Community Health Center Pros/Cons


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So far I have been having a love-hate relationship with this community health center in San Diego, CA.

PRO’S

  • Being a walk-in provider 3 days out of the week, I only need to address one problem per patient, and they need to make an appointment with their PCP for the other problems. Ex: Patient came in for rash. They will be treated for their rash but need to make another appointment for their back pain.
  • Part of the reason I wanted to indulge in locum tenens work was to broaden my experiences. Working with this population I have increased my experience treating patients with chronic Hepatitis C, sexually transmitted infections, transgendered communities, complex mental illnesses, chronic pain management, and abscesses needing I&D.
  • I absolutely love all of the provider’s that work here. It is nice being in a setting with a diverse group of provider’s and they are always willing to help if needed. We share the same large private space to do our charting in between patients. So we are constantly consulting each other about patients, which I think benefits them in the long run.

 

CONS

  • I miss following up with patients because it has always been the best part of primary care to me. Although most patients have a PCP, they are often just put with any provider based off of availability of appointments. I have noticed that any given patient has seen over one dozen different providers in one year (in the same facility).
  • I miss my MA’s from Washington – quick, organized, able to prepare room well for procedures; being able to notify patients of lab results; serving as your advocate with scheduling etc.
  • If your patient is a no show, they give you a walk-in patient. The problem is that if a patient is a no show at 1:30pm, the walk-in patient isn’t ready until 2pm, and by then your 1:50pm patient has already shown up. This ends up pushing back the schedule for the remainder of the day.
  • Every visit is 20 minutes, even if your patient is a new patient with 30 problems or if a procedure needs to be done.

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