The office manager of a physician practice plays a vital role, and is trusted with a tremendous amount of private and financial information.

One doctor learns how her office manager has been routinely stealing from the practice, to the tune of almost $50,000.

“I had read countless times about victims of office embezzling, but that was always in large medical groups,” writes Dr. Miriam Griggs, the victimized physician. She took false comfort in her solo practice in which she mistakenly thought “was exempt from the formal office policies and procedures needed to prevent such catastrophes.”

Doctors need to have intimate knowledge of the financial status of a practice. Not doing so can make one vulnerable to this type of embezzlement.