Want Your Bonus? Then Get Someone to Donate.
Here is a really beautiful story that will warm the cockles of your heart:
Some doctors at Jefferson Health, one of the region’s largest medical networks, are pushing back after being asked to refer at least one “grateful” patient each month to the system’s fund-raising office, a practice they said they were told could impact the size of their annual bonus.
Known in philanthropy circles as Grateful Patient fund-raising, the practice has been in place in health networks for years. But the Jefferson doctors say the directive from their leadership took it to a new level by increasing pressure on doctors to provide names.
I also loved that the article mentions two doctors fearing retribution for speaking out about this. How disgusting are these administrators? I remember in my first job there was an initiative by the CEO to give to the United Way, his pet project. I think he was looking for an award from them. Anyway, each doctor was handed a form that they had to sign and show how much they were giving or they had to sign and state why they weren’t. Unbelievable. I just threw it out. You are not going to force me to make a charitable contribution. Besides, the CEO was a real d%ckhead.
Feel free to read the rest of the article but let me point out the examples of administralian (their language of bullshit):
- Jefferson said in a statement that it does not require physicians to make referrals and does not penalize physicians for not participating, but that there are departmental goals. (Wink, wink)
- The system acknowledged that incentive pay for department chairs includes a “grateful patient referral metric” that was added in September. Whether the referred patients end up donating is not a factor in a chair’s incentive pay, Brand said. The metric is based on a calculation of the average number of gratitude referrals per month and the percentage of physicians participating, he said. (WTF does this even mean?)
- “Today, more than ever, we are relying on philanthropy to ensure Jefferson’s continued financial strength,” wrote Edmund Pribitkin, executive vice president of Jefferson Health, in a September email to physicians obtained by The Inquirer. (This is always the story and the excuse. Yet they never show their books).
- Even though Jefferson says it doesn’t require physicians to refer patients, the institution last year created a new tool to allow doctors to attach patient referrals to the fund-raising office through the patient’s electronic health record. The new tool “will notify (institutional advancement) when a patient or patient’s family member has expressed gratitude, or if there are other reasons they might be a potential benefactor,” Pribitkin said in the email. (Wow. Just wow. This is like an episode of Scrubs. This is not intended to make doctors treat these patients better, right? LOL.)
This whole thing is an ethical nightmare for doctors and they should revolt en masse. Anyone supporting this is a patsy for the administration.
Am I being to harsh here? What are your thoughts?
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Don’t hold your breath. More likely he’ll get a big bonus and move up the organizational chain.
Doug, You’re absolutely right! The hospital or “corporation” should not get involved in this “charitable” giving thing and stay out of it. If the hospital wants to give as an entity to a charity, fine but don’t coerce the hospital staff to give or refer “grateful patients” who might be amenable to donation to the institution, that’s B.S.
A grateful patients metric? What if the grateful patient is on public aid and though highly respecting the care received, they can’t give outside of the fact they are struggling to survive in the first place?
Kurt
Our local hospital used to come to me every year to get a financial pledge. When I told them I could instantly give them over $1 million by just cutting their administrative salaries in half they never bothered me again.
Sorry, but anyone who can’t find a more deserving recipient of their charitable donations than a hospital corporation – well, they’re just a moron.
It is 2021. All somebody has to do is say this will lead to privilege, and some patients being treated better than others based on financial privilege. That administrator will be fired with his tail between his legs for discrimination.