As a hospital CEO, one of the greatest challenges that I faced was that of resource allocation. Because my personal goals included making our organization:
- A facility that became recognized for its very high quality physicians
- A Planetree facility where you never had to “leave your dignity at the door”
- State of the art in every technological area
- The employer of choice in the area
…our financial challenges were sometimes overwhelming. This hospital was located in an area where the average salary was only $22,000 a year, the population continued to decrease, and there were three other hospitals within about eight miles of this facility.
Due to these very real financial challenges, many of my nights during the eleven years of my presidency were sleepless ones. Consequently, it has become my personal mission in my consulting efforts to help remove the barriers for my former CEO peers so that they can meet their personal goals through a “Get, Find, or Save” philosophy.
Under the “Get new sources of funding” category, one of my successes was that of creating alternative solutions to very challenging problems. Many times we found new financial resources by following the “Road Less Traveled.” Although not all of these journeys were fruitful, the ones that were deserve to be replicated, so that other CEO’s might generate funds for their organizations using knowledge learned and perfected through these personal trials and errors. Included in this list were efforts in areas such as sophisticated diagnostics, the use of new high technology modalities, high-touch integrative medicine, special packages for wellness and prevention, a community workout facility, the use of molecular testing, and many more.
The “Find” portion of this equation comes from my associates at SunStone Consulting. Their particular skills and talents learned through years of work with the largest accounting firms have resulted in unique, proprietary software and knowledge that allows them to uncover monies already generated by your organization that otherwise might never be collected: Worker’s Comp, Transfer DRG’s, Pharmacy Charge master analysis, and a half dozen more areas bring these funds straight to your bottom line.
Finally, the “Save” piece of this puzzle is coming from a dozen new ideas, products, opportunities, and technologies that until very recently were generally unknown. Everything from software that provides your physicians with Continuing Medical Education Credits for researching their own patients to new Hazardous Medical Waste Recovery to FDA-approved technologies to identify wounds that have not yet manifested themselves. All of these are on the pallet for potential use in a hospital or clinical setting.
As the Executive Director of a 501(c) 3, nonprofit organization back in the early 1980’s, I remember hearing for the first time a hard core description of the personal qualities that should be considered by the executive when looking for a board member. While the original board member recruitment philosophy had been to seek out people who would either Work for or would bring Wealth or Wisdom to the organization, this particular advisor said, “We are looking for people who will Give Money, Get Money, or Get off the Board.”
Well, if you are looking to find already-earned yet not collected resources, to create new resources, or to work with companies that bring you extensive savings and value, or if you are just looking for a little more sleep, look to those who have successfully navigated the white waters and thrived.
