How we can honor the legacy and memory of Dr. Lorna Breen
Read an excerpt from a story by Gerald E. Harmon, MD, AMA President:
“Lorna Breen, MD, was overwhelmed. As COVID-19 tightened its deadly grip on New York City in the late spring of 2020, the emergency department she managed at an Upper Manhattan hospital was jammed with sick and dying patients—people whose lives she could not save. The gifted and charismatic daughter of a trauma surgeon whose mom was a nurse, Dr. Breen had devoted her life to healing others...‘I just wanted to help people, and I couldn’t do anything,’ she had told a friend in the last conversation they would ever share.
The AMA applauds President Biden and Congress for...dedicating resources to support the mental health needs of physicians by enacting the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act.
The truth is we cannot, yet, fully measure the pandemic’s impact on the mental health and well-being of physicians and other medical professionals. Despite the best efforts of doctors, researchers and health care teams, this pandemic—and the danger this virus poses—continues.
Our AMA continues to develop a broad range strategic responses to these challenges, including a comprehensive set of resources to help physicians in private practice overcome the unique challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and support practice sustainability. We offer a 17-step guide (PDF) to creating a more resilient health care organization that can function at an even higher level during a crisis. And we are raising awareness of all the contributory factors driving stress and burnout, including overly burdensome government regulations and insurer practices such as prior authorization.”
