Chester County Medicine Fall 2019 - 6

www.CHESTERCMS.org

President's
Message
BY DR. BRUCE A. COLLEY
PRESIDENT OF CHESTER COUNTY MEDICAL SOCIETY

t is an honor to share my first President's message with our members and community
at large. I will begin with a few comments and announcements. First, thanks to all
who attended the Clambake. It was a beautiful venue (see clambake article in this
issue) and gave everyone an opportunity to meet and enjoy an evening with our fellow
physicians and our families. We had fun, and I hope to see all Chester County physicians
and families at next year's clambake. I would like to personally thank our state and local
officials who attended and a special thank you to the Board of Directors of Children's
Country Week Association who allowed us to use the grounds of the Paradise Farm
Camps.
Physicians, please continue to submit articles for our journal; it is your publication
to share knowledge and communicate with your colleagues. Also, the Chester County
Medical Society has official board meetings six times a year. All physicians are welcome to
attend. The time and dates are on our website.

D r. B r u c e A . C o l l e y

In addition to the above we have instituted informal discussion meetings in
collaboration with the Chester County Hospital medical staff. We will meet at the
Community Volunteers in Medicine (CVIM) building on a Thursday evening at 6:30
monthly. The dates and topics will be on our website. The purpose of these "Wellness
Scrums" meetings is to allow physicians and nurse practitioners to share experience,
concerns and ideas in an effort to collaborate, hopefully, on some real world solutions to
the present and evolving challenges physicians and NPs face in caring for our patients.
All Chester County physicians and NPs, members or not, are welcome. Physicians are
under intense pressure and buffeted by the random forces of the government, insurance
companies and hospitals. No one is really on the patients' and physicians' "side," except
us, the physician and patient. Our best and most reliable tool for caring for our patients is
our fellow physicians. The aim of the discussion meetings is to strengthen the professional
bond among physicians and allow these bonds to energize our healing endeavors. In this
spirit let me summarize the comments I gave for my induction.
Let me tell you a story about a fellow physician, I had been in practice about five
years. Of course, in 1995 we had no hospitalists, or even interventional cardiologists
or cardiovascular surgeons in house. We all took ER call at both hospitals. I had just
returned from Brandywine Hospital about midnight. At 2 am the Cardiac ICU at
Chester County Hospital called to inform me my patient had severe sudden onset nausea,
vomiting and CP and pressure and the EKG showed a PWMI. "He needs TPA," the
nurse urgently suggested to me over the phone. I thought the better of it (I was frankly
terrified of using it - as I envisioned by patient exsanguinating), and instructed her to call
the cardiologist on call and I would be in shortly. I arrived 15 minutes later to find my
patient sitting up in bed quite comfortable in SR and no EKG finding. My cardiologist
colleague had ordered the TPA and then soon arrived about 3 am. He looked at my
exhausted face and put his hand on my shoulder and said, "I have it from here, go home

6 C H E S T E R C O U N T Y M e d i c i n e | FA L L 2 0 1 9

http://www.chestercms.org

Chester County Medicine Fall 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Chester County Medicine Fall 2019