I Swear I'm Not Spying

Today I went to see my doctor for what turned out to be another case of bronchitis. While I was using the check-in kiosk to avoid the long line, I noticed the Department Administrator staring at me. He stopped me and said, "I know who you are. You're here to see if we are doing our POE stuff." I laughed and said "Nope. I'm actually just sick."

Considering the fact that I was dressed in my "I feel like crap and don't really care" clothes, I was a bit surprised that he even recognized me. He told me that they had just spent the last week retraining his staff on standard workflows and was glad to see me. He asked that I be honest with his staff and my observations. So... while I promise I'm not spying, I do like to make observations :-)

One thing I always appreciate about going to see my doctor is that the Glendale clinic is great about rooming patient's on time. The tough part for me because of my role with POE, is that I can't have a visit without answering questions or doing some on the spot training. Not that I mind, I love to take advantage of every opportunity to teach our staff and set their minds at ease. As much as I would like to ignore the little things like not doing things in proper order to increase efficiency or bypassing a care gap prompt to complete the asthma screening questionnaire (especially when the patient presenting has shortness of breath and coughing spasms) - it's almost impossible for me to stay quite. Mostly because I find it extremely frustrating to see our staff working hard instead of smart. What's interesting to me is that some of our clinics have really strong support staff and physician's whose strengths are in being a physician (computer skills lacking), some of our clinics have the opposite with really strong physician's and well intentioned, but not so computer savvy support, and their are clinics that have the best of both worlds. My doctor's support person is a little slower with the intake process and struggles a bit with POE workflows, but my PCP is not only the best primary care physician ever, she is also a computer super star. Some would argue that maybe this works for them so there is nothing to fix, but I can't help but wonder if we could do more.

Couple more positive notes...

• The Glendale clinic pharmacy is one of my favorites because it is always well stocked and they get you in and out fast.
• I was pleasantly surprised to find one of our Domestic Violence Silent Witness displays in the pharmacy waiting room.
• They also had a flu shot clinic that was booming with patient's.
• 

Nice job Glendale!