Day in the Life: Practice Management

Happy Monday + welcome to another Medical Mondays and my second “Day in the Life” for residency!

This time around, my rotation was in practice management. Originally, I had not a clue as to what this was and figured it was on adulting and learning to bill/code.

But…not quite!

Day in the Life: Practice Management

8 a.m. – 12 p.m.

This rotation was definitely a nice “break” in between the madness that will ensue! (I only averaged ~60-ish hours/week on my surgery rotation, so that could’ve been a lot worse.)

Since I typically walk to work and only interns get their parking completely validated, I’d find my seniors and check to see if they needed/wanted free parking. :]

I typically spent my mornings at the office seeing patients, which was nice because it gave me an extra hour (lunchtime) to catch up on notes if I was running behind.

As an intern, I have to talk with my preceptor after I take the patient’s history and again before discussing the plan with my patient. (If you’ve ever been to a residency clinic and had to wait longer than you wanted to, this is typically why it takes longer, especially when we’re backed up on patients/short on preceptors, etc. I apologize, but we’re doing the best we can!)

I had one morning where they accidentally double-booked me with two patients in the same time slot. Originally, I thought maybe it was just a “two-pack” (e.g. a mom and her kid), but…nope. Despite this, I thankfully managed to see and take care all my patients an hour before lunchtime and they all left happy. (Hooray hooray!)

I usually start writing my note(s) while I’m waiting. >_>

After about 6 months, I’ll get to discuss things with my preceptor just once for each visit, but for now, my patients are just gonna have to bear with me! ._. (Some of them are pretty comfortable with me doing that now, but it’ll be officially lifted in about half a year.)

Thankfully, most of my patients have been super understanding and as patient as can be expected. I finally have business cards(!), so I give them out to the patients I have who are looking for a new doctor and/or have kids they want to bring in. :] I’ve been taking care of everything from the common cold to complete physicals to hair loss and unexplained numbness!

I have a habit of engaging my patients in conversation and found out that one of em’ happens to be the president of a chorale near where I live! She gave me her contact information and I’m super hoping that I can be a part of it! It unfortunately meets at the same time as my weekly dance practice (which is already questionable in terms of how often I’m able to go), so I’m not sure how that’s gonna work out, but…we’ll see what I can come up with. (…I need Hermione’s Time-Turner.)

I mentioned back in September that everyone had to switch over to the ICD-10 system. Here are some more codes for you!

12 p.m. – 1 p.m.

I get an actual set lunchtime!!! :O (You learn to appreciate the little things, haha.) I usually use this time to engulf food at record speeds while finishing my notes if they’re not done yet, and then working on my assignments*.

1 p.m. – 5-6 p.m.

I typically spent my afternoons shadowing/working with different parts of the office, including my nurses/medical assistants, the front desk with phone calls + checking in patients, the resource unit + home visits, making referrals, triaging, precepting, and with veterans’ services. It helped me to get a better idea of what everyone else’s jobs entailed so that we could all work together more efficiently and seamlessly.

We had a bunch of assigned articles and videos to read/watch and several assignments to write up based on the material, so I usually spent my lunch hour working on those so I could work on other things or go places (e.g. dance practice, which is an hour away) when I finished for the day.

I’m gonna miss having daylight hours to get stuff done… *-*

<3

• Which of those ICD-10 codes do you find the most ridiculous?
• Do you have a primary care provider that you regularly see, or is it generally a different doctor every time?