How is your office run?

[nwatson]

OK, so I'm a new graduate (derm) who has been employed in my first job for almost 4 months. My question is to all the experienced PAs who have been working for many years, who have worked in different offices.

 

Question: Are most offices run in an organized, efficient manner, or is every office a bit chaotic? My place of employment has a constant turnover of medical assistants, front desk appointment girls, the office manager and I just replaced one of the 2 PAs that quit after 8 months. The office is disorganized and I'm doing medical assistant duties as well as PA responsiblities.

 

I'm contemplating finding another job but if every office is similar (maybe not this bad), then it wouldn't be worth starting all over again to end up in the same environment that I'm in now. What should I expect? What is YOUR office like?

 

Just need some input and advice from some experienced providers.

 

Thanks

[Cideous]

lol this should be a good thread!

 

 

Welcome to medicine. I don't know if it is the nature of what we do or that we as a field are trying to do too much with too little staff? What you are experiencing is the norm. It's kind of a controlled chaos where SO many things can slip by it's scary. The company I work for now hires people with NO nursing training and "trains" them to give shots, set up trays etc. They are not even true MA's. I was told by the semi-office manager that it should not take longer then two weeks to train someone off the street to "nurse" for us providers.

 

Just Wow....

[ventana]

my office is run to make money for the senior partners, as a mere PA I am left with a rotation of MA's that are all young and overworked (for $12/hour)

 

the front office manager has total control over my schedule, I can't even schedule a follow up, they will book a 90 yr old with syncope for a 10 min appointment and a 23 yr old female with a UTI for a 20 minute

 

some of it is just medicine, BUT staff turnover is a huge red flag - I have worked in two offices that I can say were very well run, very low staff turnover. First one I stayed at for over 5 years and the reason I left was my own choice. The second one had a great staff but the hospital appointed a new medical director (who was flippin insane) and I left before they eliminated my position (I was capped at 12 patients per day for chronic pain follow up patients, not even any evals)

 

Have been in offices that turn over a lot of staff and that is a huge red flag - something is wrong when MA'a and nurses come and midlevels come and go faster then the seasons....

[fyrelight74]

Just a PA student, but I can give you the MA perspective. One office I worked in was completely chaotic...no clear boundaries, some MAs did nothing, others did everything, managers were wanting us to re-use the flanges on the vacutainer to save money, appts were booked every 15 mins but providers were taking 30, so a schedule ending at noon actually didn't end until 1pm, patients were always mad they had to wait 2-3 hours in the waiting room.... I was only there 6 months.

 

Another office I absolutely loved... clear protocols and boundaries for MAs and receptionists, patients' best interest put first, scheduled every 15 mins (and doctor averaged within those times for the most part), patients were impressed with minimal wait, the doctor was willing to teach us things as they came up... I stayed there 3.5 years up until 2 weeks before PA school started. I went back during my Christmas break and worked a few days filling in for folks as an MA again. Absolutely loved working there, and would love to go back as a PA.

 

So what made the difference? Hmm.... tough to say. Management was awesome at the second office... common kindness mixed with practical sense (also the manager was the doctor's wife, so she had his interest in mind as well). At the first office, I never felt the managers were very professional...made sly remarks about coworkers making me wonder what they were saying about me too, clearly had their own interest in mind more than the company or the doctors. MA training? At both offices, MAs had come from some sort of training for the most part, although I helped train a temporary MA while another MA was on maternity leave (he had no experience, but was applying to nursing school, so had many prereqs). Providers? Both offices seemed to have caring providers. Not sure what made the difference except management.