Dear colleague:
While your board of directors had a full agenda in this height of the legislative season, we realize that supporting you and our patients in the face of the COVID-19 is the priority. We want to set in place a plan on three fronts as the situation rapidly evolves: to ensure CMS provides our physicians who are the lynchpins in this critical patient care period the vital information they need; to ensure that CMS staff has a plan for continuity of operations to service our members; and to ensure that the volunteer leadership of CMS is positioned to continue providing guidance to governmental agencies as they address COVID-19 and continue to speak for both the physicians of Colorado and the patients we serve. Given these objectives:
- The board directed staff to immediately create virtual and other resources for you to use to respond appropriately to this crisis.
- CMS has launched a members-only COVID-19 discussion board for physicians on Basecamp, a password-protected discussion and file-sharing platform to increase collaboration and problem-solving around COVID-19 among CMS members. Sign up here.
- CMS will host a virtual member-wide town hall meeting the evening of Wednesday, March 18 for you to engage directly with us to get support, get answers, and get and share advice with colleagues. Watch for more details as soon as possible on how to register.
- How else can we assist you? Comment on the Basecamp discussion board or respond to this email (president@cms.org) with your suggestions.
- All CMS staff will shift to remote work with as few employees in the physical CMS office as possible.
- Effective immediately, all leadership meetings and meetings of CMS committees, councils and workgroups will be held virtually.
This is a very serious situation and I want you to know that we are grateful for your service on behalf of patients around the state. I am so proud to see physicians in this crisis exemplify their critical role as educators of patients and communities, leaders in assuring the best health for our patients, and a trusted resource to all on how to maintain quality, confront illness and infection, and protect our patients and communities.
While we must address COVID-19, your medical society did not do this to the exclusion of other key issues. Your board also:
- Received a legislative update; action at the Capitol will now come to a near halt as legislators voted to suspend the session until March 30. Hot issues like the state option, health care costs, scope of practice and patient safety are on hold, but we will keep pushing for your priorities.
- Received a report from CMS CEO Bryan Campbell on work that has already begun to develop a dynamic annual meeting scheduled for Sept. 26. Watch for more details and plan on attending.
As I said above, thank you for all of your work to combat the coronavirus pandemic. Know that CMS is doing our part and we support you in your efforts. Our greatest strength is as a statewide multidisciplinary organization uniting the house of medicine.
