www.escambiacms.org
NovEmbEr/DEcEmbEr 2012
BULLETIN
volUmE 42, No. 6
Upcoming Events Saturday, January 19, 2013 ECMS Annual Inaugural Ball President-Elect: Wendy Osban, DO Paul’s on the Bay February 12, 2013 | 5:30p General Membership Meeting Risk Management 1.5 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditTM March 7, 2013 | Apple Annie’s | 5:30p Annual ECMS Doctors Day Celebration Wine around the World with ECMS Wine & food parings-trivia-prizes April 9, 2013 | 5:30p General Membership Meeting Domestic Violence 2 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditTM
RSVP: 478-0706 info@escambiacms.org
Founded in 1873
President’s Message
CLOSING REMARKS Dr. George A.W. Smith It is unbelievable that my year as president of the Escambia County Medical Society is coming to an end and this will be my last article for the newsletter. It has been an honor serving as your president and I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your support and to recap some of the highlights of this year. Our Executive Director Erica Laxson now Huffman, (congratulations are in order) has completed her first year with the Medical Society and has done an outstanding job with marketing and networking in the community. We have continued to increase membership and raise positive awareness of our society through our bi-monthly newsletter, collaborative efforts with the local hospitals and healthcare facilities, monthly general membership meetings, event fliers and email communication. The Go Seniors Transportation Program was funded for the second year by the Fellows Memorial Fund in the amount of $30,000 allowing us to successfully continue to assist elderly patients with their healthcare transportation needs. In May we brought in twenty two vendors for our Annual Mini Health Vendor Fair where we also hosted our first ECMS Physician Speed Networking Event. This year the Annual ECMS Doctors Day celebration was hosted at a Pensacola Ice Flyers Hockey Game in March and was well attended. In July our delegation attended the FMA Annual Convention and hosted the Northwest Florida Caucus. Dr. Wendy Osban President Elect served on the Reference Committee II – Finance and Administration. She has since then been accepted into the FMA Physician Leadership Academy class of 2013. Our Secretary Treasurer Dr. Christopher Burton graduated with the Class of 2012 also at this meeting. We partnered with the Pensacola Chamber of Commerce to plan, organize and co-host a dinner meeting at the 6th Annual Strategic health Intelligence Summit. Laura Davis fourth year medical student at the Florida State University College of Medicine Pensacola Campus was the recipient of a $5,000 scholarship. One of our ongoing programs which bring us a great deal of pride is the WeCare program and I will spend the rest of the time writing about this. WeCare was created in 1992 by the Escambia Medical Society as a program of the ECMS Foundation to coordinate the network of healthcare providers and assist in delivering medical services to the indigent residents of Escambia and Santa Rosa Counties. The mission of the program is to provide specialty medical care to as many financially and medically eligible patients as possible. It does this with a network of over three hundred providers who voluntarily donate all
Dr. George A.W. Smith services to the tune of over $3 million per year in contributed services. As such it has been one of the more successful WeCare programs in the state. The Escambia County Board of Commissioners provides approximately $70,000 in funding for a program coordinator/case manager and a clerk. Program oversight is provided by the staff of the Escambia County Health Department under the leadership of its director Dr. John Lanza. Despite the distinct benefit that the WeCare program provides for the patients served and their referral sources, there are a number of short comings first and foremost of which is the inequity in the number of patients seen and the cost of uncompensated care provided by the participating healthcare facilities. Historically there are some specialties that have no or very few volunteers which makes it extremely difficult to get those patients seen and increases the risk of jeopardizing the specialists participation due to overload and burn out. Consequently there is always a waiting list sometimes as long as three or four months.There also tends to be over utilization of the more willing specialists and specialty groups and their affiliate healthcare facilities resulting in disparities in the value of care donated. The latter is also directly related to the uncompensated care programs offered by these healthcare facilities and how easily the patients feel that they can navigate these. In May of this year a group of representatives from the Health Department, Escambia Community Clinics Inc., ECMS, Baptist HealthCare and Sacred Heart Health Systems met to discuss these very issues. Multiple ideas and suggestions were discussed but it was felt that one of the most urgent need was to ensure the sustainability of the program. One recommendation was that ECC starts some specialty clinics even one-half day a month with specialists who would be contracted at an hourly rate. In the meantime we continue to rely on volunteers and I would encourage all specialists to consider participating. The State of Florida provides Sovereign Immunity Statute to provide protection from litigation, and Worker’s Compensation while donating services. Waiver of license renewal fees and 25 percent of the continuing education hours required for license renewal are available to those who donate 160 hours of services to low income recipients during the biennial licensure period. I would like to thank all our members for your support of our programs and would like to remind you of our Medical Errors program in December and the Inauguration Royale – Installation of Officers in January.