National House Call brings message home

AMA Leader Commentary. By Timothy T. Flaherty, MD. Aug. 6, 2001.

AMA LEADER COMMENTARY

A few words about current events in medical practice

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A message to all physicians from Timothy T. Flaherty, MD, chair of the AMA Board of Trustees.

They say that physician house calls are a rarity these days. That is, for everyone but our AMA.

For the past month, AMA leaders have been traveling throughout the country on a National House Call. In the second week of July alone, six AMA teams, consisting of leadership and staff, traveled through Delaware, Florida, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas on a multistate media blitz.

Thanks to our Federation partners, they conducted editorial board visits, participated in news conferences, and talked with radio, newspaper and television reporters -- and so put their weight behind the Ganske-Dingell-Norwood bill on patients' rights.

In short, they literally brought our message back home to the voters -- and got the attention of key representatives in Congress. The National House Call has done this time and again, often at pivotal moments in the political process.

Our first National House Call took place back in 1999, when we hit the campaign trail with the presidential candidates, traveling around the country in an RV, brandishing an AMA banner and demanding that the politicians pay attention to health care issues. I myself rode for 72 hours in the dead of winter in a seemingly unheated RV, following front-running candidates across the state of Iowa. It was one of the most challenging -- and exhilarating -- experiences of my life.

And I swear, it wasn't just the cold. [...]