Our Top 10 list is an annual tradition that serves as a recap of our last year. After reviewing last year’s list, community building was the predominant theme from 2023 that has endured and will continue through 2024. Community building will certainly continue into this year, and we see development emerging as a theme in 2023. I believe our relationships have strengthened, thanks to many of you. It is now time to put those relationships to great use in order to take our medical community to a level that influences the health of the population of the Greater Memphis area.
In case you have not heard it lately, thank you for your membership, and thank you for what you do to improve the health of this community! I invite you to join us or engage with us even more in this new year.
Our 2023 Top 10
1) 2023 President’s Gala. We gathered to honor the year of board presidency for Dr. Chris Pokabla, while laying the groundwork for my term. Chris did an outstanding job, and it has been an honor to follow him. Chris continues to be highly engaged in our mission. We also want to thank Dr. Andrew Watson, TMA President, for his continued representation of Memphis and leadership of our profession at the state level. Lisa is excited to stay engaged in organized medicine as my term as board president ends. Lisa greatly appreciates the support of her clinical colleagues, the MMS staff and her fellow MMS board members, and of course her family as we all worked together to get everyone where they needed to be this past year.
What’s next?
Dr. Dale Criner will be assuming the responsibility and honor of leading our organization as our President in 2024. Dale is one of the staunchest advocates for our profession, and we are excited to see what all our Society will accomplish with him as President. Look for an email and please save the date for President’s Gala on Saturday, April 27th at 6pm at FedEx Event Center at Shelby Farms Park.
2) Mid-South Healthcare Leadership Institute (MHLI). Our newest program has been a rousing success in its pilot year, partnering us with our own Memphis Medical Foundation and our friends and colleagues at Mid-South MGMA. Our initial cohort was for current and aspiring practice administrators. Special thanks to Jessica Harrison (University Clinical Health), Eric Gibson (MOGA/ClearlyMD), Andreana Smith (Methodist LeBonheur Healthcare), and Cara Azhar (MMS) for their leadership in developing this program.
What’s next?
We plan to continue to grow this program to include physician cohorts, practice-based cohorts, and advanced educational offerings for those who have completed an initial cohort.
3) Project Access. Project Access West Tennessee (PAWTN) has enjoyed a successful second year. We are in the process of finalizing several agreements that will grow our footprint. We also serve all of West Tennessee and partner with physician groups in all West Tennessee counties!
What’s next?
We need more partners for this effort. If you or your clinic is interested in providing coordinate, effective, and efficient care to those without insurance, please contact Nicole Scroggins at nscroggins@mdmemphis.org. Seeing just one patient a month makes a huge difference in the need. Thank you to those physicians and community partners who agreed to serve on the Board of Directors for the Foundation to further support this mission.
4,5, & 6) Our Strategic Plan. We continue to aspire to achieve the goals we set forth as a board three years ago through our strategic plan. Here is where we are.
Increase membership to 1,100 dues-paying members.
While we have not achieved the 1,100 dues-paying members benchmark YET, we continue to show strong membership numbers. We still boast more than 2,500 members total when considering our student and resident members!
Create an inclusive medical community that supports and advocates for physicians, their practices, and their patients.
See MHLI information above. We also continue our collaborative work with other local healthcare groups that represent the House of Medicine.
Utilize the talents of our members to improve the health of our communities.
Project Access is becoming more visible in our medical community, which will lead to better health outcomes for those without access to insurance. We must and will continue to mobilize the physician community in order to create better outcomes for our patients and our community.
What’s next? Our strategic plan needs to be updated. Here are some potential clues: workforce development, credentialing, and 150. More to come!
7) MedTemps. Our staffing agency continues to demonstrate its value to the medical community. Our number one goal is to staff the medical community with the best talent possible at the lowest additional cost. Call us for your staffing and recruitment needs!
8) Diversity. We are proud to report that our Nominating Committee and Board of Directors has continued its efforts to represent diversity in our leadership appointments.
9) TMA’s Legislative Impact. We continued our relationship with the Tennessee Medical Association and closed one of our most successful legislative sessions ever—influencing issues like reproductive health, scope of practice, prior authorization, and balance billing. Read more here.
What’s next? Ride the bus! We will be participating in TMA’s Day on the Hill on Tuesday, March 5th. I invite each of you to join us for a great day of meetings with legislators and unique fellowship with your colleagues. We are also taking a bus to TMA’s House of Delegates and Annual Meeting. We need more delegates from Memphis to represent us at House of Delegates so please reach out if you are interested. Each of these trips is only a day long. Click here to register!
10) Events. We are pleased to share that our events to continue to grow. We are thankful to our partners in the legislature, UTHSC, and each of you in making these events special.
What’s next? Our gala is slated to have a special guest that we will announce early in the year. We will also re-introduce education into our offerings via MHLI and other offerings.
11) MMS staff. We know we said Top “10”, but we can’t write about our year without thanking our staff. They do a fantastic job advocating for our profession and for better healthcare. We will be hiring more great people in the first of next year!
Here’s to making 2024 our best year yet! Thank you to each of you for your dedication to a better medical community.
All our best,
