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President's MessageProfessionalismN.H. Tucker, III, M.D., President |
| It is the year 2002 in Jacksonville. The Jaguars have just
won the Super Bowl and the city has landed the role of Super Bowl host for the 2006 game.
The economy is booming -- new corporate headquarters, new businesses, new hotel
construction, and new downtown housing developments are everywhere. The arts and cultural
scene continue to prosper and a professional ballet company has been added to the mix.
Education has made great strides and performance scores are at an all time high. Crime
statistics are at an all time low. It is a rosy picture, save for one glaring exception --
the physician community in Northeast Florida. There are three major physician-hospital alliances in the city. Two of the three are going head to head for dominancy in Macclenny. All three were involved in the recent scramble over the controversial City of Jacksonville contract. Cutthroat business tactics were in evidence and all parties were vilified in the press. River City Medical Group is the largest non-hospital affiliated physician group in town. River City physicians are no longer conversant with their non-River City brethren. Bad blood and burned bridges are the order of the day. This physician scenario is fictitious and it is incumbent upon the organization that is best positioned to speak for all the physicians of Duval County to make sure that it remains so. That organization is, of course, the Duval County Medical Society. One of our most important missions is to ensure that regardless of the various alliances, organizations, hospitals, and managed care entities in which physicians find themselves, they retain their professionalism. Without professionalism, the physician can very easily become a businessman in the worst sense of the word. Although most businessmen are ethical, we must be aware that business ethics and medical ethics are not the same. The primary goal of business is to maximize profits, and measures that are legal and in a contract are considered ethical from a business standpoint. A large component of medical ethics is professionalism, and professionalism has been the traditional counterweight to medical business. Professionalism places patient care, to the physician's best ability, as the physician's number one priority. The economics of this care, although important, are secondary. Professionalism is the manner in which physicians are expected to interact with patients, ancillary personnel, fellow physicians, and the general public. Professionalism encompasses a patient-first mentality, confidentiality of patient information, and decent personal conduct and behavior. Regardless of all the various transient business alliances present today, if we as physicians do not maintain our professionalism, we are lost. Gene Glenn once wrote an article on stewardship that I found to be particularly appealing. In that article, Gene pointed out that the difference between our still respected medical profession and that of the once proud legal profession is that we have maintained the stewardship of medicine over the years. This is the present battle. We know if we remain united and enlist our patients' support, we should be able to preserve the professional values we hold dear and take medicine to new heights. Jacksonville Medicine / March 1999What's New
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Jacksonville, FL 32204 |
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