Monday was ok. I managed to get caught up on January and February QC reports and started on March. When I walked in Tuesday morning I noticed an impending flood. Staggs' overhead tiles near his office were heavy and dripping. I notified Jan and she put in a notice for construction, whoever the heck you call. They came and looked and said they would be back. Seven hours later after another phone call and two more requests for help online we had sprung two new leaks and there were three trash cans strategically placed in the hall and on top of the mailboxes. The secretaries were worrying about leaving for the evening.
I ran to the C suite and found Mackenzie. I had told her at our lunch that we flooded every two years, but this was another possible after only two weeks. She got on the phone and within five minutes the head guys were problem solving. It helps to have friends in the right places. Some sort of air conditioning condensation issue - it certainly wasn't rain this time haha we all joked. She texted me the next day after I thanked her for nipping the issue in the bud that she would try to make sure we were evaluated comprehensively so a long term solution could be found.
Then on Wednesday, cases raining down, not coming out in a fast or efficient manner (this is a chronic issue) I got a huge dump at noon. Chose to work through lunch (and Thursday and Friday) and a supervisor came into my office to problem solve something rather trivial on my computer. You can guess the race and gender. I said no, I'm busy right now, now is not the time. We need to do it right now, he said. No, I just got all my cases, it's not the right time. Scroll down, he said, I'll have this fixed in an instant.
I started shaking I was so mad. I turned around and looked him in the eye and said what part of what I'm telling you is not clear? Let me say it again. No, I don't want to work on that right now, I'm too busy, I want you to leave my office. Zero boundaries, zero respect was going through the back of my head. He patronizingly told me in his honey sweet voice that we need to resolve this right now. Resolve what? I was wondering. Your feelings? My time was being wasted. My no's were being ignored in a mind fucking way. I stood up and pointed my arm/finger at the door and yelled at the top of my lungs (after two more no's) GET OUT OF MY OFFICE RIGHT NOW!. He ran, I called business office/HR and complained. Second run in, last one was last Summer. The holy shit you deal with as a woman is really frustrating. I like this guy. He's really nice, he's helpful, this is a systemic issue with our world. But still.
Thursday I just melted. The work was excruciating and for the first time since I've been there I closed my door until 1pm. Wondering, what is my place in this company? Am I viable? Should I job hunt? I haven't been that insecure since my dad was sick in the hospital. It didn't help that the gross room (my territory) was being criticized and I was trying to help them course correct - none of us are perfect and we all slide toward entropy at times. But when you are in a bad headspace, everything gets taken way too personally.
Friday, what can I say? Christie's surgery was rescheduled for 2 so I was working my ass off so I could see her post op and talk to her dr. and make sure the post op nurse had the contact information for her driver. I was surprised, I told Kay Chandler, that she could be d/c'd from post op s/p hyst? I thought it was magical thinking on CB's part. I know, Kay said, this has just happened in the last two years. I was incredulous too, but they do fine. She just needs to void and she can go home. So when I went to visit C twice Friday late afternoon I told her you have two jobs. Stay calm and pee. Sure enough, she was home mid evening. When I visited her today she was sleepy but good.
Kids are doing a grand world tour of Arkansas today - we uncharacteristically had breakfast this morning together. They went to get Rennie and Will and Adele (Annie's kids) from Winnamocka and took them to Fayetteville to visit their grandparents. I stocked up for breakfast today at Trader Joe's after work bc they intend to come back tonight with Rennie spending the night and I wanted them to have bfast options.
A little nervous about presenting at med exec committee Monday - I asked Mackenzie to put autopsy on the agenda and she complied. Quinn came to me and told me that everyone was kvetching in surgery/trauma meeting a couple of weeks ago that we don't ever do autopsies. I told him Shaver has told me admin asks us to do more autopsies. See, here is the deal. You get a bad rep in the community if you don't communicate. So I told Quinn I would present our policy at the next med exec meeting.
Our policy is right in line with private practices all over the country. We only do physician requests, we refer family request to others. We did autopsies pro bono which made sense 30 years ago when 70 block days were high but now 150 is the norm so getting one is like a bomb going off in your day. And the morgue is so 1960. And anything medicolegal is not what we are trained to do.
I called Susi Jeffus at UAMS to get some back up for the presentation. She said yes, if the family presses the doc we do them but we are a teaching institution and we need it for the residents. We only did 57 last year (I was required 100 to be boarded, now it's down to 50 I hear). 90% are unnecessary, Susi said. There is a new guy at the crime lab who is head of our autopsy service and we hope to move all of them over there eventually. She gave me another private autopsy contact, Jennifer Forsyth, which was nice I thought the only one in town was Peretti.
When I queried my Pathology Moms FB group they were like why? Do they want more autopsies? I said they don't understand. We need to explain it to them. I told one commenter that now that they are paying for them to be done at UAMS, I'm thinking they will finally come around LOL.
So clear communication beats fear based silence. Not Earth shattering, but so not intuitive to so many people I am daily surprised. Wish me luck on Monday early evening - I hate to present and am bringing Jessica for back up to explain the transition of autopsy to UAMS, something SVI did a decade ago. Happy Saturday. Much love. Elizabeth.