The healthcare industry as a whole exists on a slim operating margin even in good times. Prior to the onset of our current Pandemic the median operating margin for hospitals approached 2%, with less than two months operating cash available. This made for a very vulnerable industry once the Pandemic took hold and created a catastrophically negative balance sheet for many facilities. In a report by the American Hospital Association (AHA), the first four months of the Pandemic averaged over $50B in monthly losses. In a similar fashion, academic surgery has taken a devastating downslide with respect to productivity and funding. In one recent report by the Association of Academic Surgery and the Society of University Surgeons, 70% of researchers surveyed reported negative impact from restrictions to resources, access by patients/participants, lack of personnel support, and shifting of overall resources toward COVID-19 care endeavors.
Surgical societies have not been immune to the impact of the Pandemic either. The Surgical Infection Society, which is an organization smaller in membership than some of the older or more general category organizations such as the American College of Surgeons (ACS) or American Association for the Surgery of Trauma (AAST), sacrificed a large source of its revenue stream from its Annual Meeting when the Pandemic led to travel restrictions and limitations in gathering size across the country. However, rather than looking at the “glass half empty”, the organization’s leadership implemented some careful financial planning as well as contingency aspects for the upcoming year to mitigate further erosion of its financial solvency. This comes to fruition only with the dedicated engagement and participation of the Society’s overall membership to reiterate support for its mission – educating its members and providing educational opportunities to future researchers and practitioners.
I encourage each and every one of you to look at the glass being “half full”, control what we are able, and continue to move the ball towards the try-line (to use a Rugby metaphor). The way our beloved SIS will overcome this obstacle is to persevere through the tough times, take advantage of opportunities when they arise, continue to earn the trust and support of its membership, and be willing to adapt to a new horizon – let’s face the fact that large-meeting landscapes and the available resources for surgical research productivity may be dramatically different in 2021 and beyond. Our task is to navigate these new and somewhat unfamiliar waters, and bring our flexibility and ingenuity to the forefront.
I am excited to help lead such a dedicated group of surgeons and researchers, and I relish the idea of meeting this new challenge head on. My thanks to all of you who have stepped up to the plate to make our transition smooth.
Here’s to a better, more productive future for the Surgical Infection Society!
Cheers,
David