Many millions of thanks!

‘Fess up. Oftentimes we are too busy to reflect on the good we do at Clovis Community Medical Center and, worse, fail to remind others that this isn’t “just a place of business” or “where I work.”

For the last bunch of years, I’ve prepared Community Medical Centers’ annual corporate community benefits report, which is required by state law as a condition of our nonprofit status. Soon, federal health reform will require further reporting.

Gathering and writing this report sometimes requires adding fact-gathering duties to colleagues around the organization — many of whom I’ve never met. (I can be a bit of a nag!) But the end result, well, it’s a cause for celebration — and a chorus of thank you’s. Last year, we delivered care and services — costs for which we were not reimbursed — to the tune of $174 million.

What does $174 million equate to in “the real world?” With a bit of rounding of figures, what we give away — 15% of our total expenses — is the equivalent of:

• This year’s budget deficit for the District of Columbia.
• What it cost Apple to supply free IPhone 4 protective “bumper” cases to alleviate reception problems.
• What an Indian company paid for a coal mine in Indonesia.
• What Iconix, the world’s second biggest licensing company, paid for rights to comic strips including Peanuts, Get Fuzzy, Dilbert and others.

With that much money, you could pay the annual salaries of 22 members of the New York Yankees baseball team or 29 Philiadelphia Phillies or 85 Pittsburgh Pirates (OK, might have to throw in some minor leaguers too for the cheapie Pirates).

Instead, Community provides wound care, rehabilitation therapy, home dialysis and ambulatory care dialysis, treatment for the homeless, poor, jail and juvenile hall patients, those with behavioral health problems. We help educate doctors, conduct hundreds of clinical research studies, treat asthma, diabetes, HIV/AIDS, vehicle accident victims, those who’ve been scalded, shot or stabbed. We mentor young people pondering health care careers and let them “job shadow” working professionals.

Thirty percent of those seeking care at Community Regional’s emergency department in downtown Fresno don’t speak English, requiring hundreds of interpreter interactions daily with patients and their families. Community is not reimbursed for these services, which last year cost $480,000.

For more information and access to the report, go to http://www.medwatchtoday.com/2798.htm

In the meantime, give yourself credit for the good work you do in Clovis, the helping of patients, fellow medical professionals and co-workers. And, pay it forward, remind all around you that the good you do really benefits the lives of others.  Thank you!