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Micki Harris • July 1, 2019
Sneaky Sue
Once upon a time, in a small medical clinic in the heart of the city, there was a sneaky secretary who was pocketing patients' co-pays instead of giving them to the doctor. Let's call her Sneaky Sue.
For months, Sneaky Sue had been collecting cash from patients and squirreling it away in her own pockets. The doctor was completely unaware of this scheme and continued to treat patients as usual.
One day, the clinic decided to let Sneaky Sue go for unrelated reasons. A new secretary, let's call her Honest Heather, was hired to take her place. On her first day on the job, Honest Heather collected a co-pay from a patient and gave it to the doctor as usual.
To her surprise, the doctor asked, "What is this?" He had no idea what a co-pay was, as he had never received a cash copay before. Honest Heather quickly realized what had been happening and explained to the doctor that Sneaky Sue had been pocketing patients' cash co-pays all along.
The doctor was shocked and angry that his own employee had been stealing from him and his patients. He realized that he had put too much trust in Sneaky Sue and had not implemented any checks and balances to prevent this type of theft.
The lesson learned from this cautionary tale is that it is essential to have someone trustworthy managing your money and to have a system of checks and balances in place to prevent any type of theft or embezzlement. In the medical field, this means implementing protocols for collecting and handling patient payments, ensuring that multiple people are involved in the financial process, and auditing financial records regularly to identify any discrepancies.
As for Sneaky Sue, she learned that the truth always comes out eventually, and that the consequences of dishonesty are not worth the short-term gains. She was never able to find work in the medical field again and had to learn the hard way that honesty truly is the best policy.
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