Day in the life of the HOPD doc:
Roll in at 9:45 for 9:00 clinic in my mid series BMW. See my 3 patients that have been waiting on me, see 7 more by noon. Was hoping for about 5 no shows, but not today. Go to the hospital for lunch. Panini and sushi. Delicious as always. Get a plastic sack and fill it up with bottled drinks, hummus, sushi, and snacks for home. Run that home and play with the dog for an hour. Show up
at the hospital for 1:00 procedures at 1:30. Patient still not ready. Which is understandable since we only have 11 RN’s, 3 scrub techs, and 2 rad techs assigned to this area today. Knock out 6 procedures by 4:30. One was even a CESI! I could tell the staff was nervous since the other doc typically takes an hour on his. Total procedure time: 18 minutes, total web browsing time: a lot. Home by 5. Give hospital VP a ring on the way home and negotiate a nice monthly stipend for myself for medically supervising the PT department. That will cut into my web browsing time .01% but it will be worth it. Say hi to the wife and kids. But get suited up for an important meeting. The wife is so proud of me and she understands I have a lot of things going on. Off to Morton’s to hear about Zilretta. Home by 10. Bring my wife a dessert home that has melted into a puddle and she throws out. She has been doing keto for a year and I knew she wouldn’t eat it anyways but it is all about optics. Did notice 5 empty white claws in the trash outside that weren’t there at lunch, however. Rinse and repeat the next day. Probably take my lifted truck in tomorrow. The new MDT rep is supposed to swing by and I hear she is just out of college.
Now tell me why you wouldn’t want to work for the hospital
@drusso ?
how about a
real day in the life of a HOPD doc (ie last Thursday):
get in office at 7:25. 5 min to gulp down coffee, swear next time, like every time, to remember to put an ice cube in before leaving for work.
meeting with nurses/admin/NP (depending on day of week) until 8. do some chartwork until they show up, admins arrive at 7:30, nurses and APPs usually straggle in at 7:40. 50/50 chance first patient no shows. that's not unexpected. out of the 12 patients scheduled for the morning, typically 2-3 will no show. gives some time to do charts left over from yesterday. or scan SDN.
turns out the 8am is a reliable patient that you have seen for 10 years and shows up on time. so it starts. he arrives early, and is in room by 8. but, usually nurses have to do their part and that wastes 10 min.
while seeing patients, get call from hospitalists. vasculopath that was on triple antibiotics ("but COVID negative!")
needs ESI. oh yes, he is on lovenox, got dose 30 min ago, but back pain and
need for ESI is stopping him from NH placement. please see him... but you already have TF on a different inpatient scheduled for 12 noon today, so moot point. maybe tomorrow. probably not you mutter to yourself.
finish morning, luckily by 12:20. unfortunately, everyone showed. inpatient has arrived. takes 15 min for nurse and rad tech to get positioned. browse SDN while waiting. uh oh. a lot of posts from SDN members who can be codenamed Fake and Notnews - means a lot of misinformation. 1 min to do injection. time for lunch. answer patient calls, fill scripts, send message to referral docs on patients seen in AM. read another incredulous post on SDN, reply with facts and try as hard as possible to limit opinion.
only 12 patients scheduled for the afternoon. injection day, easy - if only ppl don't want to discuss something else - like why you continue to refuse to give opioids when "a friend of mine" or gramma Florence gets them. and only sees the prescribing doc once a year. what do you mean, cocaine in UDS the last 5 ER visits?
last patient leaves. 4:40 now. time to do paperwork oh darn that inpatient. grab mask and shield, walk to floor. no family members! terrific! this will be qui... what, you want me to talk to your daughter who is power of attorney? sigh okay whats her number? she will be here in 15 min and you don't know her number? ugh.
5:45 now, realize that almost all the charts need work. oh well, gonna see the family. you'll do the charts tonite while the kids are gaming. you can talk to the hospitalist while you are driving home....