Things you learn ...
So I've started working over in Dallas part-time.
... you heard me.
I'm driving back and forth pretty much every other day except for the weekends where I stay over there the entire time to cut down on any more driving time. I have music obligations here at home and I'm not going to drop them. I want to, but you do that once in the middle of a contract and you don't ever expect to get a good reference from those people again. And one of my current clients is the head of the show choir over at UT Tyler, so that kind of black mark I don't need.
I'm working for Alex Celan over in Dallas. He owns his own IT company. Pretty much, he has clients that pay him on a monthly basis and he takes care of any and all things pertaining to tech stuff that they need done. Sometimes there are fires all over the place. Sometimes it's really quiet. His main client is TRA -- Texas Radiology Assocation. The majority of the radiology departments in the greater Dallas area hospitals are run by TRA. So what does that mean? That means that Karl gets to run around in the back halls of hospitals all the time now. Which brings me to the first thing I've learned: As long as you look professional, dress nice, and act like you belong there, no one will ever question you when you walk straight back through doors that say "Authorized personnel only." Seriously. I don't have a badge. I don't have any hospital ID. I just walk wherever I want (which is only to, through, and around the radiology department). Makes me a little worried about security if I ever need to go have some major work done at a hospital. Most of the sites Alex has gone with me and introduced me to the staff and showed me where the rooms were. The last place I went, I just found it based on directions from the last location I was working, and had the name of one particular woman there that was our .. liason sorta. She must have been out for lunch because I can never get a hold of her. So I walk around back where the arrows point to "diagnostic radiology". Nothing. I don't know who I'm looking for even. I eventually find the front desk (by walking out of the important areas of the hospital to the waiting room) and ask the guy there for Julie. She's not there. OK, how bout these other doctors I know the names of? Nothing. OK, I tell him who I am, who I work for, and what I need to do .. just show me the computers, please? So, he calls another doctor who shows up, I introduce myself, tell him the whole speal, and he takes out his keycard, unlocks the doors, and we go back to the computers. Yes, it took all this to get me through these double doors that I walked OUT OF just minutes earlier. The other entrance less than 20 feet away is wide open that I walked through the first time! Act of Congress just to be where I just was. Gah.
So I go back to the reading room. All the radiology departments have this room. It's where they have the sweet action computers with the high defintion double or triple monitors that the doctors read the MRI's on (or CT scans or Ultrasound, yeah yeah). This one woman next to me is working on one of the machines, talking through the scans with her little mic and recorder for the transcriptions folks to take care of later. And here's where the 2nd thing I learned came into play: doctors are no different than any of the rest of us. Here she is, this young attractive doctor doing her very amazing work, and then she finishes up her current case, closes it down, the turns to the computer right next to her, and starts checking her hotmail and reading on MSN.com. Seriously. It's like, working anywhere else in corporate America. Except she's browsing the internet for $120,000 a year. This is a common thing in all the reading rooms. There are the "viewstations" that they do the scan reading on , and then the "websurfer" computers right next to them. There's no way NOT to browse on company time ... that's what it's all set up there to do! Oh, thing I've learned #3: in all the places I've been, there is an unhealthy amount of "Grey's Anatomy" love going on. I guess it's like watching reality TV for hospital staff.
I'm sure I've learned more, but now I have to get on the road for 2 hours again. I've upped my cell phone minutes so I don't have to be lonely the whole way, but wait til March 2nd (tomorrow) to start calling. :) But don't wait too long! Passover is coming up in a hurry, so get all over me for offending you this year. I can take it!
Take care of yourselves, and keep your noses clean (that's so old skool).
... you heard me.
I'm driving back and forth pretty much every other day except for the weekends where I stay over there the entire time to cut down on any more driving time. I have music obligations here at home and I'm not going to drop them. I want to, but you do that once in the middle of a contract and you don't ever expect to get a good reference from those people again. And one of my current clients is the head of the show choir over at UT Tyler, so that kind of black mark I don't need.
I'm working for Alex Celan over in Dallas. He owns his own IT company. Pretty much, he has clients that pay him on a monthly basis and he takes care of any and all things pertaining to tech stuff that they need done. Sometimes there are fires all over the place. Sometimes it's really quiet. His main client is TRA -- Texas Radiology Assocation. The majority of the radiology departments in the greater Dallas area hospitals are run by TRA. So what does that mean? That means that Karl gets to run around in the back halls of hospitals all the time now. Which brings me to the first thing I've learned: As long as you look professional, dress nice, and act like you belong there, no one will ever question you when you walk straight back through doors that say "Authorized personnel only." Seriously. I don't have a badge. I don't have any hospital ID. I just walk wherever I want (which is only to, through, and around the radiology department). Makes me a little worried about security if I ever need to go have some major work done at a hospital. Most of the sites Alex has gone with me and introduced me to the staff and showed me where the rooms were. The last place I went, I just found it based on directions from the last location I was working, and had the name of one particular woman there that was our .. liason sorta. She must have been out for lunch because I can never get a hold of her. So I walk around back where the arrows point to "diagnostic radiology". Nothing. I don't know who I'm looking for even. I eventually find the front desk (by walking out of the important areas of the hospital to the waiting room) and ask the guy there for Julie. She's not there. OK, how bout these other doctors I know the names of? Nothing. OK, I tell him who I am, who I work for, and what I need to do .. just show me the computers, please? So, he calls another doctor who shows up, I introduce myself, tell him the whole speal, and he takes out his keycard, unlocks the doors, and we go back to the computers. Yes, it took all this to get me through these double doors that I walked OUT OF just minutes earlier. The other entrance less than 20 feet away is wide open that I walked through the first time! Act of Congress just to be where I just was. Gah.
So I go back to the reading room. All the radiology departments have this room. It's where they have the sweet action computers with the high defintion double or triple monitors that the doctors read the MRI's on (or CT scans or Ultrasound, yeah yeah). This one woman next to me is working on one of the machines, talking through the scans with her little mic and recorder for the transcriptions folks to take care of later. And here's where the 2nd thing I learned came into play: doctors are no different than any of the rest of us. Here she is, this young attractive doctor doing her very amazing work, and then she finishes up her current case, closes it down, the turns to the computer right next to her, and starts checking her hotmail and reading on MSN.com. Seriously. It's like, working anywhere else in corporate America. Except she's browsing the internet for $120,000 a year. This is a common thing in all the reading rooms. There are the "viewstations" that they do the scan reading on , and then the "websurfer" computers right next to them. There's no way NOT to browse on company time ... that's what it's all set up there to do! Oh, thing I've learned #3: in all the places I've been, there is an unhealthy amount of "Grey's Anatomy" love going on. I guess it's like watching reality TV for hospital staff.
I'm sure I've learned more, but now I have to get on the road for 2 hours again. I've upped my cell phone minutes so I don't have to be lonely the whole way, but wait til March 2nd (tomorrow) to start calling. :) But don't wait too long! Passover is coming up in a hurry, so get all over me for offending you this year. I can take it!
Take care of yourselves, and keep your noses clean (that's so old skool).
posted by Karl at 4:58 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home