Gus Geraci, MD
Gus Geraci, MD, had a simple task his first day on the staff of the Pennsylvania Medical Society (PAMED)—lead the 163-year-old organization in a completely
new direction that engages physicians to lead and shape health care delivery at a time when the health care environment is undergoing rapid transformation.
Dr. Geraci takes this big task in stride, saying he is very excited about his new job as vice president of physician leadership in quality and value at PAMED, where one of his priorities is identifying and supporting physician leadership. He’s using his more than 25 years of broad based clinical and administrative experience to help find ways to position his physician colleagues as leaders, and many of his colleagues see him as a mentor.
Though some physicians have told him they’ve given up hope that things can get better, Dr. Geraci strongly disagrees.
His role at PAMED is rather simple, he says, and yet the most challenging job of his career. “My message to physicians is that all is not lost,” he says. “I tell them, you can make a difference. My role is to get them focused and get them started. I tell them that the way to do that is to take one thing that irks you and work toward fixing it. And if you can’t figure out a way to do it,
talk to us.”
Since joining the PAMED staff in April, Dr. Geraci has met with physician thought leaders – both employed and independent – and with system and hospital administrators around the state to dig deeper into regional issues and find ways PAMED can collaborate on and facilitate solutions.
Working with PAMED’s Task Force on Quality and Value, his next steps include creating a plan to help build relationships between hospitals and insurers, looking at how to align incentives, and developing better relationships between physicians, hospitals, and health systems in the regions.
Ultimately, he says, the goal of the
PAMED Blueprint is to “unite all health care providers to improve quality and value.” That will include working together to implement improvements to community and population health.
Dr. Geraci invites PAMED members and non-members to
contact him with their thoughts on the challenges facing physicians. “I hope we get flooded with requests,” he says.
Read more in the
fall PAMED Better Health Network™ eZine.