Like the rest of the country, 2022 saw LMS transition to near normal operations while the pandemic continues but at lower levels of death and infection. We started 2022 with LMS conducting our second virtual presidential transition with the state in a high level of Covid infection. Dr. James Borders handed off the LMS Presidency to Dr. Khalil Rahman to an empty boardroom, broadcasted virtually to the membership. By May, as the infection rate went down to “green” levels, LMS transitioned to in-person events at our May dinner meeting with a legislative update by Senator Ralph Alvarado, MD and concluded the year at our November dinner meeting with presenting Dr. Steven Stack, our Kentucky Commissioner for Health and LMS member, with the Jack Trevey Award for Community Service for his superb leadership guiding the Commonwealth through the pandemic. Thank you to Dr. Khalil Rahman for his leadership this past year as our LMS President and welcome Dr. Lee Dossett as he assumes the LMS Presidency for 2023.
Dr. Stack receiving the Trevey Award from Dr. Rahman
Goal 1: Physician Wellness
The LMS Physician Wellness Program (PWP), has completed its seventh year. The PWP provides free counseling sessions, eight per calendar year, to address life’s normal difficulties with a psychologist group contracted by LMS. This service is completely confidential. LMS pays a monthly invoice based on the number of visits, no names. The LMS PWP service started in January 2016 and expanded to include all University of Kentucky Graduate Medical Education residents and fellows in July 2016 and then to all UK medical students in May 2020. The pandemic caused our psychology group to utilize teletherapy which enabled them to cover all UK residents and medical students at all campus locations in Kentucky. Our psychology group now does both in-person and teletherapy sessions. The PWP, since its inception, has provided over 2,700 counseling sessions for active physicians, residents and fellows, and medical students. In 2022, as of November 30, 982 sessions were used, a couple hundred more sessions than the previous year. The LMS PWP is a model that we have helped replicate in many other medical societies throughout the country.
Goal 2: Physician Leadership Development
LMS continued to support the Kentucky Physician Leadership Institute (KPLI). KMA’s KPLI launched its inaugural year in 2017. This program focuses on developing physician leaders through four, two-day overnight sessions on topics of personal leadership, business leadership, advocacy leadership, and leadership on a critical health care issue. The sessions are led by a talented faculty team from Butler University. LMS has sent fifteen physicians to the KPLI program since its inaugural year in 2017, including two physicians in 2022. Feedback from LMS KPLI participants was entirely positive. LMS will fund three more slots for the 2023 class. Contact LMS if you are interested and want more information.
2023 KPLI Sessions Dates
– July 7-8, 2023: The Personal Side of Leadership
– July 28-29, 2023: The Business of Leadership
– August 11-12, 2023: From Leadership to Advocacy
– August 26, 2023: Communication in Leadership
LMS hosted, in October 2022, the Lexington Healthcare Systems Executive Leadership Seminar for CMOs/CEOs and other senior leaders from UK College of Medicine, the VA, Lexington Clinic, Baptist Health Lexington, and LMS. The two-day event was facilitated by the Referent Group, led by founder and CEO Tom Hustead, MD, who are immensely qualified on the topic of developing physician leaders.
Goal 3: Support for Early Career Physicians/Students
LMS continued to support three longstanding programs to support our medical students. LMS held its seventh “Career Chats” event in September 2022, having cancelled the event in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic. Career Chats has medical students chatting with physicians representing over fifteen specialties. This event, which includes catered food and refreshments, typically attracts over 120 medical students and 50 physicians, and gets positive reviews by all. LMS will host the 2023 Career Chat event on September 21, 2023, at the Signature Club. Contact LMS if you like represent your specialty at the event.
LMS Career Chats with UK College of Medicine medical students and LMS physicians, Sept. 22, 2022
The LMS-UK College of Medicine Mentorship Program launched in August 2017 and is currently in its sixth year. The program pairs our physicians with third year medical students. The concept is the program is centralized structured by LMS to match the participants and monitor program progress but decentralized executed by the mentors and mentees based on their time and interests. The program is mentoring 28 medical students this year. Consider becoming a mentor for the 2023/2044 class when we recruit mentors this summer. According to long time mentors, Drs. David and Marian Bensema, “You will be affected and changed for the better.” Contact LMS if would like to become a mentor.
A new program started in 2019 was the LMS Foundation Medical Student Emergency Relief Program. This program provides grants to medical students, those who otherwise do not have a means of support, to address life emergencies. The program works with the UK College of Medicine office of student affairs to identify those students that need assistance.
LMS awarded hundreds of dollars to medical students with its 8th Annual LMS Essay Contest orchestrated by the LMS Editorial Board which is led by Dr. Robert Granacher. The medical students wrote excellent essays on what ignited their passion to enter the practice of medicine.
Goal 4: Legislative Advocacy
LMS integrates with the legislative advocacy efforts and programs of the KMA and AMA. KMA, in the 2022 Kentucky long legislative session, saw three of its priority bills become law. House Bill 219, sponsored by Representative Kim Moser, established the Lung Cancer Screening Program within the Kentucky Department of Public Health to increase lung cancer screening. House Bill 529, sponsored by Representative Killian Timoney, the Compassionate Patient Support Bill, permits exceptions to federal law for providers to make test results available to patients, enables a 72-hour delay if the provider believes the receipt of such results by the patient prior to the provider counseling could cause emotional harm. House Bill 573, sponsored by Representative Kim Moser, established the Kentucky Healthcare Worker Loan Relief Program. The bill’s goal is to retain more healthcare providers in Kentucky and expand the number of healthcare providers in rural and urban underserved areas of the Commonwealth. In exchange for loan forgiveness, participants must commit to serving in an underserved area for up to two years. The program is open to nearly all providers: physicians, dentists, pharmacists, APRNs, RNS, etc. KMA, in 2023, will push for reforms related to prior authorizations within the state’s health plans in order to make it a more streamlined process.
LMS, through our AMA Delegate Dr. David Bensema and our Kentucky AMA Delegation, represents, at the federal level, the interests of the medical profession and your patients. Dr. Bensema provided detailed reports from the 2022 AMA Annual Meeting and AMA Interim Meeting on many AMA initiatives.
Goal 5: Improve Community Health
LMS Foundation returned, the first since 2019, with its annual charity golf tournament in May 2022 to raise over $20,000 to support Lexington-area, medical-related non-profit organizations to include the Baby Health Service, Bluegrass Council of the Blind, Camp Horsin’ Around, Children’s Advocacy Center of the Bluegrass, Chrysalis House, Explorium, Kentucky Diabetes Camp for Children, Kidney Health Alliance of Kentucky, McDowell House, Mission/Faith Pharmacy, Radio Eye, Ronald McDonald House, and Surgery on Sunday.
In April 2023, LMS will bring back its community health symposium, its first since its highly successful Opioid Symposium in the Fall of 2019.
LMS continues to focus its energy and resources to add value to our physicians. Let us know if you like to get further involved with the Society, provide feedback for existing programs, or have ideas for new programs. Our strategic planning, by its nature, is never done and we will constantly innovate and adapt to serve those who serve others.
