The Georgia Scroll
January 1998
HFMA - from Ohio to Georgia
By: Bob McVicker, Senior Assistant Hospital
Director
Medical College of Georgia Hospital
I used to hate the Georgia Chapter of HFMA because it was sooo good! You see, I was the President of a small but ambitious chapter in central Ohio. I arrived back in central Ohio in the early 1980’s and began to get seriously involved with the chapter I joined in the 70’s when I was in public accounting.
It was suggested to me that it would be good for my career in public accounting to join HFMA. So with a little pep talk, I joined HFMA in 1974. I was told to marshal all my talents to use this membership to obtain new clients. The national firm I worked for (there were eight in those days) liked to think of itself as second in the Health Care market. We definitely weren’t first and the firm that was first had at least a 90 yard lead over the rest of us seven little dwarfs. So I would go to the meetings and try to develop a dialogue that would lead up to the question "How would you like to switch audit firms?" I even chaired the chapter’s audit committee for two or three years (nobody else volunteered). The chapter was marginally interested in the Graham L. Davis award scoring and I admit I was too busy trying to sell auditing services to remember how well we did. I do remember however, at the committee chairperson meetings there was always a mention of how well the Georgia chapter had performed.
After trying to obtain clients for six years, I realized it would be much easier to be a client and say no to the goofballs who wanted me to switch audit firms. I became a CFO of a hospital in New Orleans and transferred my membership to the Louisiana chapter. Scared from my attempts to sell at previous HFMA meetings I merely attended the educational meetings and stayed away from anybody from a national accounting firm at the breaks (including my own auditor). I believe it was at an HFMA meeting I became acquainted with the term "Damn Yankee!" It was through some of my former HFMA contacts that I learned about an opening for a CFO position in central Ohio.
The gentleman who hired me had previously been the president of the central Ohio chapter and suggested that I get actively involved with the group. After the third brochure he gave me, I figured that he was serious about my participation. I attended several meetings that year and was listed (set-up? –your choice) as a member of the newsletter committee. I discovered that the one national accounting firm that was 90 yards out front had decided to make central Ohio chapter a model chapter.
I then proceeded to become the chairman of the newsletter committee for three years. This was before typesetting was invented and everything had to be typed and proof set before it was copied. I developed a plan to fill about three of the eight pages with articles about an institution and a profile of a member, usually an officer. Generally the officers were busy with other committees and would plead lack of time, until I told them that I would write the article about them and include some of the juicer parts of their backgrounds.
During this time I was elected to the Board of Directors and became actively aware of the Graham L. Davis Achievement award and the ease that the Georgia chapter had in accomplishing it. Our chapter actually had a five-year plan that we monitored and continued to follow each year. We always achieved the GLD and usually received one if not more national awards, one of them was the best newsletter. We were certain if we continued our plan and accomplishments for the full five-year period, we would be considered (win) for the Robert Shelton award for sustained achievement. During this period, the chapter from Georgia would surface in Board meetings as the "model" chapter. I even remember one chapter president coming back from ANI and saying he had read the Georgia chapter report from cover to cover in hopes of finding the formula for success.
As time progressed, I advanced through the chapter offices and eventually became President of the chapter. I was the president of the chapter in our sixth year of sustained excellence and was sent to the ANI with one mission: Bring home the Hardware!! Well, the hardware went south that year again. I remained attached to that chapter for several more years. There was a significant turnover of people out of the chapter and several long-time members retired. While the chapter continued to excel for its members, it had decided not to sustain that intense competition for the national awards.
Since those days, I have been a member of two other chapters of HFMA and now am a member of the Georgia chapter (if you can’t beat them join them). I am truly amazed at the quality and the quantity of volunteer work that occurs within this chapter. I would encourage you all to get involved with a committee. This is an excellent way to meet people in the industry. I believe that Pat Hamby said at Hilton Head in August that she is always impressed with the people she has met through HFMA. I would echo that. You have an excellent chapter, I would encourage y’all to get involved.