San Diego is even better than I remembered! The weather is perfect. All of the different scenery is beautiful. It is so diverse. And there are sooo many young people here! I guess I had been in Florida for too long haha.
I was given a 3-day orientation and EHR training since I haven’t worked here in 5 years. The EHR is the same which is pretty straightforward. I was given one afternoon to shadow another provider. I am pretty sure I had a couple of days shadowing last time, but maybe it is reduced due to covid. It’s not a big deal to me, but there was a locums physician that was doing orientation with me. She seemed to need more shadowing than that, especially since she hasn’t worked here before.
I was given a ramp up schedule, which is a mixture of office visits and phone visits. I like this particular clinic a lot, more than my main one last time. My patients are mostly Spanish speaking which is nice. They have been very pleasant so far. The medical assistants at my clinic are really helpful and friendly. The PCPs are as well. The last patient of the morning is scheduled 1 hour before lunch and the last patient of the day is scheduled 1 hour before the end of the day.
This is great because if you are running behind you have that extra time to catch up and finish notes. The no-show rate is pretty high, but there is often a walk-in waiting to be seen during a slot where you have a no show. This is fine since it is usually for a direct reason or something quick like medication refills. I also like that patients are required to check in 15 minutes before their actual appointment. So no late patients are accepted.
I was a bit nervous about seeing pediatric patients again, but the EHR made it easy by having guiding well child exam templates and immunization records. It’s actually been pretty fun working with that population again.
The community health centers have so many resources for their patients which is excellent. They have a transgendered clinic, mental health center, registered dieticians available, and HIV services. There is a lot of social support for the patients.
The most challenging thing for me has been deciphering between normal cold symptoms and covid19. We always encourage patients to get tested, but sometimes their covid test is negative – and they continue to have symptoms. So you have to decide if it is a false negative for covid or if you should treat them for other disorders. Also, since California is the hot spot for covid right now, we try to deter patients with covid like symptoms from coming to the clinic at all. This can be challenging when a patient has a history of asthma and you would love to be able to listen to their lungs but administration wants us to encourage them to utilize the ER if they do not get better.
Fortunately, I was able to get my first covid vaccine on my second day here. That was fast. Had I waited to get it at home in Florida, it would have probably taken forever. My only reaction was arm pain that lasted a few days.
I am really loving my time here and wish I could stay forever! Too bad I am a nomad and it is too far from my family in Miami. They are still getting adjusted to the time difference and continue to call me at 5 am or while I am at work. It’s too early for me to decide if I want to extend. You get a better feel for a place after working there for 1 month.
