SedRate Posted January 24, 2017 Share Posted January 24, 2017 Surgical subspecialty PA here. Work hours were reasonable to start, but have steadily increased due to the workload. Surgeon and I discussed possible fixes, including adding another provider for nonsurgical duties (rounds, discharges, etc). Although I'm all for making my life easier, I'm worried that adding another provider might take away from our current setup. Not that the quality of care would be affected, but goodbye are the days of seeing the patient all the way through -- pre-op, intraop, and post-op. Anyone have experience with this kind of situation? Any advice? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AbeTheBabe Posted January 25, 2017 Share Posted January 25, 2017 If there's enough volume, one PA can be primarily surgical and the other for rounds/discharge/preop/whatever. Patients don't know who's in the surgery, so to them nothing will change. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SedRate Posted January 25, 2017 Author Share Posted January 25, 2017 That would be the idea. But on the other hand, I'd almost rather just negotiate more pay for these extra hours and perhaps hiring another support staff member to help. Did you have any experience with adding another PA? If so, did you notice any change in the work environment or things getting missed with patients? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cg02186 Posted January 25, 2017 Share Posted January 25, 2017 I'm still a student but I worked with a group that had a similar set up. 1 doc, 2 PAs, all saw their own patient panel in clinic two days a week. One PA assisted in the OR on Tuesdays with inpatient, larger operations and the other PA assisted in the OR on Thursdays when it was outpatient procedures. They each rounded 2 days a week in the morning. It was a pretty good set up for them and it seemed to work. However, if you want to be the only one in the OR you'll just have to find a PA that'd be willing to accept that role. I don't know how much I would like just seeing pre-ops, post-ops, and rounding on patients that I had no part in the surgery in. Hope it all works out for you though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SedRate Posted January 25, 2017 Author Share Posted January 25, 2017 I'm still a student but I worked with a group that had a similar set up. 1 doc, 2 PAs, all saw their own patient panel in clinic two days a week. One PA assisted in the OR on Tuesdays with inpatient, larger operations and the other PA assisted in the OR on Thursdays when it was outpatient procedures. They each rounded 2 days a week in the morning. It was a pretty good set up for them and it seemed to work. However, if you want to be the only one in the OR you'll just have to find a PA that'd be willing to accept that role. I don't know how much I would like just seeing pre-ops, post-ops, and rounding on patients that I had no part in the surgery in. Hope it all works out for you though! That seems like a nice setup, although I'm not entirely willing to give up my OR time in exchange for rounding so that the newb can have some OR time too. I'm also concerned about the time it'd take to interview, hire, and credential a new employee since that doesn't change things for the immediate future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AbeTheBabe Posted January 26, 2017 Share Posted January 26, 2017 I work with one surgeon, but we do have fellows. The fellow doesn't see his own patients, only shadows the surgeon. The surgeon has 2.5 OR days. 1/2 day it's only me, 1 day it's both me and the fellow, 1 day it's only the fellow. The patients know it's me and the surgeon working as a team though, fellows rotate threw about once a month. They usually call our MA or surgery scheduler with questions and if they can't answer they ask me. Works pretty well for the most part. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SedRate Posted January 26, 2017 Author Share Posted January 26, 2017 Interesting setup. Thanks for the info. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
south Posted January 28, 2017 Share Posted January 28, 2017 It is possible to hire someone for mainly or exclusively pre/post rounding and discharges, because you are describing my ideal job. In school I ended up with a bunch of surgery rotations, in which I was very independent. I absolutely loved the rounding portion of it, and found that I disliked the OR itself. I'm not a klutz or think it's gross or anything, it's just very boring to me. I found the problem-solving and other aspects of rounding to be very exciting and fulfilling. Opposite of normal I suppose, but each to their own. You could throw your line in the water to catch someone like me, just be honest in the ad. I have seen ads like that before, just in places I don't want to be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SedRate Posted January 28, 2017 Author Share Posted January 28, 2017 It is possible to hire someone for mainly or exclusively pre/post rounding and discharges, because you are describing my ideal job. In school I ended up with a bunch of surgery rotations, in which I was very independent. I absolutely loved the rounding portion of it, and found that I disliked the OR itself. I'm not a klutz or think it's gross or anything, it's just very boring to me. I found the problem-solving and other aspects of rounding to be very exciting and fulfilling. Opposite of normal I suppose, but each to their own. You could throw your line in the water to catch someone like me, just be honest in the ad. I have seen ads like that before, just in places I don't want to be. I like rounding too. I like the autonomy and decision-making process. But it was becoming a burden with how much other stuff I was doing. If we decide that adding another PA is the right move, I'll definitely keep that in mind. After all, I wouldn't want to set a colleague up for failure. That is if they actually let me have a say in the hiring process. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.