This is the first time I have returned to the exact same clinic. I have returned to the same company/markets before but not the exact same clinic. I felt very welcomed on my return and it was nice to catch up with everyone. There was one major surprise though.
I thought I was coming in to help absorb new patients. But it turned out that the company fired a physician the Friday prior to my start date. Apparently, she was being nasty to the staff and wouldn’t even see one of her patients as an acute visit that was audibly and visually throwing up blood in the hallway. I was surprised because she was very nice when I met her the year prior. The other providers think she had a psychotic break from all of the stress because she became a completely different person.
Anyways, this assignment turned out to be similar to the Virginia Beach one last year, where I had to absorb a patient panel pretty quickly. This patient panel had gone through 3 physicians within one year, so they weren’t the happiest. I totally get their frustrations but physicians are real people too. Their first doctor wanted to go part time to spend more time with her kids. The second one realized she didn’t like primary care and wanted to work in the hospital. And the third one I just explained above that she was let go.
The first couple of weeks were annoying have to hear patients complain about switching PCPs again. Several of them threatened to leave the practice, but at the end decided they were going to stay. So, my first few minutes were them was just allowing them to vent. It was a bit hectic because patients were calling trying to be seen right away for various reasons, but there was only one of me to accommodate all of these patients.
Now I am two months in and things have gotten much better. I have gotten to know the patients so it makes things easier. My hospital sick days have been pretty good as well. No one really micromanages me because they are just appreciative to have the coverage. I do have a handful of psych patients that call all of the time, but I try to set boundaries with them.
The company hired a physician and a nurse practitioner to start seeing patients in February. I am supposed to finish here in mid-February, but they really want me to stay longer so that I can help train the new nurse practitioner and to provide a few months buffer while the new PCPs accumulate patients. I usually like to make this decision the month before my contract ends, because it gives me enough time to evaluate how things are going. I’ll let you know my decision soon!
