2. Another Sad Day
in HIS-tory…
• Very sad news last week about
the parting of a long-time friend
and true “HIS pro:” Dick Schopp.
• So we’re interrupting our story on
the many vendors Keane acquired
to pay tribute to this HIS veteran,
who was not only a great human
being, but also a consummate
business professional.
• It’s sad that as our industry
matures we are losing more and
more of these HIS-tory heroes
like Dick and Bill Corum, so join
me in reminiscing about this great
3. “Director of Data Processing”
• Like so many early HIS pioneers, Dick got
his start in IT working on mainframe
systems back in the halcyon 1960s.
• Dick’s resume of these early days of IBM
5081 keypunch cards starts his story well:
• Magee Women’s Hospital
– Director of Data Processing
- Responsible for installation and management of
first computer system for University of
Pittsburgh Medical Center.
- Including: redesign and reengineering Patient
Accounting, Billing, Cashier, Admitting,
Registration and Credit and Collection depts.
- Designed, developed and implemented an
automated laboratory information system.
-Managed 38 employees in the following areas:
DP, Admitting, Registration, Cashier, Billing,
Accounts Receivables, and Collections.
4. Amazing Sales Successes
• Early in the 70s, Dick left Magee-Women’s to
enter the commercial world, joining the
fledgling HSD division of McAuto, selling Walt
Huff’s pioneering “HFC” in the lion’s den!
• Being based in Pittsburgh, he was given the
mid-Atlantic territory, home of my alma mater
SMS, with easily the greatest sales team in HIS!
• Here’s a great story about Dick’s sales prowess
from Jim Pesce, who also joined McAuto then
and today heads up McKesson’s Paragon division:
- “I guess many of us new Dick for at least
40 years. My most vivid memory of Dick
was way back when he sold Frankford
Hospital right in SMS’ back yard in
Philadelphia back in the mid 1970’s...”
5. The Client Comes First!
• Jim continues the Frankford story:
– “When I showed at Frankford up as their
implementation consultant manager for the
initial planning session with the CFO, Bud
Pepe, Mr. Pepe was adamant that he
wanted to install McAuto’s 3rd
party logs first
because of his pressing Medicare audits.
– I was confused because at the time McAuto
had no “3rd
Part Logs”. When I asked him
what 3rd
party logs he was talking about, he
said “the ones that Dick Schopp sold; they
were the main reason I selected McAuto.”
– When I called Dick and told him we didn’t
have any 3rd
party logs, Dick replied calmly,
‘Then we better get some real fast!”
• This may sound like harsh selling, but when I showed up at Alice
Hyde Hospital in Malone NY in 1971 as the ID for SMS, they wanted
to start with EKGs, which SMS (Siemens) doesn’t offer to this day!
6. Other Friends From McAuto
• Dick’s Sales Manager at the time was another HIS-
tory hero, Jim Navin, pioneering recruiter and co-
founder of the Meditech consulting firm Navin-
Hafty, tells this story of his early times with Dick:
– “Your sad news reminds me of the 1970s when
Dick reported to me at McAuto HSD. He was a
good salesman, a good manager and a good
friend. My favorite memory of Dick is of touring
Mexico City with Pat and my wife Nancy before
HSD’s first one hundred percent club. Four
people enjoying life and Mexico City…”
• Another McAuto veteran, Melinda Costin, today a
VP at Baylor, recalls Dick with equal fondness:
• “He was great guy…. He taught me my greatest lesson in
one sentence and I never forgot it (though did not always
practice it!): ’You are so right that you are wrong’.”
7. Fascinating Factoid
• Dick and I became friends at McAuto during my stint there in the
early 80s, and one of my fondest memories of him was how we
both ended up fighting a losing battle for a HIS-tory heroine.
• Seems McAuto had a policy of paying recruiters based on which
one mailed in the resume of a candidate first. No matter how
much time you spent coaching & cajoling that person to take a
job, whoever time-stamped a resume first got the commission.
• As Marketing Services Manager, I got to interview
candidates and give them a tour of HSD, and tried to
sell the good ones on joining McAuto. Dick sent a fine
candidate in who had been recruited by a new
recruiter (ex-SIDA) by the name of Betsy Hersher!
• Despite all her hard work at recruiting this candidate, seems some
other agency had sent in the her resume a day earlier, and got the
commission. Dick and I fought in vain to get the McAuto
bureaucrats to give Betsy a break, and the three of us became fast
8. On To Brooklyn!
• When I left McAuto for HIS, Inc. in Brooklyn, I used Betsy to recruit
the very best salesmen I knew from my days at SMS and McAuto.
Here they are below, one of the greatest sales teams in HIS-tory:
Bert Hochstein
HIS Inc’s own NY
native, for the
Northeast region
Brain Fitzpatrick
One of SMS’s best
reps ever, for the
Rocky Mtn states
Jud Foreman
An IBM & SMS
superstar, for the
Western region
Roland Thibault
An SMS & McAuto vet & ex-
CFO, for the Mid-Atlantic
Dick Schopp
A McAuto veteran & sales
superstar, for the Midwest
Mike Crabtree
Ex-Mac sales
support maven
Larry Evans
Ex-McAuto
sales support
guru, also
designed HIS’
clinical apps.
Don Trammell
Ex-SMS and
McAuto sales
superstar, for his
native South.
Some jerk from
Philly who got
off the wrong
subway stop in
Brooklyn…
9. Starting His Own Firm
• HIS’ super sales team sold 10 of the nation’s largest hospitals on a
system that didn’t even exist yet! (don’t mock we old folks, think of
Paragon in 1997, Soarian in 1999, Release 6.0/Focus in 2005…)
• Dick led the chase by selling two mainframe sites in the Midwest:
– Catherine McAuley Hospital and the University of Indiana Medical Center
• Programming the system turned out be harder than selling it (duh),
and when HIS Inc. eventually filed for bankruptcy, Dick left…
• After selling so much stuff for others, he decided
to go consulting to help his mainframe friends.
• He named his new firm Healthcare Computing
Strategies (HCS) and it was tremendously
successful, providing programming to over 300
hospitals with over 100 employees, including
many McAuto veteran like Bill Corum, Ops VP.
10. Good Times
• My best memories of Dick are socializing with other HIS veterans:
- With Jud Foreman (also from
SMS/McAuto/HIS Inc.) and our
wives
- Dick in the hat
playing fierce
defense against
Larry Mancini
(McAuto), Bob
Pagnotta (MDS
& Tymshare) &
Brain Fitzpatrick
(SMS & HIS Inc.)
- Hamming it up
with Bill
Bogutski
(SMS) and
Brain
Fitzpatrick
(SMS & HIS
Inc.)
- With our
lovely wives
on a
mountain
overlook
near Santa
Fe, NM.
11. The HIS Pro
• HCS did very well for many years until Y2K which drove most
mainframe shops to cease their self-developing and buy a vendor
turnkey system in the late 90s. Dick tried to shift HCS’ resources to
HIPAA in the early 2000s, but cash flow dried up and HCS folded.
• He then joined our consulting firm and did fabulous work at
battling the very sales tactics he excelled at! He spent his
remaining years with us as the embodiment of our name: HIS
Professionals.
• Here are some more quotes from HIS industry veterans who
worked with Dick during his many years with our firm:
– “Dick was a great guy and always a pleasure to work with.”
• Troy Rosser, Senior Vice President of Sales, CPSI
– “Very sad. He was a such wonderful guy – we’ll miss him.”
• Brain Fitzpatrick, worked with Dick at HIS Pros, and HIS Inc.
12. Requiescat in pace
– “I was saddened to hear that one of your friends and coworker
(Dick Schopp) has passed away. God Bless him and his family!”
• Paul Kingston, Western Regional VP, Meditech
– “Dick was one of the good ones who stood for integrity and
always had the best interest of the customer first and
foremost. He led a great life… I will definitely miss him.”
• Phil Boarman, Enterprise Sales Executive, McKesson
• Dick is survived by his loving wife of 55 years, Pat, whom I’m sure
would love to hear directly from any of Dick’s many friends at:
– pschopp@comcast.net
• Or you can send her a card at:
Pat Schopp
24W514 Cernry Circle
Warrenville, IL 60555
