Letter from the President

February, 2008

Dear MCMS Members:

2006-2007 has been a dynamic year for all of us at Monterey County Medical Society. I've seen the passion of our doctors carried out with the recent referendum in support and opposition. When I see more than 10 emails flying back and forth between 9-11 PM, I have to say that I'm very impressed with the passions of many of our board members. I invite all physicians in Monterey County to join me in following such passion for the betterment of our healthcare delivery in Monterey County.

In this day and age with decreased reimbursement and high overhead cost, the question is how to survive in this environment so that we can continue to do what we set out to do, to deliver the best care possible to our patients.

The answer to all my fellow doctors is that it should come from within. There's no external environment that will make any of us happy. Maybe you can say that I am an eternal optimist, but there's one life to live and I believe that we should truly live it to its fullest potentials.

I'd like to share with you the three rules that I preach and live by everyday to be happy in life:

1. Be content with what you have.
2. Try your best and never quit.
3. Learn from your mistakes and try smarter.

I can assure you that if you live by these three principles, you will find inner happiness and will reach meaningful achievements.

Be content? It is important because happy doctors will translate to happy patients. We entered this profession to serve our patients, and to serve our patients well, we have to take care of and be content with ourselves and our families first since without such basic foundations, we'll never succeed.

Try our best? This is because our profession relies on excellence. Excellence is an aspiration, excellence is an attitude, excellence is a pursuit, and excellence is the way of life. We should always pursue excellence with a passion and an attitude that we CAN. To borrow from Oprah, and a lot of my patients watch Oprah, we should realize our full potentials wherever it may lead us.

Learn from your mistakes and try smarter? As we get older, we realize that it's much better to learn from our past mistakes and other's past mistakes so that we can try smarter. In other words, instead of banging our head against the wall, getting nowhere and expecting the same results, maybe, just maybe, finding a way to get around the wall would be a better solution.

For my term as president of MCMS, I only have one word to sum it up as my goal: "relevance":

• I'd like to make our society to be more relevant to healthcare delivery in Monterey County because we are all a part of it. We are the experts because we are in touch with patients, other doctors, hospital administrators daily 24/7. We will fully engage in matters that affect healthcare delivery in Monterey County.
• I'd like to make our society more relevant to practicing physicians in Monterey County. We need to be sure that the reimbursements are equitable and attainable to withstand high overhead cost both in terms of real estate cost and in terms of human resource cost.
• I'd like to make our society to be more relevant to our lawmakers and elected officials because we are the neutral organization that would offer fair and balanced viewpoints. As a society, we will lessen any conflicts of interest and will focus on a common goal: quality healthcare delivery in Monterey County.

There are many exciting projects ahead and much still needed to be accomplished for the years to come. I welcome all comments from our members (and non-members too!) as I look at this as the vehicle to become more relevant.

There are a number of committees to participate in and need your support, please contact the MCMS office at (831) 455-1008.

William Khieu, MD
Board President
Monterey County Medical Society

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