Dr. Kristen Sandel’s Speech to the House of Delegates

On October 30th, 2021, Dr. Sandel was elected Vice President of the Pennsylvania Medical Society and will assume the Presidency of the organization in two years (2024). This will be the first time a Berks County physician has served as PAMED president in almost 40 years.

Hello. It is an honor to address the members of the house of delegates. As a delegate for many years and a former member of the Board of Trustees, I know how valuable your time is and I thank you for participating in organized medicine to lead the Pennsylvania Medical Society (PaMed) into the future.

Our society will need to be proactive, not reactive and continue to evolve quickly to meet the needs of physicians and patients. Healthcare is a difficult field to be involved in during normal times, not to mention the last few years with the unprecedented pandemic as well as the changes being forced upon physicians and other medical professionals daily. It is times like these that organized medicine plays a major and powerful role to ensure that we protect the physicians in Pennsylvania as well as the patients we care for daily. Our PaMed is one of the only advocates for every physician in the Commonwealth and continues to provide resources to ensure we return to the art of medicine. As a former administrator in the ED, chair of the Berks County Medical Society, and a current clinically practicing Emergency Medicine physician, I feel that I have experience as a known leader in both administrative matters as well as the credibility of being a front-line worker, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. Medicine is an ever-changing field. We need to be nimble, have a pulse on the current state of medicine, and be in touch with the front-line physicians as healthcare evolves.

As a future officer of PaMed I would like to ensure that members are informed of decisions in a timely fashion and updated on programs as well as finances spent between annual meetings. As a former member of the Board of Trustees and the Young Physician Section Trustee, I was able to learn a great deal from our former and current leaders as well as staff about the organization, governance styles, and some of the difficult choices that need to be made by both the board and members of leadership. There have been issues identified concerning a perceived lack of transparency with decisions that are made outside of the annual HOD. We will be able to improve our communication with general membership between meetings and guarantee all voices are heard.

There are many important roles that the society can play in the future. I have been a member of multiple task forces that addressed critical needs of our society as identified by the members of the HOD as well as a current member of the bylaws committee. Also, as the former chair of the employed physician workgroup, we created an Employed Physician Bill of Rights. We worked with the Hospital and Health System Association of PA to agree on certain principals to address concerns of employed physicians. As you know, the number of physicians employed by large contract groups as well as health systems is exponentially increasing. We need to ensure we represent and advocate for this important and large group of physicians along with our strong independent practice physicians.

We need medical students and residents to stay in the Commonwealth and use their talents to improve the health of Pennsylvania. As a former residency director and medical student clerkship director, I cannot speak enough about the importance of the medical students, residents, and early career physicians in organized medicine and healthcare in general. The enthusiasm, new ideas, and alternative perspectives of these groups serve to move our society forward. I look forward to working with these sections to advance medicine in PA. As I reviewed the resolutions for this year, there were many wonderful ideas put forth by these groups and I believe there will be many vibrant discussions.

You truly are the future of PaMed and we need to foster your ideas and thirst for medicine.

Counties will always play a critical role in the future of our state society. As the current chair of the Berks County Medical Society, I have been a leader in various initiatives to improve the health of our patients and advocate for our physicians. We have been seen as leaders in combating the opioid epidemic, improving access to mental health, providing PPE to various practices and local organizations, as well as engaging early career physicians into leadership roles. We have also had success in recruiting members and have had a very great percentage of our physicians in the county participate at the county and state society levels. Berks County has been a leader in Pennsylvania for many years thanks to our former leaders, current leaders, and our executive staff.

Lastly, as a woman, I am looking forward to expanding the diversity of leadership both on the board and the section level. The creation of the Women’s section was a big step forward in this expansion and there are many people of color and other underrepresented groups that have so much to give to our organization. Additional representation will continue to bring new and alternative thoughts and ideas that help to lead physicians in the Commonwealth which in turn will improve the care of the patients of PA.

Thank you again for inviting me to speak with you. I believe I have the skill set that is necessary for this role and I would be happy to answer any questions that you may have by contacting me. Take care and stay safe.

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