Our patients desperately need their voices heard by those in political power: they need political action and policy that will address gun violence, crime, education, access to health care, and countless other challenges that negatively impact their health. Using the tools learned in my fellowship, we have had tremendous success registering our patients to vote. We have run educational sessions for our emergency medicine faculty and residents to present the concept of voting as a social determinant of health, and teach methods and strategies for registering patients in an emergency department setting. Vot-ER has provided us with badges printed with QR codes, which patients can scan and check their voter registration in real time. We have worked with our registration staff, and have successfully integrated a voter registration prompt into the emergency department registration process. We have also added a voter registration QR code to all discharge instructions printed from the emergency department.

In the fall of 2022, we organized and ran a city-wide voter registration day in health care centers across Philadelphia. Working with colleagues in other hospitals to set up a unified event was an incredibly energizing and satisfying project that helped reinvigorate and inspire me as a physician. The health care field can often feel very competitive, especially in academia. This event, though, was a true collaboration to help the underrepresented patients of Philadelphia. We worked across five major academic institutions to co-run voter registration drives at our hospitals and clinics for National Voter Registration Day in September. At my hospital alone, we registered nearly 50 new voters in this single event.

We have expanded our project from last year, and plan to include more clinics, hospitals, and medical schools. Please consider planning an event at your hospital–you may be surprised at the amount of support and satisfaction you receive.

Impactful Work … Everywhere

In some ways, this feels more impactful than a lot of my clinical work. I can fix the electrolyte derangements and acidosis of my patient presenting in diabetic ketoacidosis, but I cannot fix the social issues that led to their near-monthly hospital presentations for the same issue. However, by empowering the community to participate in our democratic process, hopefully systemic change can occur and help make our country a healthier place to live. This has re-inspired me as a physician, and has helped me find meaning and purpose in the often heartbreaking reality of our profession.