My entire career has been in healthcare. First as a practicing internist and emergency physician with a large group practice in the Midwest, and later as a senior hospital executive with two large health systems, one in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and the other in Columbus, Ohio. For the last five years of my career, I was a consultant with a Miami-based firm working with large health systems on hospital-physician integration strategies.
I am running for this board seat because of concerns about certain anti-science forces in our society that want to turn away from evidence based care and who demean expert healthcare agencies, undermining their recommendations to the public. Putting anti-science representatives on the SMH board will harm patients and the ability of the health system to recruit the best and brightest professionals.
I am also running for this seat to assure SMH remains a public hospital with its commitment to serving all members of our community. I am against privatization or sale of the hospital to a for-profit system. I am concerned that Republican Party board members will eventually cave to pressure from their party to privatize SMH as privatization of government services is a deeply held position of the party (e.g. Medicare, prisons, schools, postal services).
Finally, I believe the hospital board should advocate for public policies and legislation that improve the health and safety of our community including gun reform laws, legislation to lower the cost of critical prescription drugs, legislation that expands insurance coverage to all citizens, and laws that protect the privacy of the doctor-patient relationship including those related to women's reproductive health. It is hypocritical for a board member to support the health system mission to improve the health and safety of our community while in the board room, and then outside of the board room, support egregious GOP legislation that harms community health and safety (e.g. blocking gun reform laws, taking away reproductive rights, repealing insurance expansion, Project 2025 plans).