By ELLEN FUTTERMAN
As Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico in September, a coalition of family physicians from across the United States formed through social media reached out to their network of contacts to help colleagues in Puerto Rico.
Yu
Led by Dr. Kim Yu, a director for quality and performance for ambulatory and urgent care at Emeryville, Calif. based-Vituity, this coalition connected with the Puerto Rico Academy of Family Physicians to ask what was needed. They were told that without electricity, family physicians on the island wouldn't be able to open their clinics to care for patients.
Less than a week after Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico, four board members of the Puerto Rico Academy of Family Physicians sort medical supplies in Old San Juan. Medicine and supplies were flown in from the mainland U.S. to aid those hard-hit by the hurricane. From left are Drs. Luis Perez Toro, Adriana Marzan, Carlos Cestero and Sonia Enid Ortiz-Flores.
In late January, roughly four months after the catastrophic hurricane, a third of the island was still without power. But thanks to the efforts of this coalition, more than $100,000 had been raised to purchase a total of 66 generators so that doctors in Puerto Rico could get their clinics and practices up and running.
"I truly believe every Christian should show love to all people, so it was important to me to show love to the people of Puerto Rico and my fellow physicians in doing all I can to help them," said Yu.
Bisgrove
One of the doctors Yu first reached out to was Dr. Joanna Bisgrove, a family medicine physician with SSM Health Dean Medical Group in Oregon, Wis., and a physician board member for SSM Health Wisconsin. Both Yu and Bisgrove are part of the National Conference of Constituency Leaders, a leadership program within the American Academy of Family Physicians. Bisgrove said the National Conference of Constituency Leaders trains physician leaders who are historically underrepresented, such as minorities, women, international medical graduates and members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. "Because of who we are, we also tend to care for marginalized populations," said Bisgrove.
Bisgrove explained that a number of physicians in the coalition reached out to their state family physician chapters for help with donations. More than 20 state chapters responded immediately, and many others soon followed. The Indiana Academy of Family Physicians, which also has its own strong connection to the Puerto Rico Academy of Family Physicians, agreed to host donations on its website.
Originally, the thought was to try to ship generators to Puerto Rico. However, that was quickly seen as impractical.
"The problem was that these generators are so heavy that it's as expensive to ship them as to buy them," said Bisgrove. "The Puerto Rican docs knew there were generators on the island at places like Costco and Home Depot, so they hunted them down and snatched them up and then we reimbursed them."
Dr. Jose Muniz, a family physician and geriatrician in Cayey, Puerto Rico, is among those thanking the American Academy of Family Physicians for funding generators to restore power to medical offices following Hurricane Maria.
Yu also learned that it wasn't just family physicians in Puerto Rico who needed assistance but also pediatricians, internal medicine doctors, endocrinologists and neonatologists, among others. Bisgrove knew a way to help them. As one of roughly 500 delegates to the American Medical Association, Bisgrove approached and lobbied the AMA Foundation and received a $25,000 donation that enabled the purchase of 15 generators for non-family physicians. These 15 machines were in addition to the 51 generators purchased for family physicians.
"Everyone was so generous and willing to help," said Bisgrove.
"We are still raising money to get medicine such as insulin and medical supplies like nebulizers to Puerto Rico because there is such a need and quite a shortage," added Yu.
To donate, go to in-afp.org/make-a-contribution
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