Moments matter--and physicians must take them back: AMA president

In an address during Saturday’s opening session of the 2015 AMA Interim Meeting, AMA President Steven J. Stack, MD, spoke from the heart as he discussed the current state of health care in our country and insisted that in medicine, moments matter. When more and more moments are stolen from physicians, it is the patient who suffers most—and this cannot stand. Dr. Stack spoke first of a recent incident that left him thinking about “exactly what is wrong with health care today and exactly” what is needed to “make medicine right again.”  Because of overwhelming Medicaid protocol, Dr. Stack said, he was unable to carve out the amount of time he needed to deliver a diagnosis of terminal cancer to a patient in the way he had wished. A series of frustrating phone calls, interruptions and unnecessary bureaucratic protocols stole precious time he had intended to give his patient. “It actually makes me sick,” he said, “that I didn’t have time to be the physician I know I am, the partner that patient deserved in his time of need.” “We simply cannot tolerate this … it is a theft of our time [and] our passion,” Dr. Stack continued. “Providing excellent care to patients is not negotiable.” Momentum is on our side Physicians have gained ground on many key health care issues, Dr. Stack said. The AMA boldly opposed the proposed mergers in the health insurance industry because patients deserve options, and physicians and patients alike must have deci...
Source: AMA Wire - Category: Journals (General) Authors: Source Type: news