Tag: healthcare

Reflections

February Reflections 2025

Karen

One of these days, I’ll actually catch up to these Reflections’ entries. I really want to finish these because they’re an extension/expansion of the daily journal I write in.

Feb 1

Pinner’s Conference! Mom and I made the trip up to Kansas City for the Pinner’s Conference again this year. You can read about last year’s trip here. For those that don’t know, a Pinner’s Conference is:

Pinners is two incredible events in one: a hands-on conference with 100+ creative classes led by top presenters, and a vibrant shopping show with hundreds of unique businesses showcasing the best in DIY, fashion, crafts, cooking, beauty, photography and more.

You don’t need Pinterest to join us, just your creative spirit! So join us and see where shopping and learning come to life.

They host these conferences in various places around the US: Kansas City, Utah, Colorado, Texas, Arizona and even St. George … Virgin Islands? (no clue).

If you’re even remotely into crafts, THIS is the conference for you. Not only do you get to shop various crafts booths, you can sit down at a make-and-take-it table and make a craft to take home, (it’s not free), AND they offer craft classes throughout the two-days where you can again, learn how to make a craft and take it home.

It’s a lot of fun. Mom and I had a blast last year so we decided to go again this year.

Mom wrote a lot more detail on your blog post, you can read that here.

There were two crafts that I participated in that I really loved this year:

This wall hanging that says, “Faith Can Move Mountains” … and it really can, if you believe.

Here is what the final project looks like:

And this CUTE home decor piece we worked on … I think this might have been the very last class – saved the best for last, in my opinion …

Here is the final project …

I also bought two more kits to paint and switch out with the cow …

We were pretty pooped after two days of the conference, so we packed up our goodies and hauled it the two blocks back to my car. (We had to park quite a ways away from the conference center). We ate dinner at Wendy’s and crashed. The next morning, we met David and Angie (my brother and his wife) at a place called “The Shack” for breakfast. It was really good food and a fun send off before we drove home.

Can’t wait for next year!

Feb 3

Sooo tired. The weekend trip to KC really did a number on me. Had a hard time keeping my eyes open for work today.

Feb 4

Kevin dropped his phone one too many times and it wouldn’t turn on. He took it to a Verizon shop but they wanted too much to fix it so he bought a refurbished one on Amazon for a lot cheaper. It’s supposed to come tomorrow. It’s amazing how much you miss your phone when you don’t have it!

Feb 5

Lost a chicken today. We have two chickens left – Kevin is talking about getting more but .. it’s so much work for him. And yet, he really enjoys it so .. who knows if we buy more or not. We have a program at work called a rewards program. It’s a program that your peers can use to thank you for being a good team player, going above/beyond, etc. I cashed in some points today for an Amazon gift card and bought a little printer to print some pictures from my phone. Looking forward to using it!

Feb 6

Getting bored with my job. I guess this means I’m getting more comfortable with my job duties. Rumors are floating around about another mgmt position opening up and my supervisor thinks I would be a good fit. I’m seriously thinking about it … but I’m not sure I would want to be in meetings all day. I really do enjoy being a worker bee … just sort of bored with it right now.

Feb 7

Blake is between jobs. I wish he could find his niche in life. He’s just not sure what he wants to do. One thing about Blake though, he’s slow to make decisions but when he makes a decision, it’s WELL researched and thought out. Just hope it finds something soon, he’s living off his savings right now and that makes me nervous. Brandon is still pursuing his digital art passion. I have to admit, the kid is persistent and has been trying to make a go of it for the past nine years. He’s got an impressive portfolio and he’s self-taught, which takes a lot of discipline .. just wish he could find something in the field. It’s a very competitive field though so … all he can is try.

Feb 8

Saturday with mom. We had Chick-Fil-A for lunch while watching Survivor. (I’m really getting hooked on this show!) Fired up the laptop and we talked to my sister while we painted/finished our projects we bought from the Pinners’ conference.

Feb 10

Mom got her passport today!! I’m SO relieved!! She actually got it quicker than I thought she would. Now I don’t have to stress about documentation for our upcoming cruise in August. Got my little printer today – it’s so cute!

Feb 11

Got our yogurt maker, inulin and probiotic stuff today! I’m excited to make some yogurt. I watched Dr. Berg’s video on how to make yogurt and I want to give it a go. This yogurt is supposed to be good for your gut, too, helps replenish the good bacteria.

Feb 12

Snowed about an inch today. Weather like this really makes me thankful that I work from home!

Feb 13

Lost one of our really good UAT people today. She’s a nurse and is moving to the MED/IV group, which makes sense given her nursing background. I’m sort of relieved, we didn’t have enough work for the amount of people we had on the team but also … the people remaining are nice, but not very bright so … more work for me, for sure.

Feb 14

Watching A LOT of videos on what to pack and how to pack for our cruise in August for Alaska!!

Feb 15

Saturday with mom. She came over and we went to Fazoli’s for lunch then Michael’s to see if they had any wooden rings for a project. Treated mom to Starbuck’s, (I used my gift cards, otherwise, I NEVER go there – can’t stand the company, quite frankly), then back to my house to watch Survivor. We were going to get together with my sister, but we ran late and my sister ran late so we canceled it. But, I think mom and I need to get together earlier so that we have time to Zoom call my sister.

Feb 18

Snowed about five inches today. Blake came over and picked up his passport. He’s going back to work at Wal-Mart overnights. He just can’t settle on a job right now and he needs to make some money. He’s going back to overnights, which I’m not crazy about, but it’s something. I keep telling him it’s only temporary, don’t give up on finding something else and if that means he has to take a class, or get a certificate, so be it. Don’t give up.

Feb 19

My supervisor called me and encouraged me to apply for another supervisor position that opened up. I was very flattered but things are so crazy right now with mgmt, I just don’t think I would be a good fit. I was tempted for a hot minute, but ultimately, no. I think I would be miserable.

Feb 21

Super busy day. Now that we’re thawing back out, patients are making it back into the clinics and providers are busy working people in that missed their appointments. Spent a lot of time working RAD’s pendings, which pissed me off, and put me behind, so mgmt got involved and asked (told) them to take their own damn pendings back. (I added the damn part). Wow – so it CAN be done – they CAN work their own crap? Hmm … today only showed me that going to mgmt, for me, would be a huge mistake. I’m too opionated and headstrong … they want a yes woman, I’m NOT a yes woman.

Feb 22

Saturday with mom. Got her out of the house. We went to the mall and walked around. Ate Chick-Fil-A for lunch, shopped at Bath and Body Works, (didn’t buy anything – I don’t pay full price – only when stuff is on sale – they’re way too expensive), watched Survivor, talked to sis and did some more painting. I wish I could do more for mom … she’s by herself way too much and I know it depresses her.

Feb 23

Kevin said Blake text him about a tube TV he’s had his eye on for a while. He saw it on Facebook, (or was it eBay?) but it sold before he could make an offer. When Kevin was out doing his treasure hunting, he said he actually saw two, text Blake the serial numbers and Blake wanted the second one. Kevin said Blake was literally shaking when he took it back to the house, he was so excited. He came back over to our house and picked up some old games we had in storage along with some cords to make it work. It was really nice to see Blake smile. He’s been in a funk lately.

Feb 26

My cousin text mom – mom’s sister is not doing well. She has dementia and has had to go to a nursing home because it wasn’t safe for her to stay home by herself anymore. Mom would take her out every Thursday, just to get her out of the home. She had these weekly get together for years, but it’s become harder and harder for mom to take care of her sister – she’s lost so much of her speech and motor skills .. Dementia sucks. It drains the life out of people so they are only shells when it gets done with them.

Feb 27

My aunt died. Mom text me after work and I called her. She was able to go over to the home and see her but my aunt was in so much pain they had to give her some pretty heavy-duty pain medication so she wasn’t really aware of anything going on around her. Mom was planning on going back later in the day, but my aunt passed away before she could go back. This was mom’s younger sister, by just one year. Death is so strange, people are here, and then suddenly, they’re not. Mom only has one brother left in her entire family. I feel so bad for her. She’s had a rough two years.

Feb 28

I had the day off today. I take the occasion Friday off to give myself a long weekend. Well, sort of. When I’m off Fridays or Monday, I typically work Sundays to make up the time and so I don’t have to use PTO, so it’s not really a long weekend, but it’s nice to have off, just the same. I didn’t do much, but I did start another batch of yogurt. I wish I could figure out why it tastes so sour.

Thanks for reading!

Work Stuff

S.O.S.

Karen

HELP!

ALL HANDS ON DECK!

This has been the battle cry at work. On March 1st, the hospital that I work for switched our EMR (Electronic medical records) system. This has thrown everyone off kilter, myself included, and we’re moving at a snail’s pace. In addition to us not knowing where anything is, let alone collect those pieces and put the patient’s puzzle needs together, the work queues we work out of haven’t been working properly. It’s not that the program isn’t working, it’s working great, but that our preferences, parameters, settings all need to be tweaked and it’s slow going.

Another challenge is that we don’t really know what we’re doing, and this includes everyone. Management is in the same boat as us, so any time we have questions, we have to spend precious time looking at tip sheets or help pages, or good old fashion clicking around, to try and figure it out.

Since I’m part of UAT (the urgent action team), and time is of the essence … you can imagine what my life has been like these past two weeks. To be fair, the first week wasn’t that bad but now that we’re closing in on the second week, WOW.

This was predicted. The hospital has been planning for this switch for two plus years now and I have to admit, they’ve done a pretty good job of preparing people. They warned us the first four weeks were going to be tough, and they weren’t wrong.

They put together a Super User group of individuals through the entire hospital. I volunteered to be one of those Super Users. So – for the past year, we’ve had meetings that didn’t really say much or give us much information other than to reiterate time and time again, IT’S GOING TO BE TOUGH. HAVE PATIENCE, SHOW SOME EMPATHY … but I appreciated the effort because at least it was something.

The intention behind Super Users were to be available to help our peers through the process when we GO LIVE. Really, more for emotional support than technical support. Because we didn’t know anything more than our peers. Still don’t. We had early access to our training classes and were given early access to the system’s playground – which was a dummy set up, with dummy patients, that we could click around on and not have to worry about messing anything up, but additional training? No.

And that helped … somewhat. But all of that perceived confidence flew out the window the moment we went live and were actually in real-live patient charts. Things were set up differently, no one knew (or still knows), how to communicate with each other through this new system and patient care is moving at a snail’s pace.

This was expected, but it’s one thing to mentally prepare for it, it’s quite another thing to LIVE IT.

To be fair, I have it WAAAAAAAY easier than my poor clinic/hospital peers. The majority of my work is done through insurance portals. I’m getting information from the patient’s chart, placing it in a nice, neat package with a pretty bow on top to entice the insurance company to decide in my favor, and then once I have my answer from the insurance company, I document the crap out of it in the patient’s chart. So I’m working out of the chart but not really IN the chart.

Now – the clinic/hospital peeps – their whole job is to work IN the chart. They are clicking/documenting machines and I KNOW they’re struggling. You know how it is when you’re learning something new, it’s stressful, frustrating and tedious. And that’s just the program, then you have patients who are hurting, impatient and sometimes downright mean, and that only adds to the stress and the sense of urgency.

So – PLEASE, if you’re seeing your doctor or have to be in the hospital, or around any medical staff in general, PLEASE be patient and kind. You never know what the hospital staff is going through and being a-holes to them will only make it worse for yourself and the long line of people behind you.

(I put that in quotes to get your attention – haha!)

But back to me – because it’s all about me, of course.

To say we’ve been struggling would dilute the actual situation. We’re behind. We’re REALLY behind. Not just my team, (and there are only two of us at the moment so … YEAH – WE’RE BEHIND), but everyone. It’s a learning curve, we’ll get there, just not right now. So – in an attempt to get caught up and get reimbursed from insurance companies for testing that is being done, the hospital has approved all-hands on deck overtime for the next two weeks. In ADDITION to the normal overtime pay, (which thanks to Trump we no longer have to pay taxes on – at least until the next person comes in and reverses that because ORANGE MAN BAD), we get an ADDITIONAL chunk of change ON TOP of that overtime.

Folks … it’s good money. And you can bet your bottom dollar, (see what I did there?), that I will be taking FULL advantage of this opportunity.

To be honest, I already work a lot of overtime. It’s been an unspoken agreement between me and management for a long time – we’re only a two-woman team, after all. We’re working on hiring a third person, but let’s be honest, until I know what I’m doing, how can I possibly train another person what to do?? I work the day shift and my partner works from 12:30 to 9:00 PM. We can only do so much with the (wo)man power we have.

The straw on my camel’s back finally broke the other day and I had a meltdown. My tiny little group has been consistently dumped on these past two years so that I barely see sunlight anymore. We are the “problem-solving” group – anything problematic or anything mgmt doesn’t know what to do with, they dump on us. The biggest, and most egregious thing to be dumped on? Is we are expected to work other people’s pending cases when it falls into our “window.”

Let me explain. UAT works today, tomorrow and 48-hour cases. That’s just the way it was set up. The purpose behind UAT, or at least, it USED to be the purpose of UAT, is/was to take care of urgent/stat and add-on cases. The hospital has a dedicated team ready to handle these last-minute cases. But somewhere down the road, it was someone’s stupid idea to make it part of our duties to follow up (i.e. clean up), other people’s pending cases that haven’t been determined if they fall into our UAT window. This means, we are being asked to spend hours researching and fixing other people’s work.

So many things wrong with this scenerio – where do I start?

First of all – this takes responsibility away from the original analyst. Why put any effort into your work if you know it will soon become someone else’s problem?

Secondly – there is no motivation to do a good job. Why? It will soon become UAT’s problem. Enjoy.

Thirdly – Did you catch the part where I mentioned we are a TINY group of people? The other group that handles normal cases outside of UAT’s window? There are about 20 of them. Twenty people working cases and TWO UAT women. Do the math.

Fourth – when do we have time to do our normal work if we’re elbows deep in other people’s problems? Exactly.

There are so many more micro-aggressions to this problem I won’t bore you with the details, but that, coupled with us being buried w/ requests that aren’t routing properly in this new software and we’re becoming more and more behind … and I’ve been dealing with this “duty” for the past two years, trying every tactic under the sun but mgmt won’t listen to me … it’s like banging my head on a brick wall – I finally cracked.

My supervisor asked how things were going the other day and I nearly broke down and cried. For the record, I DON’T CRY. And if I do cry, it’s usually because I’m so frustrated that I’m about ready to explode, the frustration starts leaking out of my eyeballs. So, the fact that I was close to tears pissed me off. My supervisor could tell I was close to tears. I just told her I couldn’t talk about at that moment – I was too emotional and needed to compose myself.

We talked later. My supervisor is not the problem – I quite like her, actually. It’s upper management, but isn’t that nearly always the case in most companies? Upper management are typically a bunch of clueless zombies who 1. don’t know what we do, 2. make dumb decisions because see number one, 3. say a lot of nothing, management speak, when you do finally have a conversation and 4. NEVER LISTEN.

Anyway ..

I didn’t mean to go off on a tangent, but that’s what I’m dealing with right now. It’ s a lot. Not as much as the clinics and the hospital staff, but I have my own struggles, too.

I’m close to throwing in the white towel. And I still might if things don’t change. But I also need to be fair and rational about this. There is a lot going on right now, we’ll all stressed out and quite frankly, there is no place for me to go because there is a temporary hiring freeze until we can figure this stuff out. But my supervisor picked up on my frustration and she at least worked it out so that everyone now has to follow up on their own work. No more bashing UAT against the rocks. I’m sure people are not happy about having to finish what they started but seriously …

Wah.

So … all of that say, we’re all going to be working our fingers to the bone for the next few weeks. Hopefully, things start to settle down, iron out, and get better. If not, I guess I’ll be looking to make a lateral move in the precertification department.

Only time will tell.

Health, Life

Healthcare … On Your Terms

Karen

You know what’s crazy?

Other than our world right now, I mean honestly, take any subject and tell me, without telling me, how nuts it is.

But I’m specifically talking about healthcare. I think COVID broke our healthcare system, ya’ll. And it was pretty broken before that whole fiasco. But it’s not only broken, it’s changing.

Case in point: being able to buy antibiotics without seeing a doctor. And no, I’m not talking about buying it from a mysterious stranger on the corner with a long trench coat, (though I suppose those do exist), but being able to buy certain medications online.

I really thought my flu spiel turned into a sinus infection. I used to get them all the time so I know what they feel, and smell, like. So when the signs started appearing I thought, “well crap. Now I’ll have to make a trip to Urgent Care.”

Only. I didn’t have to.

I watch “The Chicks on the Right” every morning. I start work at 7:00 AM and they’re an early show so it works out well. I really like how they are informative but also have a great sense of humor – makes the darkness that is our current political landscape bearable, you know?

Anyway, One of their sponsors is All Family Pharma. It’s an online pharmacy out of Florida that prescribes COVID medications, antibiotics, Zofran, Prednisone, Tamiflu … and a few other things. It’s hard to believe that you can buy antibiotics without seeing a doctor, but you can and I did. I wanted to have some on hand in case what I had really was a sinus infection – I had a plan B.

I’m the kind of person who HAS to have a plan B.

All they did was ask my weight and … I think that was it, actually. The antibiotic cost $20, the doctor’s fee was $20 and shipping was $10 through FedEx. Fifty bucks for peace of mind? Count me in!

On one hand, it’s cool you can buy “simpler” medications online without seeing a doctor. On the other hand, it’s WEIRD to be able to buy medications online without seeing a doctor. I’m grateful that it’s a choice, though I do worry about people taking advantage and ordering too many antibiotics. That’s not a good thing. You don’t want to get used to antibiotics so that when you need them, your body doesn’t respond to them. I wonder how the pharmacy prevents that from happening? The pharmacy also strongly recommends that you take a probiotic to counteract the antibiotic killing off the good bacteria in your gut.

It all seems so … underhanded and sneaky, in a way, to be able to do this. Or, maybe we’re so brainwashed into thinking that you have to go see a doctor, that this is the way it’s SUPPOSED to be when in fact, it’s really not that big of a deal?

I don’t know. I’ve worked in healthcare for the past 13 years – I’m brain washed.

(*Side note: got an email from the hospital today – since the number of flu cases is on the rise, they have implemented the mask policy for the unvaccinated. (*GASP*) If I were still in the clinic, I would have to wear a mask. I probably wouldn’t outside the clinic, but I would have to wear one in the clinic – therefore advertising the fact to everyone in the clinic my vaccination status. Yet another reason I will NEVER go back to the clinic).

Something else that is new to healthcare – private primary care physicians (PCP). We have one, maybe two, in my hometown that I know of. When I retire and we are no longer on my company healthcare, I think that’s what we’re going to do. Pay a monthly fee to have access to a private PCP. This is a doctor not beholden to a certain hospital and completely independent. They can do x-rays and ultrasounds in the office, so that would save you money, if you needed something like that.

I like the concept and again, I’m glad we have a choice. Whatever we can do to get away from the “establishment” healthcare system, I’m all for it. Whatever we can do to break the mold and make changes, I’m in.

I hope buying medications without seeing a doctor and seeing a private doctor outside the “system” collects steam and opens a door to more and more anti-establishment options. Something needs to change with our current system and I feel like these options are a step in the right direction.

Work Stuff

Still Working Remotely

Karen

Did I tell you I was working remotely?

It’s been so long, I don’t remember.

This is how it happened, if you want to catch up.

How’s it going?

Glad you asked.

In a nutshell? I like it. I can see why so many federal workers don’t want to go back into the office. It’s a sweet gig.

Of course, I haven’t left my house for three days, I’ve become a hermit, (which I’m okay with, to be honest), and my biggest decision of the day is which color of sweats I want to wear for the day, but I’m loving it!

So, what do I do? I know you’re thinking it …

I still work for the hospital. I know, I sort of can’t believe it, either. Ever since the whole COVID thing I’m amazed that I’m still in healthcare at all.

Though I’m still in healthcare, I’m no longer in a clinic setting. Do I miss it? I miss aspects of it. I miss the people I worked with, I miss the mental gymnastics required to juggle my doctor’s requirements while also taking care of the patients. It was mentally stimulating to me. What I don’t miss are the patients. Sure, there were some that were awesome, genuinely needed help and it was so satisfying to help them, but the majority of patients were looking for a quick fix, something, anything, to make them feel better and an excuse to continue making poor lifestyle choices. They wanted to feel better without taking accountability for their decisions and/or the way they lived their lives. And they were rude about it.

THAT was frustrating.

I’m still working with patients but not directly. I’m sort of the go-to between patients and clinic staff. For example: the physician orders a test, like an MRI, a CT, an Ultrasound, etc., then the scheduled test drops into our queue. We’re all responsible for taking care of certain alphas and right now, mine are M-R. So, any patient cases that come in with the last name beginning with M-R, I take care of.

Next, I get some information about the patient, the type of test being ordered and notes from the provider as to why he/she is ordering it. Then, I sign into the insurance portal, answer some clinicals questions and fingers crossed, insurance approves it. Sometimes it goes to pending, meaning insurance is wanting to review clinicals and other times, they deny it. When that happens, I have to contact the providers and let them know that the test was denied and they have the option of reaching out to the insurance company to discuss, (i.e. fight), the determination and try and get it approved with information only a provider can give. (I.E. more detailed information, that would have been handy to have in their notes but you can’t tell providers that, unfortunately). And contacting the providers is never fun. They are usually cranky, take it out on their clinicals staff, who are also cranky so …. I’m the bad guy by proxy. Even though it’s the insurance’s fault for denying it.

And that’s it. That’s what I do in a nutshell. Sounds riveting, doesn’t it?

But I love it. I love the research, I love the challenge of finding just the right combination of diagnoses and symptoms to satisfy the insurance’s algorithm and that coveted approval status.

And I’m quite good at it. I can dig, read between the lines and get those suckers approved. Not always, but a big part of the time. My secret? I used to work in the clinic setting so I KNOW the clinical side of this equation. When it comes to the ins/outs of insurance plans/policies – nah – totally stupid.

But I get through it and I’ve learned a lot this past year.

I volunteered to become a peer mentor, which is a fancy way to say “trainer.” I really enjoy training. I like showing people the logical progression of learning a job and how it fits into the “big picture.” I feel like too many people get trained with blinders on, they only learn this small portion of the bigger process and that leads to people only doing a half-ass job and/or not fully understanding their job, period. I’d like to be a peer mentor for the whole group, but our group is split and we have different supervisors and I don’t know if the other supervisor would want me to come over and train some of their peeps, but I’m willing!

In the meantime, the UAT (urgent action team), which is my group, is expanding to six people and I’m training our two newest people. Urgent action team, by the way, is exactly what is sounds like, we handle stat/urgent cases, add-on cases, and any cases where insurance hasn’t been done or the patients show up with new insurance.

That happens a lot. Pst, if you get new insurance, can you let your doctor’s office know ASAP? Thanks.

I trained one girl the whole month of November, and now I’m training the other girl this entire month. Eight hours, every day. Talking non-stop. Unless I don’t have a voice, then I’m typing everything out. Which is a challenge, to say the least.

The new girl is with management the first day, getting her equipment, etc., then, she’s with me full-time after that first day. That first week, we go over the programs we use, the insurance portals we use, what we do, WHY we do it, etc.

The second week, the new girl shadows me while I work cases and we talk through the processes, the challenges, etc.

The third week, the new girl works cases with me shadowing. These weeks are usually pretty long as I’m not really doing anything but watching, guiding, advising.

The fourth week, it really depends on the trainee. Is she ready to work cases on her own with me available for questions? If not, we repeat week three until she is comfortable-ish.

I also get a bit more money when I train. Which is another reason I enjoy training. 🙂

I do enjoy working remotely and I can’t ever seeing myself going back into the office, though, if we have to, I’m okay with that, too. It is a challenge to work remotely at times. Especially when you have a group of about 80 women. Women are drama personified anyway, and then you add in text/written communication, which can be misconstrued, misinterpreted, etc., and it can be challenging. I sort of like that challenge, though. I’m a written word geek, I graduated from college with a Technical Writing degree and I’m very good communicating via the written word. I know how to word things without putting the other person on the defensive. I know how to word things professionally but get my point across.

In short, it’s my jam.

But not everyone is proficient in this form of communication and it can be challenging at times.

The precertification department is divided into three groups – and those three groups all have a supervisor and a team lead. The groups are: radiology (including my team, UAT), Cardio, GI, Ortho, Pain Management, Surgery, VA, Med/IV, Oncology, Sleep/Pulm, Therapies.

When the team lead position for my group became available, I was asked, (very strongly), to apply for it. I didn’t. At the time, I was still pretty new and didn’t really know much about the precertification department as a whole and quite frankly, I didn’t want the additional headaches and problems that come with being in a leadership role.

However –

I did sort of promise that if the position became available again, I would apply for it. I’m really hoping the current team lead doesn’t go anywhere because I like what I’m doing now and don’t want to go any further. I’m only about four years away from retiring … do I really want to end my working career dealing with a bunch of overgrown little girls who love drama?

No thanks.

But we’ll see. I did promise and who knows what the environment will look like six months from now. If you can count on anything in business, it’s change.

In the meantime, the hospital is getting ready to switch over to a different EMR (electronic medical record) program and the head boss reached out to me to ask me if I would be interested in participating in the pilot program and being one of a few that will be trained in the program so I can help other people learn the program. This is very close to my Technical writing degree and I’m all about it. I’m really looking forward to starting that process. It means on-campus meetings, and probably endless Teams meetings, but I’m ready. I’m going to make a cheat booklet of how to’s and I’m going to ROCK this challenge. It’s all supposed to start early next year so … I have that to look forward to.

It’s really nice to work from home. Especially on bad weather days. But … sometimes, not very often, I do miss actually getting dressed and going into the office. Actually seeing people face-to-face. Again, not very often, but it does happen. I don’t leave my house the entire week and sometimes that can feel a bit claustrophobic. I do shower and put on makeup every day, I don’t feel “put together” unless I do that, but I’m lounging around in sweats/comfy clothes the majority of the time. The only time I really fix my hair and put a nice-ish shirt on is when we have meetings where we have to turn our cameras on.

Since I sit all day, I do walk on the treadmill for an hour right after I get up in the morning. Then I take my shower, put my face on and I’m ready to face the day. Sitting all day/night is not good for you and I definitely feel better when I walk on the treadmill. Get that blood circulating. I’ve toyed with the idea of buying a standing desk, and I still might at some point, but for now, I do sit all day. I will take short breaks and walk around the house sometimes just to stretch my legs.

I realize I’m very fortunate to have the opportunity to work from home. It’s a luxury, for sure. There are cons, but there are more pros and I’m really enjoying it. Kevin and I are still trying to figure out how to make Starlink work. We would still like to take longer camping trips and have the opportunity to being able to work on the road but our first experience was very poor and now I’m a bit discouraged.

In a nutshell: we went camping at the Diamond Mines in Arkansas and though the campground was beautiful, it was very forest-y and though we could get a signal, and it was a strong signal, we couldn’t KEEP the signal and it was nearly impossible to work with an unreliable signal. We were hard-wired in, we can’t use WiFi because the camper is a converted cargo trailer and in essence, a metal box, so that never works very well. We’re going to try Starlink at home, again, and see what happens. The first time we tried it we had trouble maintaining a signal, not as bad as when we went camping, (the signal would come on for a minute, then be off for two minutes – it was crazy), but it still wasn’t consistent. I’m going to reach out to our IT people to see if maybe there is a conflict with the company VPN.

All of this to say, we’re not giving up on the dream of traveling and working from the road, but we have some obstacles.

Okay. Back to work. Thanks for reading!

Work Stuff

Well. This Was Unexpected

Karen

So apparently, I’m still employed.

After updating you last week, (I sound like a soap opera – and this week on Write From Karen), I went to work that following Monday. I was dreading it. Like, DREADING it. Largely because I was going to see Dr. M and his mid-level H in clinic that day and I didn’t know if they knew I had put my resignation in. I didn’t want to have the conversation, quite frankly, and I was hoping they heard all about it and I wouldn’t need to say anything, but at the same time, I felt like I needed to say something.

The day started as usual. We only saw recheck and post-op patients last week because Dr. M is going to be out these next few weeks to recover from his surgery so I knew it was going to be an easy day, and it was. But if felt tense. I tried my best to paste on a happy face and just sort of pretend that I was never going to see these people again after September 29th, but it was hard.

Another girl that I work with, M, was going through the same thing. She also submitted her resignation but her last day was going all the way to the deadline on October 15th so she had a ways to go. I took advantage of a little break between patients and went to her office to blow off steam. She hadn’t been in the office the Friday I announced to the clinic I was quitting though I did text her. I plopped down in the chair next to her and after a few dozen words, M says to me, “I submitted an appeal and they approved it.”

*blink*

“I’m sorry, come again?”

“I talked to a friend of mine and she suggested that I submit an appeal making sure to include a few keywords in my submission and I did that on Thursday. I heard back from them on Friday and they approved my appeal.”

*blink*

I just sort of sat there and stared at her for a few minutes. I was seriously shocked. I honestly had NO expectations for the hospital to approve ANY exemptions and yet, they approved hers. My wheels immediately started turning. Could I do the same? Would they accept mine? Did I want to try? Why wouldn’t I try? Did I dare allow myself to hope?

I asked M to send me what she put on her form. It wouldn’t hurt to see what she submitted, right? And what were these magical keywords she spoke of?

Now, before you go and think I’m a sneaky b*tch, because, I sort of am, using keywords to get what you want is not a novel concept. Whenever I was a scheduler I would have to contact insurance companies to try and get diagnostic testing approved and before long, I figured out they were looking for keywords, or phrases, something that would trigger their process into giving me an approval. I wouldn’t make things up, that’s dishonest and illegal, but if there was any hint of a condition or a diagnosis, in the doctor’s note you better believe I took advantage of that and used it.

Since we were still in clinic, I couldn’t stay in her office very long to talk to her about what she did in too much detail and I needed a moment to digest what she told me. I went back out to the clinic and it took everything I had to force myself to focus on the task at hand. But as soon as I got M’s email, I immediately sent it to Kevin and said, “What do you think? Should I try this?”

He helped me compile what I wanted to say because honestly, I was in clinic and didn’t have the time to devote to it and time was of the essence now that my employment clock was ticking, and by the end of the day, I had taken what he had given me, finessed it up a bit, took out some aggressive language, (because Kevin has been even more fired up about this ordeal than I have been), and I submitted my appeal.

I was really hoping I would find out as fast as M did because again, the clock was ticking and I just wanted an answer so I could move on with whatever answer they gave me. But I had hope. Why would they approve M’s appeal but not mine? And if they didn’t approve mine, I was planning on marching my butt into my director’s office and asking him, “What gives?”

I told Dr. M that I was submitting an appeal, just to keep him in the loop, because I thought he might be wondering what was going on and then the director of Neurosciences approaches me after clinic and asks if I have a minute.

Normally, I would be swallowing hard and wondering what I did wrong, but since I had submitted my resignation, I honestly didn’t care. Do what you want – I have one foot out the door anyway.

But he was very sweet and told me he was really sorry to see me go and if I needed to use him as a reference, I was free to do so. I thought that was so nice of him to offer that! I told him that I submitted an appeal to my religious exemption request and he perked up a bit when I said that. We did talk about the consequences of having the exemption approved, which I’ll talk about in a bit, but they are consequences that I will be willing to do, if accepted.

Tuesday rolls around and I’m covering Dr. S’s clinic. I’m actually really glad I covered her clinic that day because it didn’t give me a lot of time to obsess about my appeal but I was on pins and needles all day waiting for an answer.

Clinic was winding down and it was about 1:00 PM when I got the email.

I was afraid to open it. This email would literally decide if I stayed or left. This email would decide my future in healthcare.

I clicked it open and quickly skimmed it.

APPROVED!

What? What???

I calmed down a bit and then re-read the letter in more detail:

Your request for exemption has been granted through August of 2022, or the date upon which______________ again considers requests for exemption from the Covid-19 vaccination policy.  Please note that individuals will need to reapply for exemptions each year, unless otherwise determined by ___________. 

Now that your exemption request has been approved, we will begin assessing what accommodations can be made for you to continue to work.  Accommodations are determined on an individual basis and depend on several factors including the essential functions of a job, interaction with high-risk patient populations, and ability to work under varying levels of supervision.

In all accommodations, employees will be required to mask when on __________ property. Additional accommodations may include, but are not limited to, weekly nasal or saliva testing at ___________ expense; a change in work settings; possible work restrictions; and being moved to an alternative role if working with high-risk patients. 

We will coordinate with your department director to determine your accommodation, after which we will mail you a notification confirming your accommodation.  Because your exemption has been approved, you are not at risk of missing the October 15, 2021 deadline to be vaccinated.

Once you have been notified, your supervisor will be able to provide additional information to you regarding your specific accommodations.  Please also pay careful attention to the Connect Daily, which may contain additional information regarding requirements for unvaccinated staff. 

____________ reserves the right to take any necessary and appropriate steps, including but not limited to, imposing alternative COVID-19 prevention measures and accommodations, to ensure that individuals do not pose a direct threat to the health or safety of others in the workplace.

Okay. My approval has been granted through August of 2022. What does that mean, exactly? I’m reading it to mean they are thinking about mandating boosters. Or, yearly vaccinations, same as the flu vaccine. At any rate, I will need to re-apply each year. Annoying, but okay.

I do not work with high-risk patients so I don’t think I have to worry much about being moved to a different department. I work in an outpatient clinic. I’m assuming my “accommodations” will mean I will have to test weekly and wear a mask. We all wear masks at the hospital now as it is and quite honestly, I don’t see that going away any time soon so I’m not overly concerned about that, but the weekly testing will suck balls. But it’s still better than not having a job. And I was relieved to see the hospital will incur the cost of weekly testing. I was worried they were going to make me pay for it. I know some employers are penalizing their employees if they do not get vaccinated and have to be tested – like Delta airlines, actually. And the country of Italy says you can keep your job, but we’re not going to pay you. So, it could always be worse.

I forwarded the email to Kevin and then text him the good news. I’m honestly not sure if he’s happy or not. I think he has mixed feelings. He just wants me to be happy and not be treated like a 2nd class citizen or be discriminated against. I can appreciate that. And though this whole thing sucks, I DO get where the hospital is coming from, after all.

After texting Kevin, I went to our office to tell my nurse. I walked in, opened my arms and with a huge grin on my face said, “You need to hug me right now.”

“It was approved?”

And when I nodded she screamed, sprang from her chair and hugged me. I think she was as relieved as I was!

A HUGE weight was lifted from my shoulders. I knew I was under a lot stress but I don’t think I realized just how much until that email arrived and I could finally breathe again.

I. COULD. BREATHE. AGAIN.

I then went around the clinic and told everyone my appeal was approved and then went to speak to my manager to see what we could do to rescind the resignation.

(Spoiler alert: the hospital rescinded my resignation).

Wednesday, when I worked Dr. M’s clinic again, I told him that the hospital approved my appeal and that I would be there when he returned from his surgery. His reaction was underwhelming to say the least. I wasn’t expecting him to jump from his chair and pump a fist in the air, but a smirk, a nod, something would have been better than his “okay.”

Alrighty then. His lack of reaction hurt my feelings but I guess shame on me for thinking he would be glad that I was staying. I think he’s glad, I just think things are weird between us right now because he and I are not even remotely on the same page when it comes to this vaccine nonsense. In fact, none of my team are really on the same page as me, except for our medical secretary. I feel like the odd man out but I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. At any rate, it is what is and I still have a job, that’s all that really matters right now, I suppose.

So. It’s business as usual. I had to forfeit my vacation because it fell in my last two weeks and of course, you can’t take vacation during your final two weeks so I’m bummed that we weren’t able to go camping like we had planned. We couldn’t have gone anyway with Kevin’s truck being down for the count, but still, having some time off would have been nice. I plan on taking some time in November and we’ll likely go camping at that time. But I have to be careful with my vacation time because when I start my weekly COVID testing, if it comes back positive, I will be expected to be off work for about 10 days and I need to keep some vacation built up in case I need to use it for that reason. And the likelihood that it will come back positive is more than possible because remember the PCR tests are flawed and will be recalled at the end of year. So who knows how often I will be “positive.”

But we’ll see. For now, I’m taking one day at a time. I still have a job which is more than I can say for some other people and I’m grateful and thank God every day for looking out for us.

Now … let’s see if they accept my exemption request for the flu vaccine. And more importantly, how will I respond if they deny it?

Work Stuff

Here We Go …

Karen

Nearly 200 staff members at a Houston-area hospital were suspended for not following a policy that requires employees to be vaccinated against Covid-19. Their suspensions followed a protest by dozens of workers on Monday night against the policy.

The hospital, Houston Methodist, had told employees that they had to be vaccinated by Monday or face suspension. Last month, 117 Houston Methodist employees filed a lawsuit against their employer over the vaccine policy. Source

The Houston Methodist Hospital deadline has arrived and 117 employees were put on a two-week suspension without pay – they have two weeks to “come to their senses” and get the experimental injectable …. or else.

I feel like healthcare across the country is watching this case. I know I certainly am because I’m QUITE sure that the hospital where I work is watching it very closely as well. And why wouldn’t they? If Houston Methodist wins it will only embolden hospitals across the country to pull the same stunt.

Including the hospital where I work.

On one hand, I get why they would require vaccines – their argument is to protect the patients. And I get that. They already mandate the yearly flu vaccine though the percentage of effectiveness is pretty low most of the time because it’s a crap shoot whether the drug companies “predict” what that season’s strain will be. And of course, I have a huge problem with this but I’ve gone along to get along for years. I don’t like it, but it was necessary to keep my job.

And now, here we are with COVID. Again, it makes ZERO sense to me to get an experimental injectable, that hasn’t been fully tested for a disease that has a recovery rate of 99% for most people. Not to mention, the really weird incentives that states are throwing out there to encourage people to get the vaccine. You mean, people are not scared enough of the disease? Shouldn’t the disease itself be motivation enough for people to get the vaccine if they so choose? Why do officials feel the need to bribe us to get the vaccine?

Is risking my health really worth a donut? Or a beer? I truly don’t understand how people can be so easily bought.

But whatever. Get the vaccine, don’t get the vaccine, I could give a shit, but DO NOT make me inject God knows what against my will. I’ll take my chances with the disease. (If I haven’t already had it).

Which by the way, health care workers have been not only exposed to COVID this past year, but likely a whole slew of diseases and will continue to do so while working at a healthcare facility. Just because you mandate a flu vaccine or an experimental injectable does not guarantee you will not contract the disease and take it to work with you. All you can do is take every precaution not to infect the patients you take care of and believe me, the hospital takes PPE VERY seriously. (Personal protection equipment). Not only to protect the employee, but the patients as well.

My point being, getting a vaccine does not guarantee anything. And since we don’t know what the long-term repercussions of this experimental mRNA can and/or will do to a body, I’m not willing to play that particular game of Russian Roulette.

The comments on this news story, and on Twitter, are alarmingly hateful. But then again, what did I expect? As with most issues, people are not seeing the big picture here. I daresay Houston Methodist is not seeing the big picture, either. Here’s why – we have been SEVERELY short staffed for a while. Even before COVID hit. Healthcare demand is going up but the supply is way down. I just don’t think a lot of people are going into healthcare right now, for a number of reasons. Can these hospitals really afford to lose 1/8 of their staff by mandating an experimental injectable? Or any other injection, for that matter. And if hospitals lose staff, that means the people that remain will be overworked to compensate.

When does it end?

All I know is, I DON’T want to lose my job. I love it, I love the people I work with, I’m confident in what I do but I’m mentally prepared to walk away if backed against a wall.

Let’s see what happens.

Podcast

27: Teaching First Graders Sexual Gratification. Why Are We Allowing This Madness to Continue?

Karen
boots
 
There is a lot to cover today. It seems like the world continues to get more “woke” and crazy every day. I guess my biggest question is – we all know this stuff being forced down our throats is crazy, WHY are we allowing it to happen? Are we afraid to speak up? If you don’t speak up, does this mean you agree with these agendas? It’s something to ponder. Do you think the experimental injectable contains a microchip? Why are magnets sticking to COVID injection sites? Book review is science fiction this week: The Solar War by A.G. Riddle. Take a moment to remember our brave men/women who have served our country this weekend!
Mentioned in podcast:
 
Intermission music:
 
It Is What It Is by Ron Gelinas Chillout Lounge | https://soundcloud.com/atmospheric-music-portal
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Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en_US
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