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PRESIDENT’S
MESSAGE
BEXAR COUNTY MEDICAL SOCIETY'S
PROMISE FOR THE FUTURE
Our new home is where
“Every Physician Counts and Every Patient Matters”
By Dr. Jayesh Shah, 2016 BCMS President
It does not matter whether a physician is in academia, private
practice or military service. It does not matter whether they are
hospital-employed, insurance-employed or a researcher. It does
not matter whether they are in their first five years of practice,
or in their 40th year of practice, or whether they are in a small
practice or a large group. Our medical society provides a perfect
platform for members to address common issues that affect all
aspects of our medical practice, including patient care, practice
management and dealing with managed care.
As physicians, we are currently facing unprecedented chal-
lenges. I feel there are many flaws in our healthcare system and
we need to understand the issues in depth. When the numbers
of physicians are declining and the numbers of administrative
personnel are going up, then there is something wrong. When
lesser trained health care professionals are asking for independent
practice, then there is something wrong. When non-medical re-
tail establishments are opening clinics as profit centers, then there
is something wrong. When healthcare is run with little or no
physician input, then there is something wrong. When physicians
are spending more time in front of the computer rather than in
face-to-face interactions with their patients, then there is some-
thing wrong. When our country’s heath care expenses are sky
rocketing and our health care indices like infant mortality rate
are still high, then there is something wrong.
A physician is like a mother of heath care. In every home, there
is a saying “if mama ain’t happy, then no one is happy.” If our
physicians are not happy then our healthcare system will suffer.
But let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I
say to you today my friends.
Even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I
still have a dream for our profession and we will fulfill our dream
for health care in Bexar County through our new home. I have
a dream that all Bexar County physicians and Texas physicians
are helping me to realize. Because it takes a village, no single per-
son can revolutionize a system. Every single one of us — physi-
cians and empowered patients alike — must say YES to our
calling and do what we can to heal the system from the inside
out — one physician/patient relationship at a time.
8 San Antonio Medicine • June 2016
I have a dream that one day physicians will rise up to the chal-
lenge. They will start entrepreneurial businesses, and they will
start reforming the system from inside out. They will interface
with the pharmaceutical industry, the managed care systems, pol-
itics, and academia.
I have a dream that one day we will have empowered patients
who will be willing to rewrite the story of medicine with us!
That’s where all of us come in. Physicians have the capacity to
heal health care from a grassroots level. Every one of us is needed.
Thank you for your contribution to bring the CARE back to
health care, which is where it should belong.
With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of
despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to work
together, to pray together, to struggle together, knowing that one
day we will have a health care system:
Where Individual physician practice will thrive
Where midlevel providers will work in collaboration with physicians
Where Electronic Medical Records and health information exchanges
and telehealth technology will seamlessly interface with each other,
physicians and payers
Where physicians will be fairly reimbursed and compensated
Where hospitals administrators and physicians work in cooperation
with each other
Where the healthcare system will allow physicians to follow the Hip-
pocratic oath that they have taken
Where physicians will treat a patient holistically focusing first on pre-
vention of diseases and increasing patient participation in wellness
programs and then managing diseases
This is our hope, and faith and I am sure every physician’s
dream will come true in our new home at BCMS — where every
physician counts and every patient matters.