By Steven Reames, Executive Director, Ada County Medical Society

Last month, I addressed the issue of anger in the face of the Delta Surge, explaining it is a natural emotional reaction that is better not stuffed but must be processed in a healthy way. Although that resonated with many physicians who wrote back or told me in person, I recognize anger is not everybody’s response. Sometimes our reaction to overwhelm is just becoming dumb and numb.

By Guillermo Guzman, MD, Saint Alphonsus Medical Center, Idaho State Board of Medicine 

The stressors of the day to day activities that fade into routine and become almost imperceptible. The added patient at the end of our shift, followed by a phone call that still needs to be completed. The almost mandatory extra hour to finish your medical records and then on to review laboratory and radiology results waiting in your inbox. Only to start again the next day. And on to the next week. And so on.

by Kara Kuntz, MD, Saint Alphonsus Medical Group

Over 6 million Americans are living with dementia. The cost of caring for these individuals is estimated by the Alzheimer’s Association to be 355 billion dollars in 2021. As a local geriatrician, I care for families who experience tremendous frustration over delayed diagnoses, poor efficacy of current drug therapies, lack of insurance coverage for in-home caregiving, and subsequent exhaustion of family members who assume this full-time responsibility with no training or compensation. The emotional and financial cost of this disease demands our attention.

By Steven Reames, Executive Director, Ada County Medical Society

As we move towards implementing crisis standards of care for the first time in Ada County’s history, there is a lot of anger out there. It’s no wonder with a projection of 30,000 new COVID cases statewide in a week, an ongoing shortage of healthcare personnel to go around, and a lack of political will. One could think our state emblem might best be changed to hot potatoes.

By Steven Reames, Executive Director, Ada County Medical Society

When I heard the term “disruptive physician” for the first time, I imagined it was something akin to a kid in a classroom who had lost their self-control, was throwing a temper tantrum, and who caused other students, teachers, or staff to feel unsafe. Those pictures certainly fit the worst-case scenarios of physicians whose emotional intelligence and self-regulation have taken a leave of absence: surgeons who throw scalpels at interns or nurses, doctors who blow up if their authority is questioned or threatened, a physician who dresses down a co-worker in front of others.

By Steven Reames, Executive Director, Ada County Medical Society

I was listening to an interview on NPR this spring with Kevin Roose, a New York Times tech columnist. He was speaking about his new book and how humans need to “futureproof” themselves with respect to artificial intelligence. This quote caught my attention:

With spring finally ready to blow off winter for good this year, and continuing deceleration of COVID infections in our area, our board has deemed it safe to begin regathering our members. It has been a long year of telehealth adaptations, Zoom meetings and conferences, and culling the number of active relationships. But it is time for us to emerge from the wreckage that many members have experienced due to the pandemic.

As we begin to reconvene, let us think about the emotional triage we can provide one another, because nobody has escaped from this year significantly unscathed. By listening carefully to each other’s stories, traumas, triumphs, and trials, we honor each other’s journey through this past year and validate the difficulties and growth that may have come from it.

By Steven Reames, Executive Director, Ada County Medical Society

Throughout this past year, as the medical profession has been overwhelmed with responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, numerous voices have called for transforming medical culture. A couple of examples:

By Steven Reames, Executive Director, Ada County Medical Society

On the first anniversary of natural disasters, it is frequently a time to reflect on the impact of cataclysmic events in our personal and communal lives. After a year of living with COVID-19, it is all too easy to identify the massive changes in the way we live, work, play, and relate to each other. But what then? Fifty years from now, or even 500 years from now, will this be only a year in chronological history for students to memorize and get right on a test? Or is this a test, for us as a people, to get right in this moment of history?

By Steven Reames, Executive Director, Ada County Medical Society

There have been a number of times in my life and career when people have reached out to me for help. Sometimes it has been a person looking for a referral to a counselor. Other times it has been as simple as "I really need another perspective" (or desperate) as “I just don’t know what to do next.” Last week I took a call from somebody looking to get connected to the Physician Recovery Network because of a DUI.

By Steven Reames, Executive Director, Ada County Medical Society

Last month, Ada County Medical Society released a statement supporting Central District Health’s leadership in its handling of the Coronavirus. We affirmed diverse perspectives, respectful dialogue, and peaceful protests, but opposed the intimidating tactics on display that silence or disrupt civil processes. As you may recall, protesters outside the CDH offices and homes of some of its board members Dr. Ted Epperly and Ada County Commissioner Diana Lachiondo interrupted their board meeting. They were considering a public health order which would have required face coverings throughout the district; when the board reconvened the following week, it failed to pass.