Monday, May 26, 2008

A Distinct Approach to Profit Making

What if a hospital was a simply a very complicated version of a corporation that focuses on maximizing profits since they are both run in a parallel manner?
The corporation is owned by shareholders whereas a hospital is owned by a private company (which could be shareholders for all we know) or by the government. In either case, however, the Board of Directors is the governing body of the institution in question and is headed by the chairman, who might or might not be the CEO. In the corporation the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) is in charge of setting policy and coordinates the day to day operations of the company with the policy set by the Board of Directors. The equivalent in a hospital is known as the Chief Medical Officer (chief of surgery). The CMO is also in charge of implementing policy set by the Board of Directors which he does not necessarily chair. He also supervises all surgeries. The Chief Operating Officer in a corporation is known as the President and his role consists of managing the day-to-day affairs of the company. In a hospital this person is the Chief Resident who is in charge of overlooking the residents to make sure that they are doing their job to the best of their abilities. In a company there are Executive Vice-presidents who report to the President on the state of every part of the company. They function as the president of each division of the company by which way they run the company by divisions. In turn, in a hospital there are also different departments of medicine which are run by a doctor, who is known as the Heads of such type of medicine in which s/he specializes. There is a leader of neurosurgery, plastic surgery, cardiothoracic, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, among others. They also have to report to the Chief Resident about their deeds. The Head Nurse also falls into this category.
In the hospital the Fellows are those who are specializing on a certain type of medicine. This functions as a regular job to which they must apply first. Vice-presidents in a company run each further subdivision of each department in a company. They have to report to the Executive Vice-president on the state of the department of which they are in charge such as finance, marketing, accounting, information services, public relations, corporate affairs, law, and the various other operating divisions.
Residents in a hospital are the doctors who practice medicine there. They have already received their credentials. However, for the time being they can only practice general medicine. Usually they attach themselves to the Head of whatever type of medicine they are planning to specialize on. They must also have interns and interact more closely with the medical students. In a company the general managers must make sure that everything in a department is running according to plan in order for the vice-president to be able to run things smoothly. They have a big responsibility because they are the biggest connection between workers and the management.
The managers are those who technically help the general manager make sure everything is running smoothly on an everyday basis in order to ensure perfection. The interns in the hospital are those who have already graduated from medical school, however, are not yet accredited to practice medicine on their own. They help the residents as a manager does: great responsibility with little power. They thus must remain under the hand of a resident until they have passed their accreditation exam.
Supervisors and nurses also have a big responsibility, but their work is overshadowed by the manager and resident, respectively.
Workers and medical students: both are there one day, but they might not be there the next. Anything can happen. In this way, the corporation is a parallel to the hospital. Every step of the way is managed in a similar way. In addition, both have a legal department; which is there to defend them in case anything does not turn out as it was meant to be. They also share many other traits such as the pyramidal payment distribution.
Finally, there are the patients and the product, respectively. One makes profits through sales. The other assures the hospital income by remaining sick.
Next time you visit a hospital, whatever the reason, think about this parallel because you might become a tool for profiting.


xoxo,
Poison Drops

©Copyrighted 2008

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Okay. We need to talk about this. You know where I work, and I fully understand the infastructure you're refferring to on a business perspective. The heiarchy you described in terms of is more or less accurate. A little GENERAL, but I certainly catch your drift. And I'll take you're word on the structure of a hospital as well. HOWEVER, I find it a little cynical to compare a product or service being sold from COMPANY X versus the upkeeping of someones health done through a HOSPITAL.

I won't be naive enough to say that in this country the Medical system is not greedy. By all means, other Countries have figured out that it's okay to help someone that's sick who doesn't have all the "right" paper work.

What I'm trying to get at here, is that although the structure maybe the same, the goals are not. A company strives to get more clients daily, to keep them coming back and eventually get a consistent loyal group of consumers. When was the last time you saw doctors comes out and sprinkle malaria over a mall so they'd have something to do that afternoon? Me entiendes or am I just talking out of my ass at this point?

--Rosario