To Davita and my new friends here

[paddbear0000]

Is that kind of like an office manager? My mom is a medical office manager.

[Tinah1968]

Good thing you guys told me what an FA was i had "Fat Azz" in my head and I was reading that and then I started  thinking WOW that is kind of rough..But what do I know??. 

[pelagia]

again, I'd base my opinion as many as you have on personal experience at the local level center than company wide.

Sure, personal opinion matters, but then you read of the same experiences over and over again, on the east coast or the west coast or the midwest or the south.  A pattern emerges and so does our collective wisdom.  Yes, there are good centers out there and caring staff, but there are also plenty of terrible centers with terrible staff.  My advice to you is to keep reading.

[nursewratchet]

FA is the Facility Administrator.  Runs the clinic.  Pays the bills, makes the schedule, ensures safety,training,and compliance.  Hires,and fires everyone.  Makes the budget, tries to stick to the budget.  Listens to all the complaints, from staff or patients.  Addresses all the complaints, form staff and patients.  Does the job of any one who is not at work, the reuse, the PCT,  (and I am still the best PCT in the building),  sticks the difficult sticks when no one else can,the Charge Nurse, the secretary, or the janitor.  Is the Electrician, the BioMed, and the painter.  Orders ALL supplies...Is the counselor for all patients and staff members.  GOES TO EVERY STUPID MEETING!!!  Argues with corporate when corporate needs to be argued with!!! Well anyway, that's what I do as the FA.  Some Fa's sit in there office. 

[pelagia]

When will they perfect cloning?  We need more of you nursewrachet!     I hope that every once in awhile you get some positive reinforcement for what you do.  Probably you don't get enough.  Much of what you are doing would be transparent to most folks.  Unfortunately, it seems to be that when things work well they tend to go unnoticed.

[nursewratchet]

FA is the Facility Administrator.  Runs the clinic.  Pays the bills, makes the schedule, ensures safety,training,and compliance.  Hires,and fires everyone.  Makes the budget, tries to stick to the budget.  Listens to all the complaints, from staff or patients.  Addresses all the complaints, form staff and patients.  Does the job of any one who is not at work, the reuse, the PCT,  (and I am still the best PCT in the building),  sticks the difficult sticks when no one else can,the Charge Nurse, the secretary, or the janitor.  Is the Electrician, the BioMed, and the painter.  Orders ALL supplies...Is the counselor for all patients and staff members.  GOES TO EVERY STUPID MEETING!!!  Argues with corporate when corporate needs to be argued with!!! Well anyway, that's what I do as the FA.  Some Fa's sit in there office. 

    And then... Make the bicarb,make some acid, check the water. Have to put up supplies,clean the kitchen, have celebrations, decorate the clinic, welcome the new patients and staff.  FIRE ANYONE who is stupid, lazy, disrespectful, or unsafe.  Fire them "the right way" so I don't get sued, when I really just want to say "GET OUT!!!"  sorry guys, still not sleeping, the mind races, you know!!!

[dialysisbiller]

... i work in the corporate end because the world needs ditch diggers....

Who are the real ditch diggers?

1.  The Patients
2.  The Nurses and Patient Care Technicians
3.  The person in the Reuse Room
4.  The person who takes out the garbage and cleans the blood from the floor

in dialysis nurses, pcts, the patients and all those at the center level are the forefront of dialysis care, i'm behind the scenes, the unknowns... ditch diggers... no one knows them, but we know they are here. you took what i said out of context... perception is key in any conversation

[David13]

Who are the real ditch diggers?

1. The Patients
2. The Nurses and Patient Care Technicians
3. The person in the Reuse Room
4. The person who takes out the garbage and cleans the blood from the floor

In my humble opinion, if those at the corporate and administrative level TRULY paid attention to the REAL "ditch diggers" as identified by Zach here, those who actually work the crappy late hours and weekends and take on-call responsibilities, and spend time with the patients, etc., they would have a much better organization in the long term.  These people know what is good and what is not good about the organization from a front line perspective, and they also have wonderful ideas about how to implement change.  They have common sense ideas about how to make improvements.  They need a seat at the table.  They need representation when decisions are being made.

Now if they could just get the fat cats at the top to take off their 3 Musketeers hats and actually listen rather than playing silly games and  just paying "lip service" to them, there might be some positive outcomes for everyone. 

   

[Wenchie58]

 

True David.....oh so true!

[paddbear0000]

FA is the Facility Administrator.  Runs the clinic.  Pays the bills, makes the schedule, ensures safety,training,and compliance.  Hires,and fires everyone.  Makes the budget, tries to stick to the budget.  Listens to all the complaints, from staff or patients.  Addresses all the complaints, form staff and patients.  Does the job of any one who is not at work, the reuse, the PCT,  (and I am still the best PCT in the building),  sticks the difficult sticks when no one else can,the Charge Nurse, the secretary, or the janitor.  Is the Electrician, the BioMed, and the painter.  Orders ALL supplies...Is the counselor for all patients and staff members.  GOES TO EVERY STUPID MEETING!!!  Argues with corporate when corporate needs to be argued with!!! Well anyway, that's what I do as the FA.  Some Fa's sit in there office. 

   There's nursewratchet! I was about to post asking if anyone knew where you were. Oh, and BTW, thanks for the detailed description. That sounds exactly like what my mother does (except for the dialysis related parts).

[dialysisbiller]

Who are the real ditch diggers?

1. The Patients
2. The Nurses and Patient Care Technicians
3. The person in the Reuse Room
4. The person who takes out the garbage and cleans the blood from the floor

In my humble opinion, if those at the corporate and administrative level TRULY paid attention to the REAL "ditch diggers" as identified by Zach here, those who actually work the crappy late hours and weekends and take on-call responsibilities, and spend time with the patients, etc., they would have a much better organization in the long term.  These people know what is good and what is not good about the organization from a front line perspective, and they also have wonderful ideas about how to implement change.  They have common sense ideas about how to make improvements.  They need a seat at the table.  They need representation when decisions are being made.

Now if they could just get the fat cats at the top to take off their 3 Musketeers hats and actually listen rather than playing silly games and  just paying "lip service" to them, there might be some positive outcomes for everyone. 

   

that is what i'd like to see happen, and if i can help, i will try.... lol 3 Musketeers, now i need some chocolate

[David13]

Who are the real ditch diggers?

1. The Patients
2. The Nurses and Patient Care Technicians
3. The person in the Reuse Room
4. The person who takes out the garbage and cleans the blood from the floor

In my humble opinion, if those at the corporate and administrative level TRULY paid attention to the REAL "ditch diggers" as identified by Zach here, those who actually work the crappy late hours and weekends and take on-call responsibilities, and spend time with the patients, etc., they would have a much better organization in the long term.  These people know what is good and what is not good about the organization from a front line perspective, and they also have wonderful ideas about how to implement change.  They have common sense ideas about how to make improvements.  They need a seat at the table.  They need representation when decisions are being made.

Now if they could just get the fat cats at the top to take off their 3 Musketeers hats and actually listen rather than playing silly games and  just paying "lip service" to them, there might be some positive outcomes for everyone.

  

that is what i'd like to see happen, and if i can help, i will try.... lol 3 Musketeers, now i need some chocolate

Great!  If you can make that happen, you would truly be doing something momentous to change the way things are done for the better.

[dialysisbiller]

before I worked where I do now, I was totally clueless.... now I'm just semi-clueless about dialysis...knowledge is power!

[Bajanne]

...knowledge is power!

AMEN, brother!!!

[hurlock1]

I had a problem with a nurse practitioner. Before I was found to have kidney problems I was going to school on government loans, one of the requirements, before getting the loan was that I take a course about student loans. One of the things I remember about the course was that if I died or became disabled, I didn't have to pay back the loan. So, after about a year on dialysis, I started getting invoices, with threats. I wrote them and explained that I was disabled. They wrote back and sent a form which i filled out and had the Doctor fill out and mailed it back. They sent me a letter saying that I had been denied, that the form that I had filled out was for temporary disability. They had to do it on purpose (they have to justify their positions) because it's better that they're passive-aggressive than just stupid. Anyway, through some difficulty, I got the right form, filled it out, and left it for the doctor to fill out. The doctor signed it and left it for the nurse practitioner tp fill out the details. The nurse practitioner asked me "What is your disability?" I told her ESRD. She said, "That's not a disability" And I told her that she'd better take that up with the social securtiy admin. Well, some weeks later, the social worker came to me and said that student loans had called and said that that i wasn't disabled, that i was free to work.  On what planet am I not disabled? I can barely walk, I can barely sign my name! I used to do graphics for Tv commercials, etc, all I can do in Photoshop these days is view pictures. 
I knew that she was rude all the time, not only to the patients, but to the staff. When the social worker told me what the N.P. had done,  surprized, I said "Betty's a bitch!" and people all around me said "Yeah she Is!"
As it turns out, that friday, the doctor came for his monthly visit. I had written a letter - paper about what happened, because of my inabiliy to articulate my thoughts, which he read and that day, several others jumped on the band wagon and complained about her. I haven't seen her since.
I think that there's no qure for "nurse burnout" my wife's a nurse and she would quit if she couldn't care for patients in a compationent way.

[G-Ma]

Wow...I missed this thread until today...NurseWratchet...thanks for your FA description...after reading that I have come to a determination that the clinic I go to doesn't have a FA...the techs are running all over the place trying to get everything you described done and there is a Head Nurse that says oh I'll talk to them but I don't know that it ever happens..today I saw a nurse with gloves on going from one patient to another, then stopping at the second patient, going to open a door, look out, then go back to the 2nd patient and open his lines witht he same gloves on.  I called the Head Nurse over and told her..don't think it helped..I will tell the Director on Friday as she has not been in for over a week.  She was here last week when the 3 nurses let my arterial site infiltrate after alarming for 5 minutes..I couldn't reach the machine and just as it became extremely painful my tech came running into the room, back from lunch..she had heard the machine coming in from outside...supposedly they were talked to but generally a talk lasts about 2 weeks and then down again.  If it weren't for the techs I'd be gone. 


 

[paddbear0000]

Geez! Some people are just so flippin' incompetent!!!   

[lola]

Dahhhhvita LOVES OTTO, he has private ins.....$60grand a month they bill. WTF and I'm suppose to think better of them. In-center was billed 7 grand a month and they did everything for Otto including extras at no charge (ex- cramping, low BP, infiltration, headaches) Davita gives nothing extra.

[hurlock1]

What is FA?

[monrein]

Facility Administrator?  I'm just guessing.

[monrein]

FA is the Facility Administrator.  Runs the clinic.  Pays the bills, makes the schedule, ensures safety,training,and compliance.  Hires,and fires everyone.  Makes the budget, tries to stick to the budget.  Listens to all the complaints, from staff or patients.  Addresses all the complaints, form staff and patients.  Does the job of any one who is not at work, the reuse, the PCT,  (and I am still the best PCT in the building),  sticks the difficult sticks when no one else can,the Charge Nurse, the secretary, or the janitor.  Is the Electrician, the BioMed, and the painter.  Orders ALL supplies...Is the counselor for all patients and staff members.  GOES TO EVERY STUPID MEETING!!!  Argues with corporate when corporate needs to be argued with!!! Well anyway, that's what I do as the FA.  Some Fa's sit in there office. 

[kitkatz]

So a good FA kicks butt and takes name and chews bubblegum at the same time?

[nursewratchet]

Well yes, but really, a GOOD FA knows that it's an infection control issue to be chewing gum in the facility.  A no-no for the staff at my clinic.