Bah Humbug
I am struggling this year with the holidays approaching. September 25, I was fired from a great position I had at a local medical facility here in town. I have been struggling with depression and anger over this incident since, though I did tuck it down deep into my brain while I found another position elsewhere. It took six weeks, but I am employed again at another medical facility. But now that the worry of finding another job is over, I am so depressed.
I have tried to spin the situation. I do have plans to return to school after 13 years to pursue something entirely different--education. And I am well aware that I would not have ever gone back to school had this not happened to me. And the position I accepted has a schedule that will allow for me to do so.
But I'm still so angry at this place for firing me. I'm not going to name names or even allude to which facility fired me. Those who know me, know who it was. The reason they gave me for my termination was because I was sleeping at my desk. Yes, please, have a laugh at that, would you? It is downright preposterous. It's true. I was sleeping at my desk. During my lunch hour. That's right, folks, I was clocked out, phone turned off, not returning emails or addressing any patient concerns. I was on my own time. I wasn't in a patient care area. I was in the back of a set of cubicles where only a few people saw me from time to time. I was not given a verbal or written warning for this offense either. Just canned.
It is such a coincidence that I was fired 3 weeks after the manager who brought me into this organization left of her own accord. She left because the management had brought her in for a specific purpose--to help change the department so it would bring in more money--and at every turn, the management above her would cut her off at the knees, not allowing for the changes needed to accomplish that goal. There was more to it than that, naturally, but that was the reason.
I loved my job there. I worked scheduling patients for appointments, clinical and testing appointments as directed by the physicians with whom I worked. When I first started my position there, I was put in a position that didn't exist prior to my arrival. I sat in an office outside of one of the outpatient clinics and I scheduled patients for all the testing and appointments the Doctors wanted them to have. I was great with the patients. Helpful, accommodating, informative. So much so that my manager gave me a project scheduling patients for a test that had been scheduled by someone before. A test that required me to go over a health history questionnaire, answer several questions the patients had regarding the test, prep etc. It was a nurse's job, but I was not a nurse.
I also worked closely with a few of the specialists to get their patients taken care of, worked on rescheduling patients as needed, scheduling patients for procedures as per their orders. I was the go to person when someone had a question regarding the prep for a procedure they weren't familiar with scheduling, particularly when I moved back into the scheduling area to work on the phones. I loved the job. I loved the responsibility. I loved talking to the patients most of the time. I was good at it, I got to use my brain. It was fabulous.
But for whatever reason, the management decided they didn't want me there. I mean, come on, sleeping at my desk? That was literally THE only reason they gave me. And I'm so angry. I'm depressed because it's such a blow to my self esteem. Makes me wonder why I try so hard when I work. I mean, why bother? I guess I should just be half assed about things like some people are. Unfortunately, I wasn't raised that way.
I have lost faith in the medical field, which is why I am moving on to try something different. I like to think that the medical field was at one time centered around patient care and not centered around making money. Maybe I'm naive, but I think that medicine should be about the patients more than about the money. I understand that medical facilities need to make money to stay in business, pay the tons of employees it takes to keep it up and running. But sometimes there are ways to avoid costs to the patient, and the facility I was just fired from was all about making sure they got every last dime out of the patient's insurance company, even to the point of greatly inconveniencing the patient. For instance, there were two procedures that could quite easily be done on the same day. Both procedures required the patient to be sedated heavily, which meant they had to have a driver to take them home. The office I worked for required we do the procedures separately unless the physician requested that we do them on the same day simply because we would collect more money that way. Nevermind that the patient and their driver have to miss two days of work instead of one. Just make sure you get that money in.
The place I'm in now has a mission statement that they will care for every patient, regardless of their ability to pay. That's the kind of medicine I'm interesting in supporting. I now have a job where I sit at a desk all day and sift through paperwork to ensure that all is scanned into the patients' electronic charts and is filed correctly in that chart. I also make sure that the physicians have signed off on all the necessary paperwork for the chart. And that's it. I don't have to use my brain too much. I get office chair butt. I love the organization though, and the schedule for this job is ideal for going to school.
It's still hard knowing that I did my absolute best there and it didn't matter for anything. It didn't matter to them that I genuinely cared for the job I was doing, the patients I was talking to. It didn't interest them that I was sleeping at my desk--laying my head down--on my own time. I'll also note that there are people who break the "no smoking on campus" rule continually--including one of the physicians who will take a random smoke break in the middle of a clinic, putting him an hour or more behind for the afternoon. I'm hoping that by writing about this some of the anger will dissipate.
I blew through my savings staying afloat through the month of October, and now will not be able to buy Christmas presents, which is pretty much my favorite part of Christmas. I love giving gifts. So thank you, nameless medical facility for ruining my fall and perhaps even my Christmas.
I have tried to spin the situation. I do have plans to return to school after 13 years to pursue something entirely different--education. And I am well aware that I would not have ever gone back to school had this not happened to me. And the position I accepted has a schedule that will allow for me to do so.
But I'm still so angry at this place for firing me. I'm not going to name names or even allude to which facility fired me. Those who know me, know who it was. The reason they gave me for my termination was because I was sleeping at my desk. Yes, please, have a laugh at that, would you? It is downright preposterous. It's true. I was sleeping at my desk. During my lunch hour. That's right, folks, I was clocked out, phone turned off, not returning emails or addressing any patient concerns. I was on my own time. I wasn't in a patient care area. I was in the back of a set of cubicles where only a few people saw me from time to time. I was not given a verbal or written warning for this offense either. Just canned.
It is such a coincidence that I was fired 3 weeks after the manager who brought me into this organization left of her own accord. She left because the management had brought her in for a specific purpose--to help change the department so it would bring in more money--and at every turn, the management above her would cut her off at the knees, not allowing for the changes needed to accomplish that goal. There was more to it than that, naturally, but that was the reason.
I loved my job there. I worked scheduling patients for appointments, clinical and testing appointments as directed by the physicians with whom I worked. When I first started my position there, I was put in a position that didn't exist prior to my arrival. I sat in an office outside of one of the outpatient clinics and I scheduled patients for all the testing and appointments the Doctors wanted them to have. I was great with the patients. Helpful, accommodating, informative. So much so that my manager gave me a project scheduling patients for a test that had been scheduled by someone before. A test that required me to go over a health history questionnaire, answer several questions the patients had regarding the test, prep etc. It was a nurse's job, but I was not a nurse.
I also worked closely with a few of the specialists to get their patients taken care of, worked on rescheduling patients as needed, scheduling patients for procedures as per their orders. I was the go to person when someone had a question regarding the prep for a procedure they weren't familiar with scheduling, particularly when I moved back into the scheduling area to work on the phones. I loved the job. I loved the responsibility. I loved talking to the patients most of the time. I was good at it, I got to use my brain. It was fabulous.
But for whatever reason, the management decided they didn't want me there. I mean, come on, sleeping at my desk? That was literally THE only reason they gave me. And I'm so angry. I'm depressed because it's such a blow to my self esteem. Makes me wonder why I try so hard when I work. I mean, why bother? I guess I should just be half assed about things like some people are. Unfortunately, I wasn't raised that way.
I have lost faith in the medical field, which is why I am moving on to try something different. I like to think that the medical field was at one time centered around patient care and not centered around making money. Maybe I'm naive, but I think that medicine should be about the patients more than about the money. I understand that medical facilities need to make money to stay in business, pay the tons of employees it takes to keep it up and running. But sometimes there are ways to avoid costs to the patient, and the facility I was just fired from was all about making sure they got every last dime out of the patient's insurance company, even to the point of greatly inconveniencing the patient. For instance, there were two procedures that could quite easily be done on the same day. Both procedures required the patient to be sedated heavily, which meant they had to have a driver to take them home. The office I worked for required we do the procedures separately unless the physician requested that we do them on the same day simply because we would collect more money that way. Nevermind that the patient and their driver have to miss two days of work instead of one. Just make sure you get that money in.
The place I'm in now has a mission statement that they will care for every patient, regardless of their ability to pay. That's the kind of medicine I'm interesting in supporting. I now have a job where I sit at a desk all day and sift through paperwork to ensure that all is scanned into the patients' electronic charts and is filed correctly in that chart. I also make sure that the physicians have signed off on all the necessary paperwork for the chart. And that's it. I don't have to use my brain too much. I get office chair butt. I love the organization though, and the schedule for this job is ideal for going to school.
It's still hard knowing that I did my absolute best there and it didn't matter for anything. It didn't matter to them that I genuinely cared for the job I was doing, the patients I was talking to. It didn't interest them that I was sleeping at my desk--laying my head down--on my own time. I'll also note that there are people who break the "no smoking on campus" rule continually--including one of the physicians who will take a random smoke break in the middle of a clinic, putting him an hour or more behind for the afternoon. I'm hoping that by writing about this some of the anger will dissipate.
I blew through my savings staying afloat through the month of October, and now will not be able to buy Christmas presents, which is pretty much my favorite part of Christmas. I love giving gifts. So thank you, nameless medical facility for ruining my fall and perhaps even my Christmas.
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