Working in Clearwater – Update

My first month working in this new geriatric clinic was great. But then things quickly changed. That’s why I normally wait until the end of the 2nd month to decide if I want to extend. 

One day the clinic manager told me the medical director said I would be on call one weekend in January. I told her I do not do call and will make sure my agency notifies the medical director. Which they did. That’s actually the first time as a locum I have ever been asked to take call.

Then one day HR announced that the locums NPs cannot see patients alone. There has to be a physician on site for billing purposes. That was random since the physician at my clinic had been on vacation for a week and I was working by myself the entire time. Everything went smoothly. Not to mention that I have an autonomous NP license in Florida. Normally to bill under the physician (very common for locums) they just add the physician’s name to the billing versus making sure the physician is physically in the building. Weird. 

Now working in January, it has been more challenging working in this clinic. Since they are expecting to have a lot of new patients in January and February, they changed the one hour appointments for new patients to 40 minutes. They are trying to get in as many new patients as possible. I mentioned before that the MAs take 1 hour for the intake with the new patients. This has been a struggle. It has been impossible to get them to cut that time in half. 

My first 2 days back from the holidays I was upset at work. I had a new patient scheduled at 3:30pm. The new patient visits typically take 2 hours long between them coming in late, filling out their new patient paperwork, the MAs intake, and their visit with me. There was no way I was going to finish on time at 5pm. Then the following day, I had an add on for a new patient at 11:20 am. There was no way I was going to make it to lunch at 12pm. I requested they move those patients, but I saw this as being a daily problem.

So I called the medical director and told him I wanted to change my schedule, because I did not want new patients being scheduled as the last patient of the morning and afternoon shifts. I could still see the same amount of patients but I wanted the new ones to be earlier. He said that the schedules are fixed for all of the PCPs so I could not change mine. He told me a lot of the other PCPs are also complaining but just to be patient while the clinic manager works on making the MAs more efficient. 

I think it would be better if they had the patients come in an hour early to have their intake completed by the MA, and then complete their appointments with the provider at their scheduled time slot. It’s all a work in progress since the clinic is so new. I hope they figure out the best system because we aren’t there as of yet. 

The following week, I was told that locums nurse practitioners couldn’t see new patients anymore. They wanted to bill under the physician so they wanted the locums nurse practitioners to only see established patients. Apparently, since they are a new practice, they are being closely watched by the state, so they have to do everything by the book. I felt bad for the physician in my clinic because that meant he was going to be busier. It benefited me since I no longer have the stress of seeing new patients, whose visits can take 2 hours or more. 

The work has slowed down again for me, I only see about 2-3 patients per day. One time I saw 5 patients and it was great. But I guess I can’t complain. Since the clinics are so new, there is a lot of work to be done. I am not sure what it would be like to work at one of their more established clinics, but I would be open to it in the future.