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Re: What do I do?

You have hit several major topics that are seen here and other places time after time.

Nurses: at our clinic we introduce ourselves as assistants or medical assistants the first time we room patients. Despite this, there is one old goat who insists on calling me his male-nurse. Even the doctors refer to us as nurses; I let folks know we do have nurses and I am not one of them. When folks call and ask for the doctors nurse, I let them know I am the assistant and offer to transfer them to the nurse. Most of the time they are more than willing to talk to me, I do know they wanted me in the first place.

Administrative duties: specifically what are you alluding to. The interweb is very good at allowing folks to read into what is typed, please do not read anything I type the wrong way! If you do not have a cursory understanding of billing, coding or documentation, I can see where you would get confusion.

Insurance, payments and the superbill: How did your program separate this from the clinical duties? This is the basis for staying in business. I have experienced this disconnect at the clinic I work at. I vented my frustration to one of the doctors one day when he was sounding off about the same thing, he and I went to the administrator and WE were blown off. The short answer is they do not give a crap about the money they are flowing out the door, we get paid... shut up and work. Our job is to fix people and not worry about the finances.

If your doctor is a shareholder/owner in your clinic he may actually give a crap about the money aspect of the business and that can create a sticky point.

Process flow: I used to work in prototype manufacturing. Our job was to build things engineers came up with and convert the "bench-top" process to high volume manufacturing equipment. If an organization has a poor understanding of the process, and no definitive process flow for each task, it can be a disorganized mess. It is also necessary for each individual in the organization to have a clear in-depth understanding of the process or the process will not work properly.

Currently where I work, the sterilization process is a great example. The general process is defined in a document. Each bottle has its own instructions, not defined in the general process document. Each person has a different level of understanding about the directions. How long does the soak take, how long is the ultrasonic cleaning cycle, how long is the MILK application, the drying process, packaging individually or procedure packets and marking & indicators, sterilizing controls, and restocking. It is fuzzy at best and despite multiple training sessions and in-services is a poorly defined process. Never having been a good well documented process it will continue to be a poor process.

Until the medical profession, as a whole, adopts standards similar to ISO manufacturing certification standards as part of practice accreditation and implements a self auditing process at each practice, it will continue to fail to reach its goal of properly serving patients.

Your Professional Title/Credentials: CMA (AAMA)

Are You Still In School? nope

Are You Working? yep

Re: What do I do?

I understand that I should just shut up and work. What do I do about the rusted instruments and them complaining to me about them losing money.

Before this I had only my externship for experience which I loved because I only dealt with patients and no administrative work. Please understand I am not trying to complain I just want to hear an opinion from a professional what I should do.

Your Professional Title/Credentials: CMA

Are You Still In School? no

Are You Working? yes

Re: What do I do?

Puzzled
I have begun working at a clinic, they call me nurse, I am not a nurse. I am a CMA certified by the NHA. Some of their instruments are rusted and the doctor does get angry alot. I am confused about administrative duties because I was not taught that in school and must learn it on the job, but their office is completely unorganized and they say they are losing alot of money because insurance isn't paying..Have got myself into a difficult situation are is this fixable, I don't want to have to look for another job after three months of looking. what do I do?


The way I see it, you have the opportunity to voice out some concerns and actually implement some ideas to get the practice back up to normal operating standards.

If the instruments are rusted, explain to them how important it is for these to be replaced as it can cause all sorts of infections if allowed to penetrate the skin.

Administrative duties, I admit, are more difficult to understand, but try not to see it as "administrative duties" as a whole. Learn to accomplish single duties at a time. Understanding different types of insurances, on the other hand, will take time as there are so many types with their own guidelines and blah blah blah.

Use this opportunity to make a difference in the office. If you can achieve this, it'd be one hell of a thing to put on your resume to impress future employers. You probably would never have a problem finding another position within a medical office.

This is just my 2 cents.

Your Professional Title/Credentials: CMA

Are You Working? yes

Re: What do I do?

Opinion greatly appreciated. I will use your advice. Thank you.

Your Professional Title/Credentials: CMA

Are You Still In School? no

Are You Working? yes