A Message From Your Executive Director: The ABCs of SDCMS
SDCMS is a business, and you, our member physicians, are our customers. In the past, this statement would have been considered heretical. However, in today's difficult macro- and micro-economic environments and uncertain healthcare climate, and with a relentless focus on reducing costs and increasing revenues, medical societies must behave as businesses whose only goal is to please their customers — you!
So if you accept the premise that we are a business, what are our lines of business? I as CEO must be able to articulate what SDCMS' specific lines of business are. If not, then we are lost in the wilderness, and tagged for extinction. Having reached the rusty and crusty old age of 55, I worry about remembering stuff, so with that in mind, I describe our lines of business by reciting the first nine letters of the alphabet.
ADVOCACY: We advocate for physicians and the patients whom they serve in San Diego County, Sacramento, and Washington, DC, in partnership with the California Medical Association (CMA).
BENEFITS: We provide you with tangible, measurable, and compelling benefits that make a difference to your bottom line.
COMMUNICATIONS: We communicate to, for, and from San Diego County's physicians.
DATA: We maintain the finest physician database in San Diego County.
ENGAGEMENT: We reach out and touch every physician at least once during the year with personal letters and cards, telephone calls, our e-newsletter "News You Can Use," our thrice-yearly "What Have We Done for You Lately," our social events, or our many seminars and webinars. We want to make sure you know that we're here for you!
FOUNDATION: SDCMS is a not-for-profit professional membership organization [a 501(c)(6) in tax parlance], but we are not a charitable organization. We now have a very robust charitable arm, the SDCMS Foundation, a 501(c)(3), whose mission is to build a healthier San Diego by addressing unmet healthcare needs for all patients and physicians through education, innovation, and service. The Foundation meets its mission through Project Access San Diego, which links low-income, uninsured San Diegans with volunteer physicians; the Retired Physicians Society; and medical student programs. If you would like to volunteer or donate, please contact Kitty Bailey at (858) 300-2780 or at KBailey@SDCMS.org.
GOVERNANCE: Boring but necessary!
HELP: We're here for you when you need us. Marisol Gonzalez, our full-time physician advocate, is dedicated to providing individualized assistance to our member physicians, and Lauren Wendler, our full-time office manager advocate, is dedicated to providing individualized assistance to member physicians' office managers.
INFRASTRUCTURE: Boring, but if infrastructure is lacking or failing, then we cannot meet our customers' needs, i.e, your needs.
We cannot and will not provide all lines of business for every customer. We have a segmented customer market — from the solo ENT in East County to the family physician at Kaiser — our members run the gamut. But, we at SDCMS have to provide something for everyone. Your SDCMS staff is here to serve you AND your office managers. Let us know what we can do better. Call me anytime on my cell at (619) 206-8282 or email me at Gehring@SDCMS.org.