Success in grateful patient philanthropy: insights from experienced physicians.

a s Facing challenging economic conditions, medical schools and teaching hospitals have turned increasingly to philanthropy as a way to supplement declining clinical revenues and reduced research budgets. One pproach to offset these diminished returns is to comit efforts to “grateful patient” programs that concenrate on satisfying patients and their families, especially amilies with significant assets. Support from grateful patients is the single most important source for substantive philanthropic gifts in medicine. When paients develop strong relationships with their physician r hospital, they may become deeply invested and reolve to support them. Involvement of physician faclty members in grateful patient philanthropy may be a omplex undertaking with ethical considerations as paients evolve to become donors. Some physicians ay feel uneasy because there are no clear guidelines bout norms or best practices. Moreover, most physiians have not received training in this area and have imited experience responding to inquiries about finanial support of their programs from patients. For those