Wednesday, June 01, 2011
BLOGSCAN - Another Health Care Foundation Loses Its Way
From Gary Schwitzer's HealthNewsReview blog, an aggregation of stories that shows how the famous Susan G Komen For the Cure foundation has lost its way. Not only is this organization using its financial resources to launch legal challenges to other charities that dare to use the phrase "for the cure," but it now has joined a corporate partnership to sell perfume. It seems that no matter how well-intentioned a health care organization is, infuse it with enough money and fame, and watch things unravel. Health care charities now seem to be no more resistant to mission amnesia than are academic medical institutions.
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5 comments:
It's not the Foundation that lost its way, if looked at from the perspective of the rank and file.
It's the executive leadership and board that have lost their way.
I believe a near-wholesale replacement of anyone with a "C" in their title in healthcare, or with membership on a healthcare board, by people without conflicts of interest and with integrity is truly needed to restore some sense of trustworthiness to healthcare.
I found the timing of this post interesting. One year ago a church we attend sought and hired a new minister. I was struck by the sales approach he took to all activities.
We are now on our second series of motivational material in a row, this one based on a pop business book. Having been down this road before I recently emailed the denomination and explained my past board position and the outcome of the conflict at that time, people were removed.
This is a denomination that has lost half of its members and is about to loose half of the remaining members. The denomination’s response ignored the facts of my email and simply said I should learn more and become involved in helping grow the denomination. Using the pulpit to drive attendance and income is now the sanctioned activity. We will leave the religious stuff to the members.
The anchors of our society of church, medicine, charity etc. have been lost to an intellectual elite who can parse facts to suit their needs. 75% of the potential members of my denomination are thought of as being out of step with the 25% who control the political boards and decision making process.
Doctors I am sure have been told to get on the boards of their local hospitals and change the things they did not like. What they find is a wall of old cronies who use the hospital for their personal benefit. Try to change things and you are a trouble maker pushed not only out of the hospital, but out of your practice. Comments regarding UPMC come to mind.
We have known for a long time that many of the patient advocacy groups are nothing more than marketing schemes designed to provide staff with above average incomes. Now well respected charities have joined have joined the non-profit “brand protection” racket.
Technical ability be damned, we want to see revenue growth and brand protection at the top of those resumes. Church, medicine, charity, it is all the same.
Steve Lucas
the anchors of our society of church, medicine, charity etc. have been lost to an intellectual elite
Steve,
I would call it a clever elite.
There is a difference between cleverness and intelligence.
Scot,
Going to college during the 70’s I called these folks the “smart guys.” I had to work to put myself through school; they worked the system and played all the angles. Why work when you just derail the other guys work and then claim it for your own.
Today these “smart guys” are in leadership positions protecting “brand identity” for a charity. They are the nursing home administrators making six figure salaries running small facilities, Medicaid is good. These are the hospital administrators who have created a corporate culture that is so focused on their income there is little room for patient care.
I am a business person and certainly understand the way the world works, but we have reached a point where collapse is immanent, because we cannot support everyone’s self interest, the results are chaos.
Steve Lucas
Sign # 7: Goodness in some areas atones for evil in others
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