Summer 2000, Vol. 8, No. 3.

President's Letter:
Message from the President

By C. Donald Williams, MD, CGP
Yakima, WA

The 2000 Annual Meeting in San Diego was successful in several respects. It was well attended, it introduced new members to AOOP, and new friendships were formed. Some of you caught some sun, and even had some of Rubio's fish tacos! This also represented the third year of the Basic Skills Workshop, which will count toward fellowship status within AOOP, as developed by your executive committee.

This year marks another transition for AOOP, as we retain a new management company, Marshall and Associates, to run the day-to-day affairs of AOOP and collaborate with the Program Chair and the Executive Committee in the planning of the Annual Meeting. We are excited about this new alliance, and the energy and enthusiasm that Sherry Marshall and her associates bring to this task.

Another area of growth and progress for AOOP resides in its commitment to planning ahead, both with regard to meeting location and also to program definition and speaker selection. This year Program Chair Ron Schouten and CME Chair Sandra Cohen have essentially completed the 2001 meeting planning process by March 15--a full 6 months ahead of previous years. Our goal is to select meeting sites 3 years in advance, and to have the annual meeting planning completed in time for easy advance publicity, in order to facilitate the growth of AOOP, and to encourage attendance by current members.

As organizational and occupational psychiatrists we have an opportunity to define the direction OOP will take over the next decade--perhaps longer. Our challenge is to define and articulate our field of endeavor, and to provide a curriculum for our colleagues that wish to develop their skills.

This is exciting and offers scope for creativity for us all. "The New New Thing"--a biography of Netscape-Silicon Graphics-Healtheon WebMD inventor Jim Craig offers an example of the type of divergent and creative thinking that we must bring to bear in our own field of professional endeavor.

Professions and service industries develop in response to market driven needs, and those that anticipate those needs most accurately and respond to them most proficiently are rewarded. It is particularly evident that the greatest rewards go to those who are "the firstest with the mostest". For example, as a thought experiment, name the top four Internet service providers in the United States. Who is second after AOL? Third? Fourth? Name the top four airframe manufacturers. Who is third after Boeing and Airbus Industries? Name the top four makers of operating systems. Microsoft, Apple, Sun, Linux?

The point of the recitation in the preceding paragraph is to highlight the importance of striving to be the best, and of securing the competitive advantage that makes the difference between success and being an also ran.

I suggest that medical practice is in some respects becoming more of a professional commodity, and that we can learn from our legal colleagues. In law practice developing a niche within which one is identified as providing a superior product is critical to recruiting new clients and to commanding a fee that recognizes particular expertise. In like manner, as psychiatrists, in order to differentiate ourselves from our competitors we must be able to point to services that we provide more effectively than others. The qualities that set us apart might include:

1. Specific knowledge.
   
2. Responsiveness to our customers.
   
3. The quality of our written product.
   
4. The speed with which the product is provided.
   
5. The demonstrated value of the product in relation to its cost
   

Simple guidelines may be useful in measuring ones own performance. How quickly do you respond to phone calls? How quickly do you perform evaluations? How many days does it take for you to deliver a report to the requesting professional? How flexible are you in scheduling depositions and courtroom testimony? I propose that the following objectives should be considered for all psychiatrists that wish to define themselves as offering organizational and occupational psychiatric service that is distinguished from that of its competitors:

1. A C.V. reflecting active professional involvement, eventually including presentations at national meetings and publication in peer reviewed journals and books.
   
2. A commitment to provide an evaluation within 2-7 days of request, depending on its priority.
   
3. Reports that are subjected to critical scrutiny by ones peers, and that undergo continuous quality improvement.
   
4. Routine report production within 2 or 3 days of the completion of the evaluation, or similarly, reports of organizational consultation that are provided within a similar time framework: these should be delivered by fax or overnight mail as needed. In addition, there should be a commitment to provide a report within 24 hours whenever needed in an emergency situation; this additional service can command a higher fee.
   
5. A track record of providing consultation and reports that facilitates efficient legal process, saving time and money for all parties.
   

We should at all times strive to be a part of the solution for our professional colleagues--not a part of the problem. Our referral sources should never need ask regarding us "when will Dr. X get his report in so that we can file our motion?." Our goal is to demonstrate such timely responsiveness to requests for professional consultation that referral sources will discover new uses for our work, in order to facilitate their work, with the result that we develop new markets. As business owners it is our responsibility to see that we have the requisite resources available to provide the service that our colleagues require. For example, this might include transcription services on site, fax and e-mail capability, and a policy of responding to referral sources within 4-8 hours.

When providing individual psychotherapy it is sometimes necessary and appropriate to require the patient to undergo frustration and to learn to modulate affects, wishes, and impules for gratification. When providing contracted service to business or professional colleagues, this is never appropriate; our only objective should be to provide the highest quality and most timely service, in the manner most convenient to our customer.

As we succeed in this effort, our professional work will be in consistently greater demand, and we will ultimately dominate our particular marketplace. Few professionals sustain the commitment to provide timely service within the framework outlined above; your success in doing so will define you as unique among your colleagues, and will cause your practice to expand dramatically.

Your executive committee is committed to developing basic skills courses and annual meetings that will equip you to provide these services. Our collective challenge is to implement this basic knowledge in a manner that respects the needs of the marketplace and positions us to derive advantage through meeting those needs in the most effective manner possible.

Your advice, consultation, and suggestions are always welcome. E-mail me at cdonald@aol.com, telephone me at 509-457-4611, or fax me at 509-454-3295. I will respond within 24-48 hours.

C. Donald Williams MD CGP

 
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