Theft in a medical practice: why it happens and how to stop it

Protecting against embezzlement comes down to eliminating opportunity. You cannot do much, if anything, to control another person's motive or rationalization. However, motive and rationalization are the places where you look for a problem. Both financial pressure and greed share the stage when it comes to motive. Some of the more common situations involve snowballing personal expenses that become difficult or impossible to resolve, family members who impose significant financial demands, lifestyle and luxury spending in excess of income, and other financially draining behaviors like gambling. Theft of office or clinical supplies or other tangible assets can certainly be a problem, but the most significant occurrences involve a misappropriation of cash, often in small amounts over a long period of time. In any well-run business maximum success depends on well-designed and followed systems and processes, and this is certainly true when it comes to the prevention of theft.