A Lesson from the Lord of the Rings,
Or Why You Should Join or Renew Your Membership at the Coastal Virginia Medical Society

[Background: in The Two Towers, Osgiliath, one of the last strongholds for Men, is being overrun by the evil Orcs. Frodo (the story’s main hero) and Sam, his companion, crouch behind the ramparts as hundreds of Orcs destroy the city. The odds are nearly hopeless, certainly for this battle, much less for the outcome of the war that will end all wars, the war of good against evil.

Frodo: I can’t do this, Sam.

SAM: I know. It’s all wrong. By rights we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something. Even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. Because they were holding on to something.

FRODO: What are we holding on to, Sam?

SAM: That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for.]

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Every day I come to my office, I worry about the state of my practice and healthcare. I have been doing this now for 43 years of independent practice. As much as I hate to say it, there is less and less workability in healthcare and our jobs as physicians/providers seem to get more difficult every day. All the while the ‘evil forces’ (i.e., insurance companies, healthcare companies and corrupt politics) get stronger and stronger. For the first time in 43 years, my practice lost money. I’m not giving up, I’m not selling out and I think it’s time we, as physicians and providers, take on a total makeover of healthcare. It simply can’t continue the way it is. I believe this is possible, but not without real physician involvement. You may say, ‘but what can we do?’ I say we don’t have any way of knowing what we can do. Most ‘causes’ in life started as an improbable idea that got accomplished by a small group of really committed people. It was NOT a sure thing. But whoever took them on was really committed to something they thought was more important. Like Sam said, something worth fighting for.

So, what is worth fighting for? How about all the years and 1,000’s of hours of training you spent for the privilege of just being called a doctor? What about all that you have provided for your patients, even the lives you saved? What about putting some integrity back in our healthcare system, stopping the rampant fraud, waste and inefficiency of the system as we now know it? Even you who say you are burned out, are only burned out because you pretend to not care when you really do and it's just eating at you because you can’t escape your own truth and commitment? You know, back when “managed” care first reared its ugly head a few decades ago, we all (meaning myself and my colleagues at the time), said “Oh, I’ve just got a few more years left to go, I can’t really worry about this now, I’ll just do my practice and I’ll be retired before I ever have to deal with it." But that was a fatal mistake. Physicians abdicated their leadership responsibility and paid the price. NOW, the future is held by the people who gladly took control of healthcare and the $Trillions it comes with. I’m not trying to condemn anyone; I just want to take responsibility for how things got this bad. If I do that, maybe I can now stand for a new future, one that addresses the shortfalls in healthcare, promotes quality, access and affordability and reinvents our lives as physicians for the good. I’ve seen WAY too many good physicians, masters of their trade and craft, decades of experience which is UNREPLACEABLE fade away into early retirement just because they can’t practice medicine the way they want to in the brutal environment that’s been created by the corporates.

I say we CAN make a difference in all of this. But not by simply complaining about it, and NOT as individuals. That is where CVMS comes in. A meeting place for collaboration, collegiality and working together on a shared future. What’s important to YOU? What do you want to contribute, or create? I am optimistic. I believe in this moment with the political changes, we have a new opportunity for reform and reinvention. I ask you to please consider joining the Coastal Virginia Medical Society for $240 this year. You can respond to Greg Warth on the website or call one of us 757-412-7737 or 757-816-8399. Let's talk about it. This is worth fighting for. Our lives, our careers, our children's careers, our patients' lives and the future healthcare of the USA depends on it.

I’m hoping to see you at the next CVMS meeting and hear your thoughts on all of this. We NEED your input!

Best Regards, Keith Berger, MD, VP, Coastal Virginia Medical Society