By Ron Schmidt
“You know I don’t do this for the money, I do this because I care for the patients.” This line stuck with me as I sat chatting with a nurse at the Cleveland Clinic’s liver transplant floor. And as I watched as grieving families sitting with their dads and moms, I had no idea how terrifying liver disease can be.
As I witnessed the expert care from physicians and medical support teams I said to myself that there’s no way they are in it for the money, because there are less stressful ways than this to make a living. Think about it this way: would you ever go to a doctor or hospital that you felt didn’t care for the patient, that they were in it for the money?
Who Comes First For You?
The tag line at the Clinic is “Patients first.” Think about the members you serve. Is it just a job for you? Are you doing it for the money? How many of your employees feel the same as this nurse? And if you’re just doing it for the money, not the members, will that compromise your organization down the road?
Let’s look at some recent evidence. Remember the bank that opened 565,000 credit cards accounts without their customers’ knowledge? In the bank’s effort to reach goals, bank employees took it upon themselves to sign up customers for added services. And in a three-year span the bank increased the number of households with their credit card by 26%.
Remember? Sure you do. That’s the bank that’s trying to win back its customers by airing the ad showing the team of horses pulling the customers’ gold across the prairie while the driver and his partner hold off the bad guys. This is the bank where the CEO quit and customers are leaving because some “smart guy” said, “We can make more money for ourselves (management) if we get these low-level employees to open more accounts.” Now that’s a stellar goal! Patients first? I don’t think so.
Questioning the “Smartest”
Unfortunately, companies lie and cheat for their own benefit. Hard to image but it’s constantly in the national news; but what about your world, your news? I get it--we have to make money to be able to serve our members, which makes sense. But at what point do we question the “smartest person in the room?” Who are we doing this for, our members, or ourselves?
Think about the sweat equity a doctor puts into her career. Four years undergraduate, four years medical school, two years residency and two-to-four more years specialty training. That’s an awful long time, a lot of debt and a whole lot of devotion; all for a paycheck? I don’t think so. So you decide: is your devotion to your members or to other goals like at Wells Fargo where management really had one objective – and it stares them in the face every morning.
Ron Schmidt is with CBS Certified Public Accountants, LLC, Solon, Ohio. He can be reached at rschmidt@cbscpasllc.com.