I schedule my appointments around the moon in A new beginning

**So adjusting to my new role at work has been a little challenging but I have proved that I can juggle being a medical assistant and surgery scheduler better than the surgery scheduler can at just scheduling surgeries. She is pretty pissed that they gave all of the hand surgeries to me to schedule and makes comments every day I walk by her “Oh look there goes the girl that stole my job!” Yeah, she’s really mature. There are two hand surgeons at my work and they book at least 10 surgeries EACH a day, which is ridiculously higher than any other provider in the practice who at the most would book 3-5 on a good day.

There is a lot involved to scheduling a surgery. You have to make sure they are medically cleared, get it authorized through the insurance then call the patient and schedule the date. Once the date has been selected you enter it into the real surgery schedule and then another program too. Then you add in their audit appt and post op appts and write all of the dates on the booking sheet. Then I have to sign and date a form and print off labels for the bracelet and chart and make sure they are folded inside the chart. Then I update the spreadsheet that is on our corporate intranet with the surgery date, and audit date and type in where the chart is now. And finally, I walk it all the way down to the surgery center. So all of that work just to book one surgery and I get 40 charts at a time that I am expected to do in between having to room patients, write office notes and take health histories for over 40 patients. This doesn’t include all of the interruptions of when doctors or secretaries or the registration or billing people asking questions left and right. Also a lot of times you get patients that just want to talk for 20 minutes on the phone and ask the same questions over and over again and it kills me, because I know I could have scheduled like 10 surgeries during that time. Recently I’ve gotten people calling to reschedule their surgery which sucks because it means I have to walk down to the surgery center and grab their chart and then go through the whole process again and change all of the appointments in all of the programs and on the booking sheet.

I scheduled this woman the other day that wanted a certain date and when I told her my surgeon was already booked she goes “Well I schedule all of my appointments around the moon okay, so if you can get me in within the two week mark I will be fine”. At first she asked if she could have surgery the same day she was having a lump from her foot removed at another office and I had to tell her that she can’t be put under anesthesia twice in one day. “Oh ok then”. Don’t know what goes on in some people’s minds but hokay.

In summary, I’ve been rocking it lately and a lot of people have noticed which has pissed off the surgery scheduler even more. Had a “hand meeting’ the other day which included the physicians and occupational therapists and it got kind of heated. But most of the meeting was the surgeons and therapists saying how all of the problems they have are other people doing things wrong and that I am the only one that does anything correctly. I could tell lithium manager couldn’t handle it. She’s always looking for me to screw up because she doesn’t like me because I ask questions and don’t blindly do everything she says. I had my evaluation yesterday which consisted of reading the comments both hand surgeons wrote about me, while lithium manager worked on her computer. She didn’t say one word to me, just had me sign it and leave. And that, was my eval folks. Pretty sure most other companies actually talk to you and give comments right? The comments the surgeons wrote about me were so great I asked for a copy of my entire evaluation. Could always use it in the future for something. I’m hoping this means I will get a good performance bonus again this year though.

I also took all 5 tests for the certification course lithium manager signed myself and most of the clinic up for. It’s ridiculous before each test it said “You will have 14 days to study for this test” and we got NO time to study and had to take the test in between patients. wth. And it was programmed to lock out after 60 minutes and if you weren’t finished you would have to pay for it again and take the test again. I got an 86 on the diseases test which it was my first one and it was confusing but whatever. Got 95s on three of the other tests and the one that I found the hardest which was laboratory and clinicals (or something) and really thought I did horrible but I actually ended up getting a100! No freaking idea how I pulled that one off but I’ll take it! I also found out today that if you have been working for 5 years as a medical assistant (here you don’t have to be certified to work as one) you can sit for the test. That works out great for me because it will be 5 years next June and I can sit for it and actually be certified finally. Some of the MAs are pissed because they still have student loans they are trying to pay off from 5 years ago and all of our new badges have our names and “Medical Assistant” underneath them even though most people in the clinic aren’t certified. Not sure how legal that is but whatevs.

And now for some exciting news. We found out today that we will get pre approved on a loan for a house. So we sat down and wrote down a strict budget and how much we will be throwing into savings and towards credit cards every month and it really wont take us that long to save up for a down payment. We are looking at buying next spring. I am soo excited about this. We outgrew this apartment before we moved in really and have no space. It is only a 6 minute walk from my work and a 2 minute drive to Jesse’s so that is great but I can’t wait to be in our own house. There is this house I have been stalking all year and the price just keeps going down so I’m hoping it might still be on the market next year and for cheaper. As we were talking tonight I was like “wow we really are adults now right?” Never mind having a child and being married and all but we are going to own a house! Have I mentioned how excited I am yet?

And lastly, my surgery for my wrist is on Tuesday finally. It’s on my dominant hand so not sure when I will be able to write again. I might end up writing something, but it wont be that much. Maybe just that I survived or something. haha.
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