FEATURE
AMS Continues Sharing the Load with Arkansas Physicians
BY CASEY PENN
As physicians and health care professionals of Arkansas , you know best that those in the field of medicine are not in a place to stop fighting against this virus after two years , and the same is true for the organizations behind medicine . From the early days of the pandemic , when Arkansas ’ s first COVID-19 patient was identified on March 11 , 2020 , to today , when more than 800,000 Arkansans have tested positive for this virus and more than 10,000 have died , your Arkansas Medical Society leadership and staff have worked in a multitude of ways to support physicians and their staffs and patients .
The Society wants to continue encouraging your ongoing efforts during this pandemic and assure you that we ’ re still here beside you in the fight – helping to bear the load . Here ’ s a quick look back at what AMS has been doing – and a look at how the Society will continue to help .
THE EARLY DAYS IN THE FIGHT AGAINST COVID
As the pandemic began ramping up , the Society immediately became involved , taking on any tasks necessary to support our state ’ s doctors . There were sometimes daily meetings with stakeholders and extensive COVID updates to members . The AMS staff answered many calls from clinics trying to figure out their next steps as health officials , health providers , and the public tried to make sense of the new virus and how to fight it . AMS worked tirelessly to make crucial recommendations to state officials to help safeguard the practice of medicine during extraordinary circumstances . For instance , the Society ’ s recommendations to Gov . Asa Hutchinson helped safeguard the physician-patient relationship as the state relaxed telemedicine law requirements to allow for virtual care during a pandemic .
AMS also jumped in to help clinics with pandemic-related reimbursement provisions , challenges related to staff shortages , and clinic closings , but perhaps the most basic yet difficult and necessary task , was procuring and distributing personal protective equipment ( PPE ).
“ Calls started coming in … physicians could no longer order the protective equipment needed , supply lines were overwhelmed with worldwide requests , and Arkansas was not getting enough of the national stockpile of PPE ,” recalled David Wroten , AMS executive vice president , of the circumstances that launched a full-scale Society effort to distribute PPE to clinics across the state .
The state ’ s PPE stockpile was going to first responders , hospitals , nursing homes , and other hot spots , so AMS reached out to Gov . Hutchinson asking for assistance . The governor had announced that he would buy $ 30 million worth of PPE , and then that number went up to $ 70 million . Wroten said , “ During a Saturday morning phone call , Gov . Hutchinson agreed to allocate a percentage of those purchases to the state ’ s medical practices . During that conversation , I stuck my neck out just a little bit and said , ‘ If you ’ ll just help us out , we ’ ll get it to them .’ From that point forward , we became PPE distributors for a while .”
170 THE JOURNAL OF THE ARKANSAS MEDICAL SOCIETY