Sunday, September 02, 2007

The hater has become the hated

When I first started working as an M.A. I had the wonderful luck of working with a great group of people. We all had a great time laughing and goofing off. I learned a lot working there. Then they hired a new clinical manager. "Twatty" was her name and was she ever. NO ONE was allowed to goof off and have fun. Everything was by-the-book even though the docs were just as bad as the assistants. She didn't last a year there, but she did leave an impression on everyone.

Fast forward to my new job. It seems that I am the new "Twatty." NewDoc shares office space with another doctor's practice and the two are separate businesses. I'm still not entirely sure of what my exact job is, but I know it will include supervising the M.A. and receptionist. I don't mind if they have fun. Hell, I encourage it. But I have pretty much landed on their shit list (and the list of the other doc's M.A.s) because of all the crap I see going on in the office:

1. NewDoc's M.A. does NOT wash her hands before and after patient contact. (I remember when Sabrina came to my office and as I was washing my hands she thanked me. It kind of grosses me out to realize that there are so many people who DON'T do that).
2. When she draws up a vaccine, she does it where they do the urine dips. And she doesn't change the needle after drawing it up. Now she's not only cross contaminated the serum, but the needle is burr-ed because of it. Big ouch-factor for the patient.
3. She doesn't take an actual "hands-on" pulse. She uses a pulse oximeter (which also shows your oxygen levels. Think E.R. "HIS SATS ARE DROPPING"). So great, she gets a number, but has no way of noting the "feel" of it. The numbers could be great, but something wonky could still be going on.
4. When vaccines are given, BY LAW a patient MUST be given a V.I.S. (vaccine information sheet). She tells me that it's too much trouble to grab one and that the patient obviously knows about the vaccine since they are getting it.

This shit isn't the half of it, and I've only been there 3 days.

There was some re-arranging of furniture on Friday and NewDoc wanted me to sit kind of cramped in the corner and Jezebel would be able to get up to get the patients easier. (He has me set up on a desktop PC and her on a laptop for that very reason). I find this out when I got back from lunch and she said that she didn't want to change seats with me-that she liked being by the window. I told her that the reason why he wanted us to change is to make it easier for her to get up for the patients. She got snippy and asked "Then what are YOU going to do?" I know she wasn't told all about my position and I couldn't tell her-partly because I wasn't entirely sure what it was, and we will be having a staff meeting on Wednesday, so she will find out then. Part of my new job will be supervising her and the receptionist and part of it will be other administrative tasks. But if it's pretty obvious that your doc really doesn't need another M.A. but brings someone in with TONS more experience, you probably don't want to piss her off.

I know part of the reason is that she is young (early 20's) and fairly new (1.5 years out of school), but c'mon dammit! If you are old enough to work, you are old enough to follow some basic directions. These guidelines are in place to protect the patient, not make your job/life harder.

By the way-I am now going to call NewDoc "George." He reminds me a lot of "George the pharmacist" on Desperate Housewives. In looks, not personality.
Manic Witch wove her spell:: 9/02/2007 08:44:00 PM ::
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