Dream Job? To Be Determined …

I’m no longer a medical assistant.

Is anyone shocked? Certainly not me.

So, here’s what happened –

I was very happy in the Spine Care Clinic. I worked with Emily, the most awesome nurse practitioner you’ll ever meet, I was back to scheduling patients for testing and was rooming fewer people, which I loved. So, why the change?

It was actually an accident.

A friend at work got a new job, a work-from-home job. I’ve always been interested in that option, let’s be honest, I feel like MOST people are interested in that option, so, out of curiosity, I picked her brain. I said, “Yo, Carrie, tell me about your new job.”

(Yes, I said it just like that because I like to pretend I’m hip and cool to keep up with youngsters).

And she told me. It was for the precertification department – this department is responsible for making sure diagnostic testing: MRI’s, CT’s, Ultrasounds, Echocardiograms, surgeries, have been run through the patient’s insurance and the insurance either approves, or denies, the requests. And the job is 100% from home, though, if you lost Internet/power, they will expect you to go into the office, which is fair.

(Which has already happened to me once. Our entire neighborhood lost Internet so I had to go into the office for a few hours until it came back on. It was really awkward because I had to find a cubicle that wasn’t being used and it was so quiet that I was too embarrassed to make any phone calls because everyone would be able to hear me. Don’t recommend and hopefully, don’t have to do that again any time soon).

I was intrigued. One, because it would be cool to work from home and Two, I’ve done this kind of job before waaaay back when I was a scheduler so I knew what it entailed.

And then Carrie told me there were looking to hire more people. I sat on the information for a bit, weighing my pros and cons and thought to myself, “Self – why not give it a shot?”

But I didn’t think I had a chance for two reasons:

1. I have crossed paths with the supervisor in the past and let’s just say, I was my usual obnoxious self. It was back when the precertification department was just starting out and I was asked for my “professional” opinion and by gosh, I gave it. Pro tip: if you don’t want to know my opinion, don’t ask for it.
2. I didn’t think there was any way they would match what I’m currently making. I’m already almost to the top of my pay tier and … I just didn’t think they would match and I was certainly not going to take a pay cut just to work from home.

But I was curious. How did this work? How did they keep track of productivity? So I said screw it and applied. I thought, “what could it hurt? They probably won’t even call me.”

They called me.

And I interviewed.

And not to be a jerk, but it was the most informal interview I’ve ever been on. Not because the women who interviewed me, (which, by the way, that one supervisor I’ve crossed paths with was one of the women), but because I just didn’t take it seriously because I was convinced it just wasn’t going to work out. They asked me the usual crazy interview questions, but one really stuck out, “tell me a time you received negative feedback and how did you handle it.”

I hate these questions but I totally get why they ask them.

So, once again, I was honest. What do I have to lose, remember?

“This is going to sound weird,” I said, “but I never really receive negative feedback.” Their eyebrows rose and I thought, “well, that sealed the deal, I’m not getting the job.”

Then we got to the part where they asked if I had any questions. I smiled, nodded, and pulled my list out of my purse. It was a literal list. Their eyebrows rose again and one of the supervisors laughed and said, “Oh, she has a list.”

I asked my questions. They didn’t really answer them to my satisfaction but that’s okay, I got the gist.

The whole interview, I smiled, put on my professional face and jumped through the necessary hoops thinking to myself, “I really hope this supervisor doesn’t remember me.”

She remembered me.

As the interview was wrapping up, she said, “it was nice to see you again, Karen.”

Gah.

I left thinking, “welp, I’m not getting the job but at least I practiced on my interviewing skills.” Not exactly a win, but certainly not a loss.

I went home and enjoyed my evening.

The next day, I received a call from the hospital, a generic number, and I NEVER answer my phone if I don’t know who is calling. If you want to reach me, leave a message. If it’s not important enough to leave a message, I’m not interested.

They left a message.

It was from human resources and they were congratulating me on getting the job and on my transfer.

TRANSFER?!

I called them back. They were not only offering me the job but they were going to match my pay and I would get to keep my benefits.

Well crap.

I was shocked. I honestly didn’t think I had a chance. And I honestly didn’t think they would pay me the same amount. And then I got angry because I was a medical assistant and they were willing to pay me the same amount to work from home and deal with insurance all day!?

Call me crazy, but it just didn’t sit right with me. I know there has been a lot of talk about the hospital not really valuing their medical assistants but this just hammered the point home. I had also heard that medical secretaries and registration people made more than medical assistants, too, and I can now confirm that.

It was an eye opener and I’m not gonna lie, I was disappointed in the hospital. No wonder they can’t keep medical assistants! It’s a hard job because you’re literally in the middle of everything – you’re trying to do what your providers want, be a friendly face for the patients and be a helpmate to your nurses. You’re pulled in all different directions and for what? Less pay than a desk job? No offense to desk jobs … but … wow.

I agonized over taking the job. Coincidentally, we went on vacation shortly after getting the call so I had some time to think it over. I did speak with E, my awesome nurse practitioner, about the opportunity so she knew I was thinking about leaving. Kevin and I drove to the beach the next week and camped, (I’ll try and write about that in a later post – so much to catch up on!), and I sat on the beach, stared at the water and grappled with my conscience – should I take the leap into something new and challenging? Or stay with something I knew, inside and out, was very good at but was bored with.

I made a list of pros and cons and talked Kevin’s head off to where he finally just said, “make a decision, already!” lol

The ONLY reason I would stay was because of my nurse practitioner. She has struggled to get a good crew and now that she finally had a good crew, I was thinking about leaving. I HATED to do that to her because as I’ve mentioned several thousand times, I adore her and think she is one of the best people I’ve ever known in my life.

And I’m old – that’s A LOT of people.

But ultimately, I had to do what was best for me. And I was bored. I was ready for a new challenge and I’m quite sick of dealing with the public. I’ve done it my entire life, I was ready to have a more relaxed work life. Something with a little flexibility. What if – hear me out – I could work it out that I could work on the road? We could take camping trips, months at a time! Kevin is weeks away from retiring so he would be free to make that leap … it’s a wild idea and we would have to set up mobile StarLink for the Internet connection, which is expensive but not impossible. It’s a pipe dream but who knows! I’m definitely not saying it’s impossible.

So, when I returned to work after our vacation, I put my notice in. The hospital told me that it was tradition for medical assistants and nurses to give four weeks notice so, I made the leap; I was down to my last four weeks of being a medical assistant.

That was a difficult conversation to have with E, I may have cried a little bit, but I just knew if I didn’t do it I would regret it and who knows if this opportunity would come back around.

My new supervisor started the ball rolling about obtaining permission to work from home and the IT department soon contacted me and I picked up my computer, two monitors, a mouse, keyboard, headset and webcam. I brought it all home and Kevin “helped” me set it up, (i.e. he did everything) – I was ready to go! I just had to complete my time with neurosurgery and I would begin!

It was SO FREEING to know that I wouldn’t have to deal with the office drama, the strong personalities and the whining patients anymore. I was closing one chapter and opening another. I’m predicting this will be my last job before I retire in five-ish years and I could not be happier.

I’ve been doing my new job for about one month now and I’m bored out of my mind. I don’t have any regrets leaving the clinic, I’m still very happy that I don’t have to deal with office drama and whining patients, but they haven’t assigned me a group to take care of and I’m soooo bored.

So how this is set up is as follows: there are groups of people who take care of MRI’s, CT’s, Ultrasounds, ECHO’s and Surgeries. And within each of these groups you have one person who takes care of the A-D’s, the next person the D-M’s, and so forth. We call them “alpha” groups and this helps divvy up the duties so there’s never too much work for one person. And since I’ve done this job before, my “training” period was mediocre at best because quite honestly, I pretty much know how to do the job already, I just needed to makes accounts at various insurance companies so I could sign on and DO the work.

Once that was done, I had nothing to do because I wasn’t assigned a group. I wasn’t too surprised by this, though, because when I spoke with my new supervisor after accepting the job she mentioned that they wanted me to be part of a group called the UAT. This stands for Urgent Action Team. This team takes care of stat and urgent requests so it’s fast paced and can be a little stressful.

Perfect.

However. There is an outside group that has been contracted by the hospital currently doing the job so that leaves me … where, exactly?

This group’s contract expires in February – FEBRUARY! I’m going to be dead from boredom by February so in the meantime, I’ve been asked to “help” out. Which I take to mean, steal work from other people’s alphas, which I’ve been doing and feeling pretty guilty about, quite honestly. But what choice do I have?? And I need the practice because when we take over the UAT team, I will need to work fast and have all of my resources at my fingertips. I’ve been lurking and watching how the current UAT works their messages. (we call them flags) but I’m itching to roll up my sleeves and get my hands dirty.

A girl that works in MRI’s had to take off a days to attend a funeral and she sent out a blast asking if anyone could help.

I had to count to ten before I replied with, “I can help!” I didn’t want to appear too eager but I’M EAGER. So these past few days have been awesome because I have purpose! And it’s been fun juggling the work load – I get to prioritize – I’m such a geek. But when she comes back, I’ll be back to following the pack and scrambling for crumbs, (like a rodent). *sigh* We’re supposed to have a meeting soon and I hope it helps gives us direction while we’re waiting for the current team to take a hike. They hired another girl for our team but she doesn’t start until the end of December so that sort of tells me they don’t really have anything for us to do until at LEAST that time period.

Shoot me.

I just need to chill and enjoy this calm before the storm because once we get going, I will be wishing for some down time, I’m sure. But until then, I’M BORED.

They are holding an End-of-Year party on December 14th and this will be a chance for us all to get together and put a face with a name. It’s sort of weird to work with a large group of virtual people, (there are about 75 of us). We use Microsoft Teams to communicate with one another and I do have a phone number through a phone company at the hospital via my computer that I use my headset for. It actually works pretty well and I’ve been impressed.

I am planning on going to the party at this point in time but honestly, it sort of depends on how I feel closer to the party. It’s a drop in/out casual sort of party which is exactly up my alley but it would be cool to meet my future team mates face-to-face.

It’s also exciting to be a part of something new and different and to get in on the project from the ground floor. I think the UAT will be a good fit for me and my personality … I’m just eager to get started!

So that’s it. That’s what’s new in my working life. I stay home everyday and though it is a bit lonely, overall, I LOVE it.

I’ve talked your ear off long enough.

I hope you have a great day and tell me, what is new in your life?