Foreword: This article was kept back for quite some time until today for the reason that it might cause a stir among many of our business partners, affiliates and a handful of close friends. I do not intend to discredit the medical profession in general nor embarrass anyone. My sole intention is to let them know that they should put people first above all before themselves.

Quality healthcare is one of the very basic benefit every Filipino should and always have. Yet, even those who have and can afford, cannot truly appreciate health care in its true sense of the word. I’d say, much of the problems in service delivery  lies entirely not our government or the system but from the principal drivers of health care – the doctors.

I have listed some common and very annoying habits that doctors do or doesn’t do in the practice of their profession and what med schools should teach to our young graduates.

1. Respect other people’s time.

Have you ever seen a doctor who came in for work on time? Probably there are but in my experience 9 out of 10 doctors never make it on time. What’s even more disheartening is the fact that people graciously accept doctors’ tardiness. No one expresses anger or disappointment whenever the doctor come in late for work. Instead, they are greeted with respect and reverence much like greeting a priest in a confessional. Also, our chronically tardy doctors were given ‘safe passes’ or ‘blanket’ acceptance for such socially unacceptable behavior. It’s high time that we should express to our doctors that our time is equally important as their time and that there are no excuse good enough for disrespecting our covenant of properly keeping time.

2. Always consider patient’s financial capacity.

The cost of health care including diagnostic tests and medicines are steep these days most specially with the advancement of very modern medical technology. Ever wonder why doctors prescribe too many lab tests and not even ask if we can afford to pay for it? In retrospect, doctors should always qualify the financial capacity of the patient to pay for medical bills and that procedures should be conservative and given in accordance to patients’ economic status. In other words, before an expensive procedure is to be given to a patient, a low cost alternative must first be considered unless extremely necessary.

If it may help to understand, doctors get as much as 15% to 30% percent (commission) for every laboratory referrals they make to private laboratories. The more referrals they make, the more income they generate – that is how the ‘game’ is played. Sad but true, there are no prevailing health care standards placed by our Government to better monitor and manage medical practice, much like an ISO for the manufacturing industry, and so doctors are left to do basically anything they want without being accountable for anything.

3. Give what is due to the Government.

Doctors make poor businessmen. A dishonest businessmen at that. In fact, they don’t consider their practice a business at all; probably another excuse not to give official receipts and being chronically tardy. Doctors don’t declare how much patients and money they earn for medical consultations. Doctors don’t declare their commissions or referral fees they get from private laboratories and hospitals. Doctors don’t declare cash gifts and bonuses. And, doctor’s refuse to deduct taxes from services rendered to insurance holders. Well, if there is anything these doctors want to deduct from, it probably is their obligation of service and charity to their countrymen.

4. Stop asking favors.

We are in the business of health care and, part from being that, we hire doctors to manage our clinics. If there is truth to what our medical director once said that: “doctors need medical reps for conference sponsorships“. Is it really a need or just merely a want? I pity the medical reps these days for they are reduced by these doctors to become their personal sponsors for conferences and even their dinner parties. This is one major reason why our medicines are among the most expensive in Asia because of the representation costs incurred by drug companies to these doctors. Yes, your doctor is the reason why they are expensive.

5. Work with the system.

Many doctors always seems to feel that they are always a cut above the rest. This probably stemmed from long and expensive education that they feel they should be given special treatment. Thus, being socially placed above the pedestal, they feel that they can work their best if there are less rules to follow. Rules that particularly govern their professional practice.

I can vividly remember when we first installed our first medical director to our chain of medical clinics and discussed on house rules and policies, they (the doctors) started feeling very uncomfortable.

The practice of medicine has changed dramatically over the years most specially with the advent of modern medical technology. We were able to probe deeper and understand primary causes of diseases and how we can protect ourselves from them. But, despite all the advancements, some basic yet very important things hasn’t changed and that is how our modern shamans (doctors) practice their profession for the sake of science?

Let me quote a scholarly definition of what rumor is based on on a research entitled:Rumor and Gossip Research by American Psychological Association.

“Rumors have been described as public communications that are infused with private hypotheses about how the world works”" (Rosnow, 1991), or more specifically, “…ways of making sense to help us cope with our anxieties and uncertainties” (Rosnow, 1988, 2001).

Rumors are unsupported claim for certain occurrences and it is brought about by our mind’s ability and eagerness to understand incomplete information. To make sense of things, we tend to “fill-in” the missing pieces and draw a picture from those.

To give this theory a test, say for example I ask you to fill-in the missing letters below to form a word. I will not say how many letters you need to “fill-in”, or even if the words are related. Just fill-in and make sense of the following words based on your own understanding. Go ahead and give it a try and see if you can guess what I intend the word to be.

red, exciting, hot, f___k

I know what you’re thinking but it’s not what you think it is. Ninety percent (90%) of all people I asked answered UC between the letters given above and this has just proven my point. So what’s is the answer? Read on.

So how does rumors start in the office?

Rumors can come only in two ways. One, from speculation (as with the exercise above) and two; intentionally manufactured stories often with ill intent. In most cases, it start with the former.

Rumors starts from an office employee seeing or over-hearing information that is incomplete and “fills in the blanks” according to what he or she thinks.

An office employee seeing someone on the records room (like the one pictured above) may understand the scenario differently, puts malice to it and spreads the wrong information around. So, before the day ends, the two staff who came from the records room suddenly gets the full attention of the entire company. Halaka!

My Advice:

Rumors is as old and part of the human psyche. There is no way you can stop people from making wrongful speculations however, you can always stop and think first before believing. Remember, ninety percent (90%) of rumors are all wrong and are downright malicious.

ANSWER:

f iretruc k (Gotcha didn’t I?)

Having served the company for four years now, I had the chance to work with a colleague who has become an epitome of failed leadership. This experience has taught me a valuable lesson on what not to be when I take a shot as the ‘main’ man – the CEO. This colleague has been like my shadow and knew him like the creases on the palm of my hand. I guess success has got in to him that much, and has become what he abhors the most – an elusive and misguided dictator.

I have outlined the qualities of this chronically doomed leader so it will be my heuristics on what leaders ought not to be.

Leaders ought not to be:

• a ‘flip-flopper’. This is a quality of a person who cannot seem to make up his own mind much less, stick to the company’s objectives. He seems to go in endless circles and people are tired on following his path. I don’t know if he can see clearly that his men are very much frustrated on keeping up with standards, policies, and objectives of the company when he himself does not even recognize its value and keeps on bypassing them. For him there is only one and only one rule – his rule of thumb.

• self-centered and arrogant. He seems to enjoy a lot sitting on his laurels and continually strokes his ego by saying that the company and its people will be nowhere without him. While it may be true somewhat, but its just a small fraction of the effort. It’s the people who support at the ‘back door’ that made the four corners of the business stable – not by an arrogant salesman with a tricky sales pitch up his sleeve.

• an all talk, but walking the talk. This guys talks a lot, and I really mean a lot! This self-righteous individual preaches like the Pope, and poaches like pimp at sunset. He always makes it clear and very adamant with all executives like me not to ‘screw’ around with any employees and yet he was the first to break the rule. Talk about true leadership.

• a coward. False leaders come in different forms and sizes. Many come in shining armors with the fiercest look and the sharpest swords. But when  the charging comes to confront the enemy he will sit at the back and let others cover for his sorry ass. At peacetime, his inspiring words are the only voice you’ll here, but dead silent and non-existent on war time – probably hiding in the bunker you say?

• disrespectful. An arrogant man never learns to respect others, even of the same cloth. This is very evident on many of our corporate meetings when he tramples on the decisions of the CEO and discredits his capability as a leader in front of his subjects! Who now is more apathetic ?

• false sense of direction. His true ‘north’ is different from what is commonly accepted and wants everybody to follow his broken compass. I remember quite vividly saying that his ‘barometer’ for identifying  if the company is doing fine is if his one of his long time employee isn’t making complains. If SHE complains, then that means there is deep trouble. This is like believing to a superstition – unbelievable!

• emotionally unstable. A mark of a true leader never gets ‘budged’ by emotions when making decisions. Leaders decides very objectively and squarely even at the highest tides of emotional situations. Yes, many and costly mistakes are made because of emotional instability.

This ominous character is what brought him down in the beginning and the same shall be his fate on the very last if he continually disregard the signs.

As for me, I have had it up to here – my brow line, and don’t know how long I can take this. Honestly, I don’t share his vision anymore because it’s clouded. I don’t share his vision because it’s misguided. I don’t share his vision because it’s self-centered. What is keeping me afloat all these years is the people at stake. Much will be lost if I jump ship. I say, to whom I serve is not the driver that stirs the wheel, but the man who paves the road.

When I first started to write my first blog, it took me several months trying to convince myself to get it started. Trying to find good reasons why I should blog like everyone else. Many blog sites I found was just in it for the money like advertising or selling some kind of goods. I almost fell into that scheme and soon realized that it ain’t enough motivation for me to sustain the habit of blogging.

One day I said to myself, “What the heck! I will just get it started anyway and write anything I want to write. Inspiration will just set in later – probably.” And so I blogged away. One post followed by another post and another post. Twenty-six posts after, it now became clear to me my real purpose for making a blog and why I should make it a life long habit.

In the course of my habit to blog, I finally found my motivation why I should carry on this habit and why I think everyone should care to blog as well. Here are my reasons:

1. Make your thinking process clear.

2. Improve public perception and reputation.

3. Makes you understand yourself better.

4. Serves as your personal guidebook.

5. Improves communication skills.

6. Clarifies personal goals.

7. Spurs creativity.

8. Blog to learn.

9. It’s fun and very addictive.

These are my internal motivations why I continue to blog and why, I think, you should care and start your own as well. I know many bloggers out there would add some more to my list but surely it will just be more of the blog site features rather than real reasons.

My advice:

Grab a blog account and just do it! Happy blogging!