February 19 2021 Issue 2

Vol. XLVII, Issue 2

February 19, 2021

President's Perspective Gene Battistella

by: Gene M. Battistella, DO

"Change is inevitable but learning from change is optional."

Truer words have never been spoken. With all that has been impacted in our personal, professional, political, cultural and health care world this past year despite and due to the pandemic, it is quite plain for all to see how much truth there is in this statement. We continue to see the inevitability of change in our world with the ongoing pandemic and the mutations with the novel Coronavirus and its potential impact. We all have a tendency and need to react to our surroundings and often are forced into change as a result. However, learning from change to grow and flourish as a person, family, community or organization is a choice that is up to each of us to decide for ourselves.

When faced with adversity and change, how we learn from those experiences can transform our mission and goals, but if not can be quite detrimental. The old adage, “that’s the way we have always done things” could not be more counterproductive to the ability to learn from change. These type of instances can present the opportunity to forge a new and potentially brighter future or outcome that may have not been considered or thought possible.

The POMA Board of Trustees, Committees, Leadership and Staff have continued to strive to do our best to learn from change and advance the mission and goals of the Association. We do so for the benefit of our members and ultimately for those patients of whom we are entrusted to provide for their care, doing so in the most comprehensive and compassionate manner, as is our nature as Osteopathic Physicians.

POMA has incorporated this concept in the development and now in the implementation phases of the POMA 2021-23 Strategic Plan, encompassing the Pillars of Community, Communication, Education and Influence. Joseph Zawisza, DO, President-Elect of POMA, has announced the “Call for Volunteers” to each of you to consider sharing your talents, passion and time to become more involved with your professional association, POMA. Becoming an active member of a POMA Committee or Task Force will provide your unique voice and perspective to help POMA continue the inevitable process of change by learning from your experiences to make decisions to help lead us into the future. Please seriously consider this request. Participation in our present virtual format affords more widespread involvement of members from across our commonwealth and could not be simpler. Thank you for your consideration on this most important matter and as always, please remain safe, healthy and continue to “Live each day as an example of what an Osteopathic Physician should be!”

Executive Opinion

by: Diana Ewert

"Winter is a season of recovery and preparation."
- Paul Theroux

I’m looking out my front window across the street to a house that has a perfect front yard for sledding. A bit of downhill followed by a straight then a bit of a drop followed by more downhill right into a frozen stream flanked by dried cattails. The laughter coming from the kids is contagious. The machinations to keep from hitting the stream and said cattails are fun to watch. It’s nice to see some people out, playing, masked of course, but they should be in the cold. It’s like a pre-COVID snow day, when schools are closed and kids are being kids. It was an opportunity to recover a bit from these last six weeks of winter (thanks so much for throwing Punxsutawney shade, Phil!).

Winter is a season of recovery, for the environment and for people. It certainly has been for POMA. By the time winter ends, Team POMA will be moving back into 1330 Eisenhower to a refreshed work environment intended to be more open and collaborative. We will move in with a full staff compliment which includes our director of membership, Sara Bustard and education manager, Margaret Clanagan. Margaret was hired after the renovations started so she doesn’t have a history of what was and can simply enjoy what is. We are preparing for the changes that come with spring – new leadership, new budget, and a new strategic plan. It’s the Annual Clinical Assembly, POMA House of Delegates, transition of leadership and election of officers. It’s board orientation and committee changes and new issues. And I for one, can’t wait.

by: Andy Sandusky

Less Than Optimum Rollout for Pennsylvania's COVID-19 Vaccine

If you are reading this as a POMA member after skimming the headline, your face is probably red, and your blood pressure is rising. We know this because POMA has received much disgruntled feedback from its membership as the Pennsylvania Department of Health (Department) continues to roll out its patchwork plans to vaccinate Commonwealth residents against COVID-19.

Each week there have been major policy shifts with physicians scratching their heads and patients angrily responding to both you and legislators. The most recent policy pivot was delivered in the afternoon last Friday, before a 3-day weekend. Friday night, POMA physician members began calling, emailing, and texting to share that physicians would not be receiving their vaccination allotments because of a shift in policy, away from community clinical settings and towards mass vaccination sites. The Department’s Acting Secretary Beam stated to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “Vaccines will be shifted to outlets that have shown the capacity to inoculate large groups of people instead of smaller physician practices and medical clinics.” In contrast, on Thursday (literally hours before) Governor Wolf sent a press release with the following excerpt:

“Community-based solutions like these are being developed every day, and my administration is working to support them,” Gov. Wolf said. “We’ll continue to lift up successes so that communities across the commonwealth can learn from one another, but we can’t expect a cookie cutter approach. Every community is different, and the solutions that work in Butler County may not be the ones that are most needed in Luzerne County or any other county in the state.”

POMA agrees with the Governor that the one-size fits all policy approach will not work in a diverse state like Pennsylvania. However, POMA is questioning how you can have community-based success in vaccination efforts by cutting out (even temporarily) primary care physician offices from providing vaccinations. Further, a “cookie cutter approach” is choosing large model and using it exclusively, whether it meets the community needs or not. POMA joined with other organized medical groups to demonstrate its opposition to the most recent policy pivot in the form of a press statement sent Friday night.

POMA is aligned with the Department on the same goal, to get the COVID-19 vaccination into the arms of as many Pennsylvanians as possible. POMA is ready and willing to collaborate with the Department and provide whatever resources and information it can to achieve this goal. But POMA disagrees with the continual changes in policy that appear to have the effect of hurting that goal, instead of moving Pennsylvania towards it.

POMA Seeks Volunteers

Please sign up by March 12!

POMA provides COMMUNICATION to our members, to our patients, to our legislators, and to the public!
POMA provides a COMMUNITY to our members so we can be the best osteopathic physicians possible!
POMA provides EDUCATION to our members so we can provide the best care possible to our patients!
POMA provides INFLUENCE to those who can help us to serve our patients best!

POMA is our professional organization in Pennsylvania that serves us as osteopathic physicians. Now is our opportunity to serve POMA, our members and colleagues, and our patients.

Our members are the motivation behind everything that POMA does. Every committee, task force, and work group within the organization is led by and driven by POMA members. And we need our members to continue that tradition by volunteering their time, talent, and expertise to these groups.

Please look through the opportunities to serve that are available. These range from technology to political advocacy, writing articles to presenting CME, and everything in between. We all have unique talents, and this is our chance to share them with the organization that serves us.

Click here for more details and to see what may be of interest to you.
Click here to go directly to the Volunteer Form and sign up today.

I encourage everyone to take advantage of this opportunity and sign up by March 12, and I look forward to working with you in your new role in POMA in the year to come!

Respectfully,
Joseph M.P. Zawisza, DO
POMA President-elect

District Dish

District 4 Virtual Meeting & Elections

District 4 members gathered virtually to make plans for 2021 and beyond. After electing their district officers (list below) and POMA House of Delegates delegation, they brainstormed events for the year.

The district is hosting a virtual 5k in April and an 8-hour education event has been tentatively slated for in-person in the fall. The annual family hockey game has been postponed for 2021 but will return in the 2022 season.