Holiday Party; Clinic Sale; 1/19/04

Holiday Letter From Dr. Sawhney
Dear Members:
This DMN issue cannot begin to portray the wonderful event – the 18th annual WCMS Foundation Holiday Party for underprivileged children - that your generosity made possible Dec. 13. Over 240 children, parents and volunteers participated in a day full of joy, excitement, learning and entertainment at the Detroit Science Center.

This year’s contributions again exceeded previous years. What you read about in this issue was only possible because of our physician contributors and the volunteers, particularly the medical students, who helped make this day, another successful holiday event for some of Detroit’s underprivileged children. My personal thanks as well as that of the WCMS Foundation’s Board of Directors and staff. With your help, we fully anticipate conducting the 19th annual party next Dec. 11.
Best Wishes to you and your family for the New Year.
Sincerely,
Krishna Sawhney, MD

2003 Holiday Party Donors
Office Staff of Dr. Krishna Sawhney
Paul Mazzara
Armando Ortiz
Drs. George & Nadia Kazzi
Dr. & Mrs. Charles J. Barone, II
Helen Papaioanou, MD
Jerry Kirkland of Proctor & Gamble

President's Report: Notes from the Executive Council Meeting
By EDWARD JANKOWSKI, MD
WCMS President
Public Health Authority: As of this mailing, the public health authority inter-local agreement has been signed by Detroit’s mayor, the Wayne County CEO and the State Department of Community Health. The Detroit City Council and the Wayne County Commission must act and then the governor will give her final approval. We have already heard about the Authority from former Henry Ford Health System CEO Gail Warden who has spear-headed this effort for the last several months. All of you have read about the appointment of Mike Duggan to be President and CEO of the DMC. We will all be very interested in the progress he makes in the next several months. I had the opportunity to comment on his appointment to the Detroit News and to radio reporters. To volunteer, contact the WCMS office at (313) 874-1360.

Medical staff meetings: As you know, every year, the president and the executive director try to attend at least one staff meeting of all the hospitals in Wayne County. Over the past two months, the Hutzel, Harper, Sinai-Grace, Bon Secours-Cottage and Garden City Osteopathic staff meetings have been attended by one or both of us. The Children's Hospital medical staff meeting occurred on the night of the Macomb County Medical society meeting but was covered my Rob Beaddie, our MSMS membership services representative.
Macomb CMS: This past November, Adam Jablonowski, Dr. Bush and I attended the annual business meeting of the Macomb County Medical Society. Dr. Sachinder S. Hans was inaugurated as their president during a pleasant dinner meeting addressed by our own Dr. Hassan Amirikia, MSMS President.

Upcoming events: Primed CME program, Feb. 20-21, will be held at the Marriott Renaissance Hotel in Detroit. About 1,000 physicians are expected to participate. The Rhoades Lecture will be presented on Friday, April 2, 6 p.m., at the Detroit Yacht Club on Belle Isle. Janet Olszewski, Director of Michigan's Department of Community Health will speak on the status of the Detroit/Wayne County Health Authority.

Healing Hearts Gala: Sophie Womack and the 21st Century Club are once again offering entertainment provided by hidden stars of Detroit. Join the crowd in "Jeans and Jewels" at the Marriott Renaissance Hotel on Feb. 7. Proceeds support the domestic violence shelters in Wayne County. Over the past five years more than $200,000 has been generated through the Gala. I encourage all members to participate and give generously to this worthy cause.
Chris Bush campaign for MSMS President-Elect: We are entitled to 81 delegates this year. If we can all show up and vote for Chris, he will have an excellent chance for election. We have fewer than 40 members who have agreed to be delegates. If WCMS is to be heard at the House meeting, we need more members to volunteer to be delegates. Please urge your colleagues to contact the office for more information about the schedule for delegate meetings and the MSMS House meeting.

Nominating Committee: The Committee will meet Jan. 21 and Feb. 18 to consider candidates for WCMS offices - President-Elect, Secretary and Trustee. If you are personally interested or would like to recommend someone, please let me or one of the other officers know as soon as possible. The candidates will be announced at the March Executive Council meeting.

Editorial:
Now Is The Time For
Universal Medical Care, Single Payer, Tort Reform
By VICTOR BLOOM, MD
Associate Editor
If we are to have social justice and the government ensure that every American, including every inhabitant of the United States, with or without a Green Card, should have the benefit of unlimited medical care and prescription drugs, it would be a good thing, everyone would agree.

It is not fair for some people to get the best medical care, simply because they can afford it, and others not. It is not fair for some to have medical insurance and others not. It is not fair for some people to be able to afford prescription drugs and others not.

At the same time, it is not fair that doctors fees are being cut while salaries of CEOs of third-party payers are escalating. It isn't right that paperwork and number crunchers are escalating while candidates for medical school admissions are decreasing. It is not good that doctors are suffering under the load of malpractice premiums, causing senior physicians to retire rather than work or teach.

If the government were the single payer and universal tort reform enacted, it would be a good thing. Universal medical care, tort reform and single payer is rational and logical, so why don't we just go for it?
Right now, the percentage of Gross Domestic Product that goes to medical care is 14 percent. For some arbitrary and irrational reason, this number is considered by many to be too high. Why shouldn't we guarantee preventive medicine and medical care from cradle to grave in this country? Why shouldn't the health of the nation be a top priority?

To ensure that basic medical research is adequately funded and scientifically based, the government's National Institutes of Health should have adequate funds to support the highest level of research to find cures for all the major remaining diseases. This would be better than depending on the pharmaceutical industry.

What would it take? It would take the will of the people directing our elected officials in the Senate and Congress to enact enabling legislation. Doctors and hospitals would be adequately compensated and everyone would have access to the highest level of medical research, diagnosis and treatment.

People would then ask how much would it cost? Since the health of the nation is and should be a priority, the cost shouldn't matter, should it? All that would have to happen is for human nature to change and each wage earner be dedicated to working long and hard and paying whatever taxes it would take to bring about this utopian social justice. A flat tax of 50 percent would just about do it. Why not?

Why don't we go for it?

Letter: Health Center Physicians Oppose Sale
The following is a letter addressed to Gov. Jennifer Granholm, Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano and Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.

We are writing in response to the Christmas Eve announcement of the proposed sale of the Health Centers Detroit (HCD) to private physicians and Reverend Joseph Jordan. We, as the 12 physicians in the five remaining DMC health centers wish to be on record that we do not support the sale of the DMC health centers to the above mentioned entrepreneurs nor do we have a desire to work with them. These entrepreneurs, referred to in press reports as the "team of physicians," are not currently involved in seeing patients in any of the five DMC Detroit health centers. We believe this transaction is contrary to the requirements to your Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) and its addendum, and is also bad health policy for the city of Detroit.

We are the physicians who provide primary and preventive care to 50,000 residents of Detroit in the five DMC Health Centers. As you know, 50 percent of our patients are either Medicaid or are members of the County Care program (Plus Care) and 15 percent of our patients are uninsured. This payer-mix is unsustainable for a private physician practice. This fact was borne out by the events surrounding the previous DMC sale of four of the original nine health centers on April 1, 2003. On the first day of their private practice operation, the first act of their new owners was to transfer all uninsured and County Care patients to the five remaining HCD sites. The transfer of these under and uninsured patients occurred despite DMC assurances that these privatized sites would continue to provide service to this vulnerable population. The DMC is now proposing to sell their remaining sites to the same physicians that purchased the initial four sites, and we once again expect the under and uninsured patients will be expelled from the practices. Private practice or privatization is not the same as safety-net primary care.

We have sacrificed to develop these health centers in the interest of our community. We have struggled since 1997 to secure the capital within and outside the DMC to appropriately build and resource these health centers. We fought to stretch scarce resources to serve all of our community regardless of their ability to pay, thereby maintaining a safety-net primary care network. We have improved productivity, raised the quality of care, and improved health status of the citizens of Detroit, while attracting physicians that reflect the population served. We have been on the front line, advocating and battling for basic primary care services on behalf of the citizens of Detroit. Many of us have done this at risk to our own careers and in some cases, even forfeiting benefits and salaries. We have done this because we believe that access to primary care is not only critically important for our community, but is also fundamental for the financial stability of the Detroit Medial Center (DMC); an institution we care deeply about.
We were heartened that each of you signed an agreement that allowed $50 million in public bailout payments to be structured in such a way as to recognize the importance of primary care as integral to the provision of safety net services and to transitioning the uninsured out of hospital emergency rooms. Your call for structural change gave us hope that if we held on just a little longer, rational urban health policy will have a chance to take hold, and allow a more enlightened management team to understand the importance of, and save the DMC Detroit safety-net, including primary care. We were also encouraged when the DMC Board's Ambulatory Task Force recommended the five centers receive funding support through May 2004. The DMC Task Force further stated, "It is our concern if the clinics are closed or sold, the burden of primary care of the uninsured will probably fall to the emergency room at Detroit Receiving Hospital and other local emergency rooms, which in the final analysis could be much more costly." In addition, the governor's Temporary Oversight Committee (TOC) recommended that the five remaining DMC health centers should be included as part of the $50 million in public bailout funds for safety-net services.

Recently, you were presented with evidence that the DMC leadership had misled you when you were persuaded at the last moment to drop specific mention of the five HCD health centers in the MOU, in favor of a general statement to have the DMC support "safety-net primary care." You now realize that the expense figures that the DMC gave as necessary to support our work in these five health centers was vastly over-inflated. The correct cost figure is $3 million of annual support, not the $23 million you were told. You now also realize that the DMC has no primary care capability that supports safety-net primary care other than the five remaining HCD sites.

We are asking that each of you support primary care safety net services by enforcing your MOU requirement, as amended, which includes the five DMC health centers as part of the $50 million in public funds. Disbursement of any further bailout funds must be contingent on DMC compliance.

This will at least allow time for an adequate assessment and a more rational and comprehensive plan for the five remaining DMC health centers in relation to the developing Detroit-Wayne County Health Authority.

We were especially surprised, along with many community and pastoral leaders, to learn that Rev. Jordan has independently secured a site in spite of his previous public commitments to support our efforts.
This letter will also serve to communicate to all interested parties we have no interest in working with the proposed new HCD owners. They have already demonstrated they are not committed to safety-net care for all Detroit residents. Their values and motivations are therefore very different from ours and from what we believe Detroit needs and deserves. We do not support this DMC plan that marginalizes African-American physicians to the benefit of providers outside of this community and that separates patients from their physicians.

We all respectfully concur in this letter, (our names appear in italic type) below.
Herbert C. Smitherman, MD
Roy C. Elrod, MD
Lennox A. Pike, MD
Anthony W. Clarke, MD
Solon Alimario, MD
James Brown, MD
Everett Campbell, MD
Thierry Desir, PA-C
Dawn Foster, MD
James Haney, DO
Elsa Isip, MD
Alfred Newton, MD

Cc: Detroit City Council
Governor’s TOC
US Sen. Carl Levin
US. Sen. Debbie Stabenow
DRH Board of Trustees
Gwen MacKenzie
Wayne County Commissioners
Nobel Masseru, Dr. PH
US Rep. John Dingell
WSU Board of Governors
Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce
Michael Duggan
Janet Olszewski
US Rep. C. Kilpatrick
US Rep. John Conyers
DMC Board of Trustees
Irvin Reid, PhD
Dean John Crissman

President' Letter: Support Health Center Docs
The following letter is from WCMS President Edward Jankowski, MD. It was dated Dec. 18 and addressed to the governor, Wayne County executive and Detroit’s mayor.

The Wayne County Medical Society, representing 4,600 physicians, requests your support for primary care physicians in Detroit by signing the Addendum to the Memorandum of Understanding to support funding for the Detroit Medical Center's five remaining health centers (HCD).

Detroit has been especially hard hit with the loss of primary care physicians over the past five years. We believe, along with health experts nationally, that there is a direct correlation between reduced access to regular primary care and increases in preventable deaths and disease, and thus a rise in health care cost.

Preserving the DMC health centers represents the best hope for reducing costs related to overuse of hospital emergency rooms. Money spent to preserve safety-net services in Wayne County will certainly be wasted if primary care is not used to reduce unnecessary inpatient hospital and emergency room use. More primary care is critical if Detroit Receiving and Hutzel Hospitals are to survive. This is not the time to allow any more of our scarce primary care physicians to leave the Detroit community.

Thank you for your support for primary care physicians in Wayne County.
Sincerely,
Edward G. Jankowski, MD
WCMS President

Kids and docs have a ball at Foundation Holiday Party
By BRIAN BUDOWICK
The Holiday season has passed and along with it another hugely successful children's holiday party sponsored by the Wayne County Medical Society and Foundation. This event was one of the best in recent memory due to the hard work of our physician leaders, including Dr.s. Krishna Sawney, Edward Jankowski, and Dan Michael. Their contributions along with that of their families ensured that the event was memorable for both children and adults.

A special thank you goes out to the Family Independence Agency and Spectrum Social Services for providing assistance in identifying the children that participated in the holiday party. At final tally, over 240 children, medical students and other volunteers participated in the event.

Another thank you must be extended to the Detroit Science Center for providing the venue for the event. As the photographs evidence, the children and volunteers found hours of entertainment and knowledge among the three floors of exhibits. While having lunch with Santa, the candy canes were balanced by the nutritious lunch. Afterward, the children were set free to explore the Brain Exhibit where neurosurgeon Dr. Dan Michael shared his knowledge with the children. The Science Center experience culminated with the showing of "Santa vs. the Snowman" in the gigantic IMAX Theater.

Deep appreciation is extended to the medical students and other volunteers. Our "elves" were a driving force behind the success of the event. Brendan Burns and Rachna Arora were wonderful in enlisting medical students who finished the event set-up on Friday afternoon in record time, along with being guides for the children on Saturday. An extra special thank you goes out to first-year medical student John Stasko and his wife Rebecca. These two selfless people were Mr. and Mrs. Claus and were wonderful in their roles and with the children.
After the movie and a ride up the rainbow escalator the children were greeted by our medical student elves, who assisted Santa and Mrs. Claus in passing out the gifts. This year our gift bag consisted of a warm winter coat, a book containing scientific questions and answers, The American Edition of Monopoly board game and a motorized toothbrush. Due to the generosity of our contributors the Wayne County Medical Society Foundation was able to donate duffle bags to area youth homes to aid in their transition from past to future.
It is to the future and 2004 that we look, and, once again, prepare for another year of Health, Happiness, Prosperity and Charity. Happy New Year and best wishes from the Wayne County Medical Society and Foundation.

SAVE THE DATE
Twelfth Annual
Francis P. Rhoades, MD
Memorial Lecture

Michael Duggan
President Detroit Medical Center

MEMBERSHIP
Yasser Al-Baghdadi, MD
Anesthesiology
Medical School: Baghdad University 1991
Residencies: U of Illinois 1999, Yale University 2002
Fellowship: Johns Hopkins University 2003
Office: Harper Hospital, 3990 John R, Detroit, MI 48201

Marvin H. Glass, DO
Anesthesiology
Medical School: Michigan State University 1983
Internship: Pontiac Osteopathic Hospital 1984
Residency: Pontiac Osteopathic Hospital 1986
Office: Sinai Grace Hospital, 6071 W. Outer Drive, Detroit, MI 48235

Nabil M. Kadi, MD
Anesthesiology
Medical School: American University of Beirut 1986
Internship: Good Samaritan Hospital 1990
Residency: Johns Hopkins University 1991
Office: Harper Hospital, 3990 John R, Detroit, MI 48201

John R. Sarcar, MD
Psychiatry
Medical School: Wayne State U School of Medicine 1997
Residency: Wayne State U, Detroit, MI 2001
Office: 2033 11th Ave., Port Huron, MI 48064
Tele: 810-984-1002, Fax: 810-984-3737
Email: princeykins@yahoo.com