Zaepfel, Floyd M.

English

epublications@Marquette

The Linacre QuarterlyVolume 34 | Number 3 Article 15August 1967Why A Catholic Physicians' Guild?Floyd M. ZaepfelFollow this and additional works at: http://epublications.marquette.edu/lnqRecommended CitationZaepfel, Floyd M. (1967) "Why A Catholic Physicians' Guild?," The Linacre Quarterly: Vol. 34 : No. 3 , Article 15.Available at: http://epublications.marquette.edu/lnq/vol34/iss3/15Why A Catholic Physicians' Guild? FLOYD M. ZAEPFEL, M.D. When the Catholic Physicians' Guild was instituted in the Diocese of Buffalo in 1947 under the stimulus of the late Cardinal-then Bishop O'Hara of Buffalo-it had the following purposes: I. The spiritual edification of its constituent members. 2. To uphold the principles of Catholic faith and morality as related to the science and prac-tice of medicine. 3. To assist the ecclesiastical authorities in the diffusion of Catholic medical ethics. 4. To uphold Catholic hospitals i? their enforcement .of Cathohc moral principles in medical practice. It became increasingly apparent that to accomplish these purpos~s a dynamic Guild had to be inaugurated and forceful leadership pushed to accomplish the purposes. A defmi-tive constitution was drawn up and a set of by-laws was written and distributed to the membership. Dy-namic activity is accomplished by a council meeting four times yearly-working about four major events dur-ing the year-namely: a. Spring and fall retreat b. Spring banquet c. White Mass d. Fall Communion Mass and breakfast 244 DR. ZAEPFEL It was felt that the major ffort this year would be communh ions between our Guild physiciat and clergy who labor so diligently ~. var-ious church projects in the c •cese. At each council meeting we nvite one of our priests who has a s ~cine project in the diocese--e.g., the 1ag-nificat editor was invited in o er to increase our communication~· with the newspaper representing tl . dio-cese of Buffalo; next we invit• .1 the director of our family life pr< ~ram, to communicate with him reg t'ding problems of family life and tl : p:e-Cana project. Subsequently \. e m-vited the professor of theology_ at St. John Vianhey Seminary wi i the specific purpose of continui~-: : our medical education in the hr; t of Catholic teaching. Just as W l need medical education on a post-grnduate level, so too is moral cour:sel a necessity. To further accomplish our pur-poses, Guild committees we• e ap-pointed; members of thes have contributed to this issue of T HE LIN-ACRE QuARTERLY. E ach committee LINACRE Q uARTERLY chairman ehdea vors to pursue the. work with representation in each of the hospitals in the diocese. But really, why a Physicians' Guild? Are there not retreats in each parish? There are, but d~ they meet the needs of the practicing Catholic physician? Does the physician know the Church's stand on contraception, birth control, abortion? In a recent survey by Modern Medicine answers from . 40,089 physician-subscribers, polled from some 200,000 doctors in the United States, were received. Among Catholic physicians (14.5%) 49.1% were for liberalization and 50.9% were against liberalization of the abortion laws; of the total, 86.9% favored reform. In a recent address to our Guild, ·Father Maquire of Catholic U niver-sity stated: "What is going on in theology today is a certain liberaliza-tion. The simple truth is, this is a development which is not fully clear yet. We are pilgrims and we are moving, and movement is progress. You should expect movement and you should expect change." Why a Catholic Physicians' Guild? To pur-sue our medical education, to progress and be aware of what is changing not only in the medical field but also in theology. When the legislature convened in Albany, New York to consider changes in the· abortion laws, not only was communication necessary for our Family Life Department and the Catholic Physicians' Guild but . also our group was involved with the Catholic Lawyers' Guild. With pres-sure exerted the laws were not changed, at least for the present, in AUGUST, 1967 spite of the fact that material for many of the discussions was obtained from statistics on 504 therapeutic abortions performed in two (non-Catholic) teaching hospitals of the State University at Buffalo from 1943-to 1964. Do we need a Catholic Phy-sicians' Guild? We think we do to assist the eccle~iastical authorities in the Diocese of Buffalo in utilizing both their legal and medical Guilds. The basic tenets of hospitals re-quire the best patient care, educa-tion of physicians and research. All Catholic hospitals should strive for these objectives. Some do provide adequate teaching programs. Com-munity hospitals, however, need to offer their resources to medical schools where feasible. Our Guild has established a committee for edu-cation and research and hopes to make our resources available to the State Medical School at Buffalo. In those communities where a pastoral community senate has been established, it behooves the Guild to encourage members to serve. The life sciences will then be represented in the workings of the Council, en-abling physicians to accept their role in the renewal along with their fellow lawyers, bankers, business men and other workers. Too long h as there been a "conflict of interest on Boards of Trustees where physicians serve." Can you imagi'ne the Board of Trustees of General Motors with no engineers? So must Catholic Physicians' Guilds press for at least one doctor on such Boards so that someone on the medi-cal staff is aware of patient needs. and how best fellow physicians can be encouraged to administer them. 245 . The Catholic physician can no longer ignore political life. _Guilds must encourage the interest of phy-sicians in such matters. Recently we were appealing to State legislators to amend Medicaid laws; .now our ap-peals ,· refer to the abortion laws. Ironically enough, the representa-tives in our New York legislature whom we addressed on Medicaid are the same ones hearing us on abortion this year-and next year it can be something else. Traditionally, physicians ha¥e practiced the ecumenical spirit. No true man of medicine has ever asked a patient his religious creed or made any distinction in therapy because his skin was white, brown or black. Only since Vatican II has such proper re-emphasis been placed on this spirit. It was gratifying indeed to know that in addition to our own Catholic phy-sicians present at our last Guild dinner were several Episcopalians as well as our Hebrew brothers and their wives. Why a Catholic Guild? For more of the ecumenical spirit, not only for our patients but for our non-Catholic brethren. The economic plight of our hos-pital nursing schools, Catholic col-leges as well as hospitals, is becoming apparent. It behooves us to en-courage cooperation between our hos~itals and colleges not only to pool resources but to utilize trained personnel, reciprocate materials, lab-oratories and staffs so that research 246 laboratories for _ residents, gra(· tte students and nurses can fu r. J n under contributive planning. V · a Catholic Physicians' Guild? Ca •. lie physicians are needed in the sol on of this problem along with .u-cators, administrators and cc ·ge authorities. Medical Health Centers are e ·v-ing within the University corr 2x. Catholic hospitals need to est8 'sh community medical centers to , )id duplication and to control r ng costs. Physicians' Guilds nee to provide leadership to aid Ca t 11ic institutions in accomplishing ·eir objectives in education and res( ·ch ·for the betterment of patient c Why a Catholic Physicians' G ld? Here in Buffalo, New York w•. ee a dynamic surge to 1) spiritt tlly edify our members at retreats 2) boldly suggest that we venture ·ith our fellow brethren into the poli ..:al, educational and pastoral fields, md 3) feel we should encourag . all Guilds to enhance the Catholic · .ly-sician as a vigorous leader in his community and to make certa i : he is afforded the opportunity tc do God's work in man's total care. DR. ZAEPFEL is president of the Ca: :1olic Physicians' Guild of Buffalo. His fi ( ·d _of practice is surgery and he serves as , ch~ef of this department at Sisters of Cnanty Hospital and Emergency Hospital i~ Buf-falo, consulting surgeon at E_. J. l teyer Memorial Hospital and attendmg surgeon at Veteran's Hospital. LINACRE QuARTERLY The Catholic Hospital-Yesterday and Today SISTER RosA, D.C. Yesterday's Catholic hospital could be viewed as a castle-:-the draw-bridge down with an ever-welcome attitude toward patients. Frequently, tho, the drawbridge would be cranked to the up-position when an outside influence approached. This was a natural development, when you consider the facts perti-nent to the first Catholic hospitals. In the early days of Catholic hospital history the religious orders cared for the sick and dying on their com-munity property. The organization was simple. All the treatment was accomplished by the dedicated re-ligious. Their daily work was the personal attention to the needs of the sick as a work of C~ristian charity. Their duty was of an isolated nature, simply direct'ed by a few equally dedicated doctors of medicine. Today things are different. Where once there was the drawbridge there now is an expressway with bustling multi-lane traffic. And the traffic is as confusing as any involved express-way clover-leaf, representing varied interests such as the demands of gov-ernment, state and local accrediting agencies, regional planning boards, expanding and exacting medical edu-cation programs, specialty boards, unions, and the revolution of nursing education. Today the moat has been spanned. The Catholic hospital is involved_ with many publics. Our present status is good evidence of this. 90 percent of the Catholic Hospitals are accredited by the Joint Commission AUGUST, 1967 as compared with 61 percent of all other hospitals. This also reflects the continuous drive for improvement by our Sister administrators throughout the nation. Today the drawbridge cannot be pulled up at will. The manner in which we care for the sick permits no isolation. Everyone is involved with everyone else. Involvement is a necessity. And this necessity de-mands more enlightened manage-ment, better prepared supervisors, increased· communications inside and outside our hospitals and shrewd delegation of authority. The key to this improvement is teamwork among all members of the health field; and in this teamwork lies the avenue we must travel to safeguard our Chris-tian heritage of caring for the patient in the best possible way. Examples of this can be seen at every level. We employ professional managers and engineers to incorpo-rate systems within the hospital structure to ensure greater efficiency and economy, greater safety and greater h urn an relations in our dealing with one another. For years, hospitals have asserted an uniqueness in most problem areas due to the unpredictable nature of the business. But experts in industry are disproving this statement by harnessing our "unsolvable" prob-lems with a know-how proven effective in other businesses. Many Ca tholic hospitals no longer look to laymen on Advisory Boards. The laymen are being incorporated 247 

Why A Catholic Physicians\u27 Guild?

The Linacre QuarterlyVolume 34 | Number 3 Article 38August 1967Why A Catholic Physicians' Guild?Floyd M. ZaepfelFollow this and additional works at: http://epublications.marquette.edu/lnqRecommended CitationZaepfel, Floyd M. (1967) "Why A Catholic Physicians' Guild?," The Linacre Quarterly: Vol. 34 : No. 3 , Article 38.Available at: http://epublications.marquette.edu/lnq/vol34/iss3/38Why A Catholic Physicians' Guild? FLOYD M. ZAEPFEL, M.D. When the Catholic Physicians' Guild was instituted in the Diocese of Buffalo in 1947 under the stimulus of the late Cardinal-then Bishop O'Hara of Buffalo-it had the following purposes: I. The spiritual edification of its constituent members. 2. To uphold the principles of Catholic faith and morality as related to the science and prac-tice of medicine. 3. To assist the ecclesiastical authorities in the diffusion of Catholic medical ethics. 4. To uphold Catholic hospitals i? their enforcement .of Cathohc moral principles in medical practice. It became increasingly apparent that to accomplish these purpos~s a dynamic Guild had to be inaugurated and forceful leadership pushed to accomplish the purposes. A defmi-tive constitution was drawn up and a set of by-laws was written and distributed to the membership. Dy-namic activity is accomplished by a council meeting four times yearly-working about four major events dur-ing the year-namely: a. Spring and fall retreat b. Spring banquet c. White Mass d. Fall Communion Mass and breakfast 244 DR. ZAEPFEL It was felt that the major ffort this year would be communh ions between our Guild physiciat and clergy who labor so diligently ~. var-ious church projects in the c •cese. At each council meeting we nvite one of our priests who has a s ~cine project in the diocese--e.g., the 1ag-nificat editor was invited in o er to increase our communication~· with the newspaper representing tl . dio-cese of Buffalo; next we invit• .1 the director of our family life pr< ~ram, to communicate with him reg t'ding problems of family life and tl : p:e-Cana project. Subsequently \. e m-vited the professor of theology_ at St. John Vianhey Seminary wi i the specific purpose of continui~-: : our medical education in the hr; t of Catholic teaching. Just as W l need medical education on a post-grnduate level, so too is moral cour:sel a necessity. To further accomplish our pur-poses, Guild committees we• e ap-pointed; members of thes have contributed to this issue of T HE LIN-ACRE QuARTERLY. E ach committee LINACRE Q uARTERLY chairman ehdea vors to pursue the. work with representation in each of the hospitals in the diocese. But really, why a Physicians' Guild? Are there not retreats in each parish? There are, but d~ they meet the needs of the practicing Catholic physician? Does the physician know the Church's stand on contraception, birth control, abortion? In a recent survey by Modern Medicine answers from . 40,089 physician-subscribers, polled from some 200,000 doctors in the United States, were received. Among Catholic physicians (14.5%) 49.1% were for liberalization and 50.9% were against liberalization of the abortion laws; of the total, 86.9% favored reform. In a recent address to our Guild, ·Father Maquire of Catholic U niver-sity stated: "What is going on in theology today is a certain liberaliza-tion. The simple truth is, this is a development which is not fully clear yet. We are pilgrims and we are moving, and movement is progress. You should expect movement and you should expect change." Why a Catholic Physicians' Guild? To pur-sue our medical education, to progress and be aware of what is changing not only in the medical field but also in theology. When the legislature convened in Albany, New York to consider changes in the· abortion laws, not only was communication necessary for our Family Life Department and the Catholic Physicians' Guild but . also our group was involved with the Catholic Lawyers' Guild. With pres-sure exerted the laws were not changed, at least for the present, in AUGUST, 1967 spite of the fact that material for many of the discussions was obtained from statistics on 504 therapeutic abortions performed in two (non-Catholic) teaching hospitals of the State University at Buffalo from 1943-to 1964. Do we need a Catholic Phy-sicians' Guild? We think we do to assist the eccle~iastical authorities in the Diocese of Buffalo in utilizing both their legal and medical Guilds. The basic tenets of hospitals re-quire the best patient care, educa-tion of physicians and research. All Catholic hospitals should strive for these objectives. Some do provide adequate teaching programs. Com-munity hospitals, however, need to offer their resources to medical schools where feasible. Our Guild has established a committee for edu-cation and research and hopes to make our resources available to the State Medical School at Buffalo. In those communities where a pastoral community senate has been established, it behooves the Guild to encourage members to serve. The life sciences will then be represented in the workings of the Council, en-abling physicians to accept their role in the renewal along with their fellow lawyers, bankers, business men and other workers. Too long h as there been a "conflict of interest on Boards of Trustees where physicians serve." Can you imagi'ne the Board of Trustees of General Motors with no engineers? So must Catholic Physicians' Guilds press for at least one doctor on such Boards so that someone on the medi-cal staff is aware of patient needs. and how best fellow physicians can be encouraged to administer them. 245 . The Catholic physician can no longer ignore political life. _Guilds must encourage the interest of phy-sicians in such matters. Recently we were appealing to State legislators to amend Medicaid laws; .now our ap-peals ,· refer to the abortion laws. Ironically enough, the representa-tives in our New York legislature whom we addressed on Medicaid are the same ones hearing us on abortion this year-and next year it can be something else. Traditionally, physicians ha¥e practiced the ecumenical spirit. No true man of medicine has ever asked a patient his religious creed or made any distinction in therapy because his skin was white, brown or black. Only since Vatican II has such proper re-emphasis been placed on this spirit. It was gratifying indeed to know that in addition to our own Catholic phy-sicians present at our last Guild dinner were several Episcopalians as well as our Hebrew brothers and their wives. Why a Catholic Guild? For more of the ecumenical spirit, not only for our patients but for our non-Catholic brethren. The economic plight of our hos-pital nursing schools, Catholic col-leges as well as hospitals, is becoming apparent. It behooves us to en-courage cooperation between our hos~itals and colleges not only to pool resources but to utilize trained personnel, reciprocate materials, lab-oratories and staffs so that research 246 laboratories for _ residents, gra(· tte students and nurses can fu r. J n under contributive planning. V · a Catholic Physicians' Guild? Ca •. lie physicians are needed in the sol on of this problem along with .u-cators, administrators and cc ·ge authorities. Medical Health Centers are e ·v-ing within the University corr 2x. Catholic hospitals need to est8 'sh community medical centers to , )id duplication and to control r ng costs. Physicians' Guilds nee to provide leadership to aid Ca t 11ic institutions in accomplishing ·eir objectives in education and res( ·ch ·for the betterment of patient c Why a Catholic Physicians' G ld? Here in Buffalo, New York w•. ee a dynamic surge to 1) spiritt tlly edify our members at retreats 2) boldly suggest that we venture ·ith our fellow brethren into the poli ..:al, educational and pastoral fields, md 3) feel we should encourag . all Guilds to enhance the Catholic · .ly-sician as a vigorous leader in his community and to make certa i : he is afforded the opportunity tc do God's work in man's total care. DR. ZAEPFEL is president of the Ca: :1olic Physicians' Guild of Buffalo. His fi ( ·d _of practice is surgery and he serves as , ch~ef of this department at Sisters of Cnanty Hospital and Emergency Hospital i~ Buf-falo, consulting surgeon at E_. J. l teyer Memorial Hospital and attendmg surgeon at Veteran's Hospital. LINACRE QuARTERLY The Catholic Hospital-Yesterday and Today SISTER RosA, D.C. Yesterday's Catholic hospital could be viewed as a castle-:-the draw-bridge down with an ever-welcome attitude toward patients. Frequently, tho, the drawbridge would be cranked to the up-position when an outside influence approached. This was a natural development, when you consider the facts perti-nent to the first Catholic hospitals. In the early days of Catholic hospital history the religious orders cared for the sick and dying on their com-munity property. The organization was simple. All the treatment was accomplished by the dedicated re-ligious. Their daily work was the personal attention to the needs of the sick as a work of C~ristian charity. Their duty was of an isolated nature, simply direct'ed by a few equally dedicated doctors of medicine. Today things are different. Where once there was the drawbridge there now is an expressway with bustling multi-lane traffic. And the traffic is as confusing as any involved express-way clover-leaf, representing varied interests such as the demands of gov-ernment, state and local accrediting agencies, regional planning boards, expanding and exacting medical edu-cation programs, specialty boards, unions, and the revolution of nursing education. Today the moat has been spanned. The Catholic hospital is involved_ with many publics. Our present status is good evidence of this. 90 percent of the Catholic Hospitals are accredited by the Joint Commission AUGUST, 1967 as compared with 61 percent of all other hospitals. This also reflects the continuous drive for improvement by our Sister administrators throughout the nation. Today the drawbridge cannot be pulled up at will. The manner in which we care for the sick permits no isolation. Everyone is involved with everyone else. Involvement is a necessity. And this necessity de-mands more enlightened manage-ment, better prepared supervisors, increased· communications inside and outside our hospitals and shrewd delegation of authority. The key to this improvement is teamwork among all members of the health field; and in this teamwork lies the avenue we must travel to safeguard our Chris-tian heritage of caring for the patient in the best possible way. Examples of this can be seen at every level. We employ professional managers and engineers to incorpo-rate systems within the hospital structure to ensure greater efficiency and economy, greater safety and greater h urn an relations in our dealing with one another. For years, hospitals have asserted an uniqueness in most problem areas due to the unpredictable nature of the business. But experts in industry are disproving this statement by harnessing our "unsolvable" prob-lems with a know-how proven effective in other businesses. Many Ca tholic hospitals no longer look to laymen on Advisory Boards. The laymen are being incorporated 247 

https://epublications.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2791&amp;context=lnq

Why A Catholic Physicians\u27 Guild?

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

epublications@Marquette

epublications@Marquette