On a Steeeeeeeck

I'm hazarding to say that today was my first REAL day as an administrator. How many "first days" do I have to have?

I'm in a fantastic mood because I finally feel like I’m starting to get it. Now, as soon as I go and say that out loud, my world will probably fall apart.

But hey, that's what wine is for, right?

Kidding. Well, sort of!

This week's been one for the ages; Monday consisted of 14 hours of work, Tuesday was 10 hours plus a double-header (We won our first game EVER! Granted, we almost blew it in the last inning, but we WON!). Sore and exhausted, I talked myself up and out of bed Wednesday morning to schmooze with physicians at the medical staff golf outing. It was freaking hot out there; several people got sick from the heat and had to go home. Then again, that's the place to get sick. There were 82 doctors hanging around. Three of my personal faves are the personable general surgeon, the vascular surgeon, and one of the orthopods (orthopedic surgeons). The medical staff golf outing is fun, but by 6pm, I was dragging and drove home through squinty, blurry eyes (always fun on the Interstate). All I can say is "thank you!" to Jack. He's been the best wife ever, doing my cooking and cleaning and laundry. He's been whipping up dinner on nights I've been so tired I might have opted for starvation over dinner.

Who am I kidding. It would have been Wendy's!

Anyway, today was a GREAT day. I arrived bright and early and my first meeting was a patient complaint. Those are tough and you always have to help the family find closure when they have a bad experience at your hospital. Then I had two one-on-ones with my managers. One of the managers is doing great, she's growing her service line and looks profitable. The other, well, let's just say they have some work needed. I'm taking my proverbial hammer in there and breaking it up. They've run amuck and I'm taking over interim management of the department. I don't really have time to manage a department like that, but until I find someone who can, I will have to take over. Again, I had that "my office is a confessional" feeling, but it was good to hear their verbal vomit about their department's inner-workings (or lackthereof!).

At that point, it was only 10am!

Then I had an emergency meeting with our gastroenterologists, as we quickly reformulate their block scheduling. I've been doing this learn-as-I-go thing with block scheduling in the operating rooms. Certain docs have "reservations" in the OR's and we block that time for them. But they all want the same times, so we end up with a massive puzzle to piece together.

Then I went up to our chief medical officer's office (about a 1/2 mile away through the hospital corridors) and had a chat about patient throughput bottlenecks up on the nursing units. I'm presenting to the ER physicians in early August to identify incorrect practice patterns.

THEN I raced across town to the other hospital campus where I was 3 minutes late to my own meeting. I met the new CEO of Beakergroup and we took turns grilling each other throughout the meeting. That relationship will be good, but that takes time.

THEN I went to fix all my employees' security requirements. We have to track how much access everyone has (since we deal with sensitive patient information).

THEN Nurse Jackie bribed me with a Rice Krispie Treat on a stick, dipped in wonderful white chocolate. Savoring our (calorie-free) treats, we got a chance to sit down and share our days. I'm thrilled with our growing work relationship; we're getting to the point where we can just about finish each others' sentences (this is a time saver!).

Today was one of the first few days where I didn't feel like a deer in headlights. I could make confident decisions and know they were right. I'm learning to trust my gut when I meet new people or speak with the docs. It's a good feeling and even though I'm working my fool head off at work and feel seriously sleep-deprived, I still love my job.

Now onto the important stuff. Does anyone know where to buy frosted Rice Krispie's on a stick?