Fashioning a Fabric: Seven Quick Takes (vol 4)

~one~Merger complete, we started seeing patients at the new-to-us facility this past Tuesday, the day after Memorial Day. That first day on the job was a three-ring circus! A very, very busy day for us in times past (with two providers) would have been 40-45 patients. That would have kept everyone on their toes and exhausted us all by the end of the day.
On Tuesday, we saw 67 patients. Granted, this was spread over three providers - not two - but it was compounded by the fact that their office had been closed for three days (Memorial Day Weekend, of course) and ours had been closed for five to effect the move. (The phones rang off the hook!) This was doubly compounded by the fact that two of the three providers available, one of the nurses, and two of the business office personnel (myself included) were still very much in training and not yet up to speed.
Additionally, the x-ray tech who normally worked there (Mike, aged 62) passed away suddenly of heart failure on Monday afternoon - and a sub was in his place. (God rest his soul.) The final straw to the craziness was the fact that approximately two-thirds of the patients seen on Tuesday were new patients to the practice, requiring much additional paperwork to complete the check-in process. Miraculously, we still got out of there by 5:30 PM! Exhausted and overwhelmed might have been an understatement. :)

~twoFortunately, on Wednesday, we had only two providers at a time in the morning and afternoon. (Julia and Dad switched off morning and afternoon clinic, because Dad had a hospital delivery in the afternoon. Another nurse practitioner worked a full day.) This reduced the patient volume per force.
Both Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, I worked at home on accounts receivable for the "old clinic."

~three~Yesterday, we had two providers in the morning and three in the afternoon. I only worked a half-day, but when I left at lunch time, we had seen 15 patients in the morning and 30 were scheduled for the afternoon! Today we will have three providers all day, so I expect the pace to increase again somewhat. I get the impression that the "incumbent" staff with whom we have begun working are completely overwhelmed with the patient load. They keep hoping that it will slow back down, but I'm not sure it will... at least, not in the near future.

~four~I am very thankful that it's the weekend! I'm tired!!

~five~Don't miss this brief movie clip! Bob Hope's great. :)

~six~Ordinations in Winona, MN are three weeks from today! There will be 13 ordinands!! Ten for the Society, two for the Benedictines in Silver City, NM, and one Dominican priest for France. What a day that will be! Will any of my readers be there? (Please chime in!)

~seven~We have tens of thousands of honey bees in our backyard. On purpose. ;) They're primarily my dad's project and I admit that I was very skeptical and wary of them at first, as I have a horror of all flying, stinging insects... But they've been extremely peaceable and they're fascinating to watch. I don't know too much about them, but we have an acquaintance who has 30+ years experience as a beekeeper. He came and checked on them on Memorial Day and was impressed by the vigor of the hive. I'm looking forward to the honey!