PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Curtis Kommer
TI  - My Role in Health Care’s Existential Crisis
AID  - 10.1370/afm.2879
DP  - 2022 Nov 01
TA  - The Annals of Family Medicine
PG  - 566--567
VI  - 20
IP  - 6
4099  - http://www.annfammed.org/content/20/6/566.short
4100  - http://www.annfammed.org/content/20/6/566.full
SO  - Ann Fam Med2022 Nov 01; 20
AB  - Contemplating retirement after 38 years as a family physician has, for me, been an uncomfortably revealing process. I can’t help but remember the few patient-care regrets that still upset me after all these years, and I find myself wishing I could go back in time; do things differently; conjure up better outcomes. I can’t, of course, but those memories of individual patients eventually led me to consider my entire practice life, the legacy I might leave, and my role in a health care system that has changed so dramatically over the course of my career.Far too late, I have realized that while I was singularly focused on “taking care of patients,” I neglected an even greater responsibility: to advocate for myself and my patients and push back against an endless series of misguided policy decisions that have adversely affected the health and well-being of my patients and made my job so much more difficult and stressful.American health care is experiencing an existential crisis, and I regret that it has happened “on my watch.” By not speaking up as a physician, I enabled others to speak for me, others with far less knowledge, understanding, or commitment to patient care. I regret that most of all.In this article I try to come to grips with why I was mostly silent, and I share what I am trying to do now at the end of my career to effect change and find my voice. Better late than never, I am speaking up for my colleagues and patients. Now, more than ever, I hope that we physicians will insist on being heard.