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PRESIDENT’S
MESSAGE
Every Physician Counts and
Every Patient Matters
By Dr. Jayesh Shah, 2016 BCMS President
Thank you for bestowing me with this honor. patients need. I know I am not alone in my frustration — I hear from
It is my privilege and honor to represent 4,700 Bexar county physi- physicians of every specialty who are concerned about the new regu-
cians, residents and fellows; the 8th largest county medical society in lations forced on us every year - fights with the insurance companies,
the United States. the unsustainable pace of their jobs, poor leadership and lack of sup-
I have had the privilege, for the past 16 years, of working in many port. We all agree: providing excellent care to patients is NOT nego-
capacities in our organization for our shared vision; A healthier Bexar tiable. Together, we have demanded that the barriers physicians face
County populace. For these entire 16 years, one person has always in delivering excellent care to our patients be removed. Please join me
stood by my side as my support and my critic - my wife Neha, a phys- to “stop the RED TAPE CAMPAIGN.”
ical therapist and Lymphedema Specialist.
It is my passion to serve organized medicine. Last year, an incident The Medicare trust fund will be insolvent by 2030. Inaction is not
in my own family gave me a totally new perspective about health care, an option. We must make structural reforms to Medicare to ensure it
which I would like to share with you briefly. is a sustainable program that will be around for our children and
In August of 2014, my mother suddenly developed left-sided weak- grandchildren. To strengthen Medicare and to ensure that it meets
ness. After hospitalization and rehab for 50 days, she came home. the healthcare challenges of current and future seniors, we must take
From an invalid, she got stronger day-by-day and now is able to walk steps to develop long-term solutions. These solutions must protect
with a walker and is able to feed herself. During this stressful time, I the doctor-patient relationship, increase provider and consumer re-
saw the American health care system from the other side of the fence, sponsibility and accountability, promote cost efficiency, fair access and
not as a physician, but as a family member of a patient. And what I preventive health and bring back the satisfaction and joy in practicing
saw was an efficient health care system that worked. I saw that the medicine.
health care system and team-based care put a smile on my mother’s
face and brought relief to our family. Our patients share with us their difficulties, their pains, their life
I share this story not to tell you what is good or what is bad about and they trust us to help them. As physicians, we try to keep our pa-
the health care system, but to help us, the physicians, to understand tients happy and help them meet their needs. There is no other pro-
how to practice medicine in these times of change and how to con- fession as rewarding as ours. A recent American Medical Association
tinue to do the right thing for our patients. survey showed that 75 percent of patients wanted to see their physi-
It reminds me that life is fragile and can change in a fraction of a cians even if they had to wait longer. A recent survey of 8,000 patients
second. It reminds me that we are on this earth for a limited time and by the University of Chicago showed that 97 percent of the patients
just like my mother keeps that beautiful smile under all adversities; wanted the doctor to discuss the treatment options and two-thirds of
let us remember to keep that smile. them wanted their doctor to make decisions for them. Polls consis-
It can be frustrating to practice medicine at certain times, when tently showed that the patients trust their physician and what better
you are overwhelmed with the number of patients we have to see with job satisfaction can we get than our patient’s trust.
limited resources, when the electronic health record system or the
computer stops working in the middle of a busy day, when the insur- AMA recently surveyed 600 primary care physicians. Doctors in
ance company denies authorization for a test or treatment that our the survey said that forming long-term relationships with the primary
care physician is the most important thing that can be done to obtain
8 San Antonio Medicine • February 2016 better medical care and to decrease the cost of health care. Research
backs this up. If patients change their doctor, they have delayed diag-
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