Yesterday I had to call a member who had complained about not being able to get an appointment and they needed a medication refill. When I made the call I sort of figured it would be a 5 to 10 minute conversation regarding the medication, if they had any physical conditions they were concerned about, etc. Well, it turned out to be more like a 25 minute conversation, most of which had to do with trying to help the member understand the program they were participating in and the provider network available to this program. There had been a problem when the member enrolled and they kept going back to that. They were frustrated because they didn’t understand the system. I was frustrated because I couldn’t get them to move on and start thinking about getting them into care. Btw, they very much did have a concerning physical situation and I wanted to try getting them into care as soon as possible.
Anyhow, I was doing alright through the most of the call, but about 10 minutes into the conversation I had to mentally step back and ask God to give me grace to get through that call. I did get through it, keeping my calm, thinking pretty clearly about next steps, etc. After hanging up I was fairly surprised when I took a sip from my water bottle and found that either my lip or my hand was visibly shaking. Apparently my emotions had not completely withstood the emotion of the call. A new coworker (and consequently will be my new manager within the month) in the cube next to me asked if all my calls were like that and said that I had been very supportive and understanding. Again I was surpised to find that I was on the verge of tears and my voice sounded very small as I tried to answer without sobbing. (Side note: this is only the 5th time a grievance/complaint has made me cry. Very rare, but it does happen.)
I wrote a very desperate e-mail to one of my contacts at the clinic I wanted to get the member into, emphasizing the urgency of the situation. Feeling that that hadn’t been enough, I called the clinic only to find that I couldn’t leave a voicemail since it was after hours. (Slightly weird.) Well, at 5:30pm I decided I couldn’t do anything more and a asked that God would get this guy in some how.
I was distracted by the situation for most of the evening. Was very thankful for Jeremy Camp, Lincoln Brewster, a treadmill, and that my knees were feeling great. At home I managed to ignore thinking about the situation for several hours. However, I couldn’t hold it down for long. As I got ready for bed that seemed to be all I could think about. I began praying that the guy would suddenly get better, that the clinic contact would be able to help me in the morning, that there would be some miracle to just get this member in! I started trying to go to sleep, but I was so bugged and the thought had suddenly occurred to me, Why hadn’t I informed the medical director about this situation? She could work her magic and probably get him in faster than I could at this clinic. I kept wondering if the clinic would get him in right away or if I should have had him go to a different clinic. Maybe I should have given him more information regarding Urgent Care. What if I couldn't get him in and he ended up in the ER? Not going to sleep and not knowing what else to do I grabbed my laptop at 12:15 am, logged into my work e-mail, found the e-mail I had sent to the clinic contact, and forwarded it to my Medical Director along with why I felt I needed to inform her about the situation, etc. This was the only thing I could think of that would finally let me go to sleep. I talked to God a little more about the whole situation and then finally went to sleep.
This morning I got to work and I had two e-mails: one from the Medical Director and one from my clinic. Without going into details, I can tell you that I made three calls, wrote one e-mail, read one e-mail, and the whole thing was settled by 9 am.
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