Jay Cook and Steve Campbell: Doctors Day timely this year

By Jay Cook and Steve Campbell / Herald Forum

Every March 30, we observe Doctors Day. As we enter a third year of navigating and responding to covid-19, we believe Doctors Day 2022 merits some extra reflection about the role physicians play in our community.

In 1991, when President George H.W. Bush signed a proclamation declaring March 30 as National Doctors Day, he wrote, “More than the application of science and technology, medicine is a special calling, and those who have chosen this vocation in order to serve their fellow man understand the tremendous responsibility it entails.”

Until we lived it, none of us could have imagined the test that covid-19 would present to physicians. Since the beginning of the pandemic, doctors have worked tirelessly to care for people in need: members of our communities, our families, our neighbors and our friends.

We looked to our infectious disease specialists to help us understand covid-19’s causes, mechanisms, behavior and risks. Our Emergency Department, intensive care and hospitalist physicians worked tirelessly on the frontlines to provide for patients’ acute care needs. Throughout our community, primary care doctors provided ongoing care and guidance to thousands. Specialists adapted to serve the many in need, pivoting their practices to tend to essential care that sometimes had to be postponed during the pandemic’s most dangerous surges.

Doctors in our community adapted their practices and stepped up as ardent leaders in advocating for their patients’ health and needs.

Please join us in observing Doctors Day on Wednesday, March 30. There’s no better time to express our deep appreciation and gratitude to the medical staff serving in hospitals and clinics here in Northwest Washington.

If you’re able to, we hope you’ll take a moment to reach out and thank any doctors who have touched your life.

Dr. Jay Cook is chief medical officer for Providence Regional Medical Center Everett. Dr. Steve Campbell is chief medical officer for Providence Medical Group Northwest.