The final word: Moving forward as a more dynamic, responsive organization

Sunday, November 01, 2015 11:42 AM

by M. Robert Yakely, MD, and Brigitta Robinson, MD

M. Robert Yakely, MD, right, and Brigitta Robinson, MD, left, address the House of Delegates at the 2015 CMS Annual Meeting.

At the 145th Annual Meeting of the Colorado Medical Society in September, the House of Delegates took a hard look at how we can best serve the needs of more Colorado physicians now and in the future. The decisions made at the meeting may prove to be one of the most significant turning points in our history.

The much-discussed governance reform package was on the table for consideration after more than a year of work from the CMS Governance Reform Task Force, formed the year before to examine how our medical society functions. After much thoughtful discussion, the House agreed by a large majority to implement the changes in governance that were recommended by the CMS Board of Directors.

To put this change in perspective, the governance process as it stood just two months ago was created in 1905! Back then a doctor had to hook a horse up to a buggy to get to the annual meeting to discuss resolutions submitted to formulate policy for the society. We would all agree that we have communication tools available to us today that were unimaginable to our founding fathers. The new model plans to take advantage of these tools to facilitate the formulation of new policy more quickly than once a year. It also envisions empowering more members to be involved in the formulation and implementation of new policies. The technology we are developing is cutting edge and has not been implemented by any other state medical society. Once again, the Colorado Medical society is leading the way.

We want to allow all members to sign up to participate in the policy forum. We currently do not reach many of our members who have great ideas but perhaps lack the ability to spend a weekend away from their practice formulating policy. We are also aware that although some enjoy the debate on the floor of the House and the amendments to amendments, others are less enchanted with that policy-setting aspect.

We expect all former delegates and alternates will participate in the new process, but we also strongly encourage all members to engage with your peers by electronically submitting ideas, concerns and problems through the virtual policy forum to the smaller, more nimble Board of Directors via your representative board member. We plan to use emails and text messages to communicate with the members of the policy forum; we have been told by our tech savvy members that they will respond to bullet point messages if they can quickly reply with a vote for a “good idea” or “bad idea.” We hope that if a member considers a proposal a “bad idea” they will take the time to explain why.

Another overwhelmingly popular change approved in the reform package is leadership training support to be implemented in a two-pronged approach. First, the Colorado Medical Society will commit to funding the popular Advanced Physician Leadership Program, which has graduated two cohorts of physicians already, to give physicians the communication and leadership skills necessary to implement meaningful health care reform. A new medical society leadership course will also train up-and-coming medical society leaders in communication, management skills, public persona and health policy.

These are just a few of the aspects of the reform package implemented at the annual meeting, and much has to be worked out over the course of the next year; we hope you are as excited as we are about the possibilities for our future. The goal is clear: We aim to provide our members with a dynamic, responsive organization that meets our members’ needs to provide advocacy and support for physicians’ careers in all types of practice settings. We are excited to move forward with the new changes and will keep you all abreast of the progress we make in the months to come. Please keep your comments coming by emailing president@cms.org. We would like to hear all suggestions as we move forward so we can incorporate as many as possible to make the reforms work for all physicians in Colorado.