TMA President A. Tomas Garcia III, MD: Installation Address

I am happy and honored to accept the challenge of becoming the 150th President of the Texas Medical Association. Forty-four years ago I received my B.S. in Pharmacy here in Austin at the University of Texas. I couldn’t begin to imagine that day that I would be standing before you here today. At that time, I was concerned about dealing with my draft board! They had allowed me 5 years to complete my Pharmacy degree. They didn’t feel kindly about granting me more time to study medicine.

I graduated from the Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara along with about 400 other American men and women who had not been accepted into American medical schools. I happily completed a 5th pathway in New Rochelle, NY because the 5th pathway program I had fought to pass here in the Texas Legislature had not approved the monies to pay for the program. Even then, I knew what it was like to pass bills in the Texas Legislature. I completed a residency in Baltimore and finally was able to return to Texas to finish a cardiology fellowship at the Texas Heart Institute. 

I became involved in the Harris County Medical Society at the recommendation -- or should I say “at the insistence” -- of my late partner Dr. Robert Crouch. I covered his cardiology practice so that he could participate in the Texas Medical Association activities. I feel sure he is smiling down on these gatherings today. I am one lucky South Texas man! I just wanted to become a country doctor and raise hunting dogs. I didn’t plan to go to a foreign country and learn a language or go to the East Coast half a country away from South Texas!

My plans took a turn I never envisioned! For most of us practicing medicine, our plans have taken a turn we never envisioned! We are so burdened with EHR and meaningful use and PQRS and every other acronym that can be thrown at us that we barely have time to shake hands with our patients or greet them properly. We spend more time working on their medical records to satisfy government and other bureaucratic requirements that our clinical acumen takes second place. This wonderful, honorable profession of ours is part science and part art. It has become a mountain of paperwork! This isn’t what we envisioned! This isn’t what we trained 80 hour weeks for in our internships and residency programs. But, we are now working 80 hour weeks for 40 hour pay because …………. someone can’t figure out the formula for paying us to be physicians. 

We are not providers! We belong to one of mankind’s most respected professions. We are healers, we are at the bedside at the start of life and at the bedside at the end of lives. We do God’s sacred work here on earth. We are not providers! We are physicians.

Let us come together today. Please pledge with me that we will work to regain the respect that is due our profession. Let us vow to work to regain the dignity of the work we do. Let us demand that we receive the payment we deserve for our services and stop being pressured by bureaucracies that bully us by crying “Fraud.” We don’t have time to engage in fraud. We may make mistakes but that is because we are stressed beyond belief by agencies wanting to quantify the treatment of our patients. Who better than a physician to understand what we do for our patients? How dare a data clerk refute our judgment on the care of our patients! How dare we continuously receive impunity instead of consideration. 

The moral high ground has always been part of our calling. We shouldn’t have to defend ourselves daily in the pursuit of caring for our patients. We deserve better and I pledge to you that I will serve you and the citizens of Texas. 

List of TMA presidents since 1853