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Letter from the Presidentteresa Girolami, MDPresident, King County Medical Society
As the year-end approaches, my two- year term representing you as the President of the King County Medical Society (KCMS) is coming to an end. When I moved here in 1991, I called the KCMS and joined. Over the years I called many times asking for guidance and advice and was never disappointed.
As I became a busy Internist in private practice, I made fewer calls until one day I got a call from the Society asking me to be a delegate. I accepted and took this responsibility seriously; I have attended every WSMA conference since.
Over the past ten years I feel that physicians are becoming less involved in county societies and less involved in our profession. With the many changes that have taken place our physician voices have been quieted. When I began my presidency I created goals for the Society and myself. I can now see that they may have been a bit optimistic, but here they are:
1. Make King County Medical Society relevant again
2. Be a resource for physicians
3. Give physicians a voice again
4. Double our membership
5. Start four committees (or bring them back again): 1) Public Health 2) Mental Health 3) CME/Fun & Games 4) Scholarships
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My presidency started with both a new CEO, Nancy Belcher, and Board of Trustees, including medical students and residents. It was an opportunity to change many things and over the two years, the board has been amazing and supportive of many changes.
We started with getting a new banker, reinvesting our funds, transforming our historic and beautiful building into rentable space and a thorough rebranding of our Society including a new website. We created a monthly newsletter, numerous new events, competed for and won contracts to carry out lead screening and work with the firearm coalition. We have had our members featured in the Seattle Times, many podcasts and regularly on the radio and in the media.
But we have also kept the heart of the Society intact. We continued the Speaker Series for the retired physicians, we have been in Olympia and regularly meet with your elected officials. We have been working hard for ALL physicians.
Most recently, we have worked on keeping your license renewal fees down, trying to repeal the B&O tax on small business physicians, banning flavored e-cigarette products, reducing gun violence, getting notification from pharmacies about vaccines on our patients, creating an adult statewide database and much more. We have invited Regence into our meetings to explain the preauthorization review process and continue to work hard to address these issues that are important to all of us.
Our committees have been inspiring. We are tackling diverse topics and I want to invite all to please call or email the Society if you would like to join a committee. We have a long history of being active in issues that impact physicians all over King County.
We are also branching out in new directions. We recently created a HealthTech Summit in partnership with IntuitiveX. This was a very different avenue for the Society but it was an opportunity to provide a new resource for entrepreneurial physicians. KCMS invited its members to engage with incubators, start-ups, investors, and businesses.
Our Fun and Games Itinerary included the 2018 Christmas event “Enchant”, and the recent glassybaby women physician event. Our 2019 holiday event will be in a few weeks in Bellevue at Mox Boarding House (invitation below). Please JOIN US!
We are providing CME opportunities including the opioid CMEs in both January and February, and the firearm safety CME in September.
Sadly, I did not reach my goal of doubling KCMS members, but our overall numbers did increase considerably, and we have the largest society in the state. This year we brought the largest delegations to the WSMA annual HOD meeting. As a result, we were very successful in passing our resolutions. Just think about how much more we could accomplish with even more members!
The entire team at the King County Medical Society is engaged and open to suggestions from our members. Please come join us and please encourage your friends to join our Society.
It is very rewarding and invigorating.
I hope to see you soon,
Teresa Girolami
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From the CEONANCY L. BELCHER, PH.D., MPA
CEO, KING COUNTY MEDICAL SOCIETY
THANKFULNESS As I prepare for Thanksgiving, I am thankful for Dr. Teresa Girolami who has been by my side every step of the way as the new KCMS CEO. Teresa's encouragement, wisdom, and tenacity enabled all of the Society's recent achievements. I look forward to working with her as the Outgoing President, and my friend, for years to come. I believe the true measure of a leader, a colleague and a friend is their willingness to show up. Teresa ALWAYS showed up. Thank you, Teresa.
NEW Community Outreach OpportunityKCMS, the Somali Health Board, Horn of Africa Services, and PHSKC are building a community-driven Healthcare Stakeholder Group to develop strategies to prevent lead poisoning. If you, or a healthcare provider (MD, PA, RN, MA), are interested email nbelcher@kcmsociety.org
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We invite you to join us for a night of friends, food, drinks, and games!
Open to all KCMS Members, their families, and colleagues interested in membership. Please register at your earliest convenience as space is limited. Questions? Please email sadisu@kcmsociety.org
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Upcoming 2020 Membership Dues!
We are busy preparing membership renewal statements using both paper and email notices. Please go online now and renew your membership HERE and save a tree!Membership Coordinator: jreed@kcmsociety.org is happy to help!
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1st Annual KCMS Awards Event
The 1st Annual KCMS Awards Ceremony will be in early 2020. Please enter nominations TODAY!Nominations are now open!
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We are delighted to welcome our NEW MEMBERS
Marissa C. Hahn, MD
Caitlin A. Smith, MD
Samuel E. Rice-Townsend, MD
John S. Bramhall, MD
Susan E. Warwick, MD
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Speaker SeriesTuesday, December 17, 2019 (new date) |12-1 p.m. @ KCMS Building
Dr. Bezruchka discuss "U.S. Health Declines: What can doctors do?
Questions? Please email sadisu@kcmsociety.org
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Volunteer OpportunityKing County Medical Society with be providing free lead screening events at the Seattle/King County Clinic events in February 2020. The next Clinic is Wed, Feb 13 – Sat, Feb 16, 2020, from 4 am (!) -9 am at Seattle Center.
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Dr. Bart Muller Dr. Muller is retiring and is closing his practice on Dec. 20th, 2019. Best of luck Dr. Muller!
Dr. Richard Pelman
Dr. Pelman is retiring, but you can enjoy his amazing podcasts (link below).
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In Memoriam Meredith Parks Smith
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