. We are diverse in our backgrounds, in our ideological beliefs, in our political views. The osteopathic profession and our patients are well served by this variety. Our House of Delegates is well served by our strong opinions and energetic debates. We have power and a voice that should be heard. Physicians need to take a stand. As the leader of the AOMA, I pledge to listen to YOU, my colleagues and constituents and to present your voice to our officials. I have to hear from you to know what you believe and what you want our organization to take a stand for or against. I want to lead by the people and for the people – not tell you what is right for you.
So let's be firm in our determination, flexible in our approaches, and grounded in the ethical principles that have been the foundation of our profession throughout history.
My goal for the coming year is for the AOMA to harness the political power of our members. We will use our lobbying staff, our PAC money, our media connections and our members to be a resource to our elected officials, to physicians practicing in Arizona, and to our patients. I want to help emerging states that surround us to grow their osteopathic presence as well – states like Utah where there are people who are ready to be pioneers for osteopathic medicine if they have guidance from our trailblazers. We can form alliances with them – connecting our experienced physicians with the people there who have drive and ambition to make things happen – the AOMA can be the catalyst for positive change. We stand on the forefront regarding changes that are happening in health care this year and into the future. We want to be at the table. We want don’t want to be victims of change – we want to make change happen.
Thank you for your support and confidence as we move forward into the future of medicine. I look forward to working with all of you this year.
