What’s the connection between a rattlesnake and Profit & Cash®?

In November 2009, Hal Anderson was bow hunting with two friends in southeastern Montana. A large wounded buck was occupying their senses. Suddenly one of Hal's friends shouted to Hal, "Back up!", pulled out his pistol and pointed it at Hal's foot. Hal looked down and thought there was a stick stuck to his boot...but rather than a stick, it was the rattler pictured here. In trying to shake the clinging snake off, Hal lost his balance...and the snake's fangs pierced completely through Hal's boot and into his leg.

Hal's friends took him to the nearest hospital, a small rural facility where Hal, worried that he could die not only from snake venom but also from a heart attack while waiting for care, was taken care of by a dedicated team in which everyone pitched in.

As it turned out, the rattlesnake's strike had been "dry" - no venom injected. But suppose there had been no hospital available? Small rural hospitals are a vanishing breed in this country. Hal wanted to do something to repay the hospital for its commitment to outstanding care even in the face of a diminishing patient population. He made it his commitment to find out what the hospital needed and to help where he could. It turned out that knowledge of business finance was lacking among the hospital's managers. But how could one person help an entire hospital, even a small one, to become more financially astute such that they could make better decisions, develop better strategies, form a strategic vision?

He started researching. On the internet, the first thing he found was the HFMA article about the approach Adventist HealthCare took to help their leaders grasp the essentials of financial management: the Profit & Cash® business simulation game. He talked to an Adventist executive who put him in touch with John Schuster. In a phone conversation, John invited Hal to participate in a demonstration of the game. Hal was impressed with the level of learning Profit & Cash® could engender and its specificity to an industry, in this case healthcare, such as the draw cards that pose detailed, strategic situations in which decisions must be made as to what benefit or detriment could occur. Hospitals can't "just cut their way to profitability," Hal states. They must learn other ways to increase their market share, to perform outreach, and to educate their staffs in issues affecting the bottom line. His goal is to take the Profit & Cash® simulation to this hospital at a time when they need it as a way of saying thanks for their being there - at a time when he needed them.