Well, I guess I did manage to let the holiday season get away
from me, but I am determined not to let the entire month of December go by
without a post. Then again, I guess the
good thing about blogging is that you can do it when the mood (or time or
thought or energy or lightning bolt) strikes you.
That PA I worked for back in the 90s, as it turns out, was
probably the nicest medical professional I ever had the pleasure to work for,
because he was also the most forgiving.
His office had called me asking that I pull a chart note on one of his
tapes and get it faxed to him as soon as possible, which of course I did. Now I should have just finished the entire
tape, but I had a couple of older tapes that needed to be done first, so I put
that tape aside to get the older dictations completed. I almost always returned everything I had on
my desk the next day, but I wanted to be sure I did get the older notes done
just in case I did not get everything done.
Tapes to be transcribed were on one side of my desk; the completed tapes
were placed in a separate area. It was
very rare that I would get a call to pull a chart note off a tape to get done
ahead of everything else, so as was my usual practice, when I got the note
done, printed and faxed, I took the tape out of my transcriber and placed it in
the to-be-deleted pile of tapes.
I finished up the rest of the dictations for that day and
then did what I always do—erased all the tapes.
The interesting thing is that the very minute I did that, I remembered I
had not finished that one tape! Gee, it
sure would have helped had I remembered that little tidbit before I erased everything. I think every single muscle in my body
tensed up when I realized what I had done.
The one good thing, if there can be a good thing in this situation, was
that only 7 patients were seen that day.
It could have so easily been a day of 20 or 25 patients.
I could have taken the easy way out and said it was a bad
tape or that there were no other dictations.
But really, that is not taking an easy way. That would be taking a very unprofessional and dishonest way out of a difficult
situation. Honesty is truly the only
way. I can tell you it is very hard to
dial a phone, even a push button phone, when your fingers are shaking and the
muscles in your hand are pulled so tight you can barely breath. Please, let the line be busy, let the line be
busy, but alas, the line was not busy.
The PA was with a patient when I called, so I told the assistant what
had happened, apologized profusely, and said I would not charge for that day’s
dictations. About an hour later the
phone rang. There was no way I could make my line sound busy, so I
answered. What did I hear? “Patty, you don’t make mistakes.” My reply, “True, but when I do, they are real
doozies!”
Any of you reading this who is a working MT knows what it is
like to have to deal with a difficult doctor or any health care
professional. The MT angels were looking
out for me that day, because this PA could not have been kinder or more
understanding. He actually realized that
all of us are human and make mistakes, even the real doozy kind. I can think of a handful of docs that had
they been the receiver of such news, I would have just quietly thrown my
computer away, closed up shop and headed for parts unknown, never to be heard
from again.
I was not expecting this story to be quite this long, so I
think I will save those other opportunities I mentioned previously for my next
post. I promise I will talk about the
few things that came my way that I never wanted to do, but they fell into my
lap and really wound up being pretty great experiences. In many ways, I am glad I did erase that
tape. Obviously, if I could have avoided
that experience, I absolutely would have.
The thing is, because I put forth my best efforts every single day on
the job and worked very hard to develop a good working relationship with my
clients, when I needed a favor (or needed forgiveness), I got it. When you run into difficult times in your
job, and you will if you have not already, never take any road but the honest
and professional road. Following that path,
even on the very ordinary days, will always lead you in the right direction.
I wish all of you a very prosperous, challenging, exciting,
and always, a very Happy New Year! Thanks again for reading.
