NON-PROFIT QUARTERLY ON SOUTHWESTERN'S VIP LIST
Please see "Serving the People by Serving the Wealthy" in the Non-Profit Quarterly. An excerpt:
Riggs reported the existence of an “A-list” of wealthy and famous people from Texas who, if they wanted, could get special treatment at the hospital. The UT system maintains that everyone coming to the hospital, rich or poor, gets the same quality of medical care, but the A-listers had 24/7 access to a team of doctors on call to answer their questions, got jumped to the head of the line for anything whenever they showed up, and got special (purportedly non-medical) treatment by hosts and hostesses to make their use of the UT system a memorably pleasant experience.
"If they wanted"? They got the special treatment even if they didn't know they were receiving it.They have pictures and bios of all of the people on the VIP list and the employees assigned to be hosts/hostesses know when they are coming for their appointment,what clinic they are going to,and then they are ushered into an exam room where they are seen without hesitation.This provides these wealthy,powerful and those with a high community profile a "false" image of the patient experience so they sing their praises and are more likely to donate....The VIP lists is actually a "target" list of donors.
Posted by: Brent | March 14, 2008 at 08:52 AM