Does this sound familiar?   The doctor "trusted her completely" and had gone without pay himself believing his practice was strapped for cash. 
He told police she was "his office manager and best friend" and allowed her "total control"

Mar 2018 – Melbourne Florida. A woman was sentenced to five years of prison Thursday for defrauding her employer of $151,000 over several years while working as office manager in his medical office.  

Deanna Parton, 49, entered a guilty plea on charges of organized fraud, criminal use of identification, fraudulent use of a credit card and eight counts of depositing checks with intent to defraud between 2011 and 2015 while she was working at the Melbourne practice. 

During those years, Dr. Rolando Gomez, Parton’s employer, trusted Parton completely, according to police documents. When he first noticed a discrepancy in his books, he told police that Parton was his “office manager and best friend” and that he allowed her total control over all the practice’s finances. 

On top of that, Gomez himself had gone periods of time without pay, believing his business was failing and strapped for cash. 

Initially, only a $4,500 discrepancy was found in the books after Gomez had hired a new accountant. Parton said she needed it for a surgical copay and called herself “evil” for taking it. 

All that time, however, Parton had been stealing much more from the company, writing herself checks in excess of $54,000, making ATM withdrawals exceeding $40,000 and making unauthorized charges to the company credit card estimated at $15,000.  

Prosecutors described Parton as acting in a “cunning, organized, systematic and sophisticated manner; demonstrating a lack of remorse and no consideration for how her actions affected the business and its patients.” 

On top of five years in prison, Parton will also be serving 15 years on probation and has been ordered to repay the entire $151,000 to Gomez. 

Source

One of the best business decisions you can make is to have your practice checked to make sure you and your staff have not developed any bad habits.

Bill Hiltz