Achieving System Wide Changes: Collaboration is Key

By Robert L. Moore, MD, MPH, MBA, Chief Medical Officer

“I think the reason I’ve been so committed to advocacy is because I see so many people in pain.”

Olly Alexander, British Actor

As we emerge from the constraints of the COVID pandemic, we are spending important and deserved energy on restoring our systems and staffing. At the same time, we are trying our best to respond to a flood of new regulations, programs, and provider types.

Given all these activities and external stresses, we have been less engaged with community partners and advocacy efforts. This impacts our effectiveness in addressing challenges in our communities. Lack of engagement also leads to less robust feedback in the policy development process, which impacts the effectiveness of these policies as they roll out.

There are many levels of collaboration in which clinical leaders can and should participate in. I want to highlight three that are particularly worthwhile: County medical societies (more detail below), local community collaboratives, and statewide trade organizations. The latter two will be the subject of future newsletters.

Organized Medicine/County Medical Societies 
County medical societies can serve several important functions:

  1. Promote the value of professionalism in the field of medicine
  2. Provide a social support network for individual clinicians
  3. Promote policies and programs that support and advocate for public health
  4. Promote policies aimed at improving the health status of the entire population

The California Medical Association (CMA) has a respected and powerful political voice in Sacramento. There are times organized medicine may vote to promote a policy we individually disagree with; however, the process of directing the policy priorities is remarkably democratic. That process depends on participation by local county delegates and regional trustees that take the time to learn about health policy and participating in the process.

Some medical groups in more populous areas have more influence in the CMA because they have all their physicians join their local medical societies. Conversely, medical society membership and delegate representation is low in rural areas often leading to unaccounted physician views on policy issues.

At a minimum, the clinical leaders of a Primary Care Provider (PCP) organization should be active medical society members. If your organization’s budget can accommodate it, covering the cost for any interested physician to join the medical society is a best practice. Having the organization or medical group pay for all physicians to be members will give your organization a bigger voice and is certainly worth considering.

Next month: Engaging in Community Collaboratives.

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