16
doc • Spring 2015
Kentucky
Second Oldest but Never
Second Best
By Thomas H. Waid, M.D.
Past President, Lexington Medical
Society
The Lexington Medical Society is the second
oldest organized medical society in the country. Only the New Jersey Medical Society is
older. Founded in 1799, the LMS boasts many
prestigious members including Dr. Ephraim
McDowell, the father of American Surgery,
Dr. Daniel Drake, one of the foremost medical educators of the Nineteenth Century and
more recently, Dr. Ardis Hoven and Steve
Stack, immediate past President and President
elect of the American Medical Association
respectively, and Dr. David Bensema, President
of the Kentucky Medical Association. Indeed,
Central Kentucky represented by the LMS has
been at center stage in American medicine for
over 215 years. However, as active and successful as we have been, we as a society had
questions about our relevance in the changing
landscape of the 21st century medicine. For
this reason the LMS initiated a strategic planning process which was our major focus in
calendar year 2014. We called this plan: “Proud
of our Past. . .Shaping our Future.”
Our process began by reshaping our vision and
rewriting our Mission Statement and all values,
which I will share with you.
Vision: The Lexington Medical Society
endeavors to be the principle voice and
resource for Central Kentucky physicians
to improve the practice of medicine and the
health of the community.
Mission: As it has since its founding in 1799
the Lexington Medical Society strives to
improve the health of our community by supporting physicians and enhancing their professional lives.
Values: We value integrity, diversity, camaraderie, advocacy for the profession, education,
a physician centric experience, support for
young physicians and work-life balance.
Our strategic plan established seven goals as
follows:
1. Support young physicians,
2. Reform LMS governance
3. Establish programs focused in purpose
and value,
4. Establish the LMS as the principal voice
and resource for Central Kentucky physicians
5. Establish the LMS Strategic Planning
System,
6. Establish a new website and communication network
7. Streamline business practices.
We implemented or are in the process of
implementing each and every step of this plan
to achieve each goal outlined above. In so
doing, we have become a goal oriented organization intent on providing our members
with a more physician centric experience.
A survey of our society revealed that we
lacked an adequate technological infrastructure starting with our website. Our newly
designed and fully operational “state of the
art” website provided the society with our
first “principle voice and resource” tool. It
allows both members and non-members to
access information about the LMS, Central
Kentucky Medicine and even has a KMA
legislative twitter feed. It can be easily
accessed at www.LexingtonDoctors.org or
on google by searching Lexington Medical
Society. Our business practices are continually being streamlined using cloud based services including our credentialing process via
Commonwealth Credentialing. This cloudbased, credentialing software will reduce the
time needed to process over 1000 new or
renewal applications by about 33% and will
be phased in over the course of this year.
Developing Physician Leadership is an
important function of our society. While
streamlining the business practices of the
LMS, it occurred to us that we could provide
leadership to our community of physicians,
members and non-members alike, by initiating “Business of Medicine” seminars. We are
in the planning stage for this series but some
topics that have been suggested are as follows:
strategic marketing, understanding insurance:
the basics, medical liability and documentation, how to prepare for your financial future,
politics and medicine, and practice models.
The LMS will engage experts in each area
to moderate these seminars. Additionally,
we are beginning a series of LMS Physician
Leadership Seminars. Starting on April 18,
2015 these will be open to LMS members
and their practice managers (a $300 value)
but will be available to non-member physicians and their managers for a fee. The KMA
has approved this activity for 6.5 category one
CME credits. Finally, we are planning more
LMS programming with spouses. Our first of
these, “Building Strong Physician Families,” is
scheduled for March 10th. We believe these
are programs of purpose and value and offering them fulfills one of our goals.
Supporting young physicians is an emphasis
of the LMS. Programming with spouses in
attendance is but one aspect of this endeavor.
The LMS has been proactive in adding medical students and residents to its committee
structure and executive board. We have estab-
lished a program named “Specialty Speed
Dating” connecting trainees with physicians
established in their practices. Also this March
we will be sponsoring several students to go
to Washington DC to meet with their congressmen and senators to discuss health care
policy.