FMS

The temperature has dropped, Jay Cutler has a broken thumb, and I am on FMS. And still its better than MNPS! Woo hoo! So Family Medicine Service has begun. I am actually already a week down. 25% through with it. 28 day rotations tend to fly by. The Thanksgiving holiday was a large part of that. Left us with four straight days of half days. Nothing to complain about there for sure. This coming week is likely to be a different story.

Have already learned much though. All of the time is time well spent. And while 12 hour days wear at you after a while, its bearable when the rewards are so clear. Reviewing the Duke Criteria for bacterial endocarditis, or reviewing the empiric coverage on a patient with possible meningitis who we can't get an LP on. All very good stuff, stuff I could easily see myself using someday.

Thanksgiving was very nice. Mandi and I hosted a small event here with some of the other Residents/Spouses who were stuck in Peoria as we were. Nothing fancy, no turkey. But it was a good time. We ate a lot, drank a little, and played some board games. All fun.

And now we are gearing up for Christmas. As I speak Mandi and Shaun are decorating the tree. Had to get store bought this year as time was at a premium, sorry Warren Tree Farm. Having our tree up definitely makes the season feeling come alive. I will admit that the tree is pretty even if I don't like it. I just can't make it square that we celebrate Jesus' Birthday (at a very wrong time of year) during a pagan festival time, with a symbol of a burning tree. Not my style. A very simple cross, or even a nativity would be fine. But Mandi likes it, and she does put up a Nativity every year which is very nice. I would never want to put a damper on her Christmas joy.

Thats all for now, more to come as the season progresses I am sure. Gearing up for the holidays and seeing friends always leaves much to blog about.

Stay Healthy

MOHS and the Holiday Season

I love outpatient rotations. And among outpatient rotations, MOHS is especially good. Its essentially the rotation in which Residents learn the business of being a Doc. So rather than focusing on how best to treat patients, we learn about how best to charge for our services within the convoluted government/private insurance world. We do this so that we can stay in business, and continue to help more people.

Because while most people like to believe that I should work for nothing or next to nothing, I have no intentions of doing that. Don't get me wrong, I didn't get into this job for the money. I could have made a lot better money elsewhere. But at the same time, I wouldn't have done this if I didn't know that it could provide a comfortable lifestyle for my family. I don't ask to be rolling on piles of cash or driving a Porsche, but I want to make sure I have a retirement, I want to have a few nice things, and I want to to be comfortable. And if I can't do that being a Doc, I will take my considerable amount of effort elsewhere into a field that will.

And if I am going to make any money, I have to learn to navigate an overly-complicated financial system that is set up to make sure I provide as much care as possible for the least amount of money. If you can't tell, MOHS has made me a little bitter about this. That said, its been a fun rotation, and I can't believe I only have a few more days left of it before FMS starts again. FLEW by.

And now its the Holiday Season. Which means Holiday shopping. Not only is that usually completely brutal, but I get to do the bulk of it while on service. Talk about rrrrough. 1st world problems right? It shouldn't be too bad though. This is the part of my job I like because I can learn from it. Even with 12 hours a day, 12 days in a row, with 4 days off in a month, I think I will have a good time, and I imagine I am going to be looking back 28 days from now unable to believe that I am almost done with FMS. The only difference between now and then will be a few inches of snow on the ground, and Christmas immediately ahead.

I also drew short straw on Thanksgiving this year. Again, not complaining. If one is going to work a holiday, Tgiving is the one to work. It means a few days that would have been full become half, and I get to round when there is a ton of Pumpkin Pie to be had at the various nurses stations. Jaaaam! I also have a real heart for those patients stuck in house over a holiday. Talk about a bummer. Its a lot easier to remember an adage one of my attendings uses when one is rounding during the holidays: It may be difficult to deal with some patients, but 99/100 times its even more difficult BEING those patients. That goes double on the Holidays. As much as working sucks, being sick is worse. And so I pray for the health of the patients. May there be very few to none in the hospital this year over the holidays. And I pray for my own health (and sanity) for another rounder. It will be a whirlwind of a month I am sure. Or worse, a blizzard ;)

Stay Healthy!

Done with BestBuy

So for those of you who know me you know that I used to love BestBuy. As someone who enjoys a good movie, video game, computer and large TV that should come as no surprise. BestBuy has all of those things, in spades. I even have a BB mastercard that earns me "reward zone" points as I buy other things. I have shopped there for... for as long as I have been shopping. I probably visited over 20 BestBuy's across 4 states. Not because I was ever a fan of the store, but because I enjoy movies, video games, and electronics that much. They typically have some of the best prices, and the best selection.

Well thats over with.

Those of you who know me also know that I have a very low threshold for dissatisfaction with poor customer service. It really takes so little to meet my criteria for what is acceptable. 1) Value the customer. 2) Meet the terms of the contract.

Its that simple. I ask them to not be rude, and to simply do what they say that they will do for the money I will give them.

BestBuy has now failed in this regard... twice. Twice in less than two weeks. I pre-ordered three games over the past several months. Gears of War 3, Battlefield 3, and Uncharted 3. Its the year of 3's. GoW3 arrives on time, like it should. But Battlefield 3 arrives two days late. So I call BB and ask them why I should use their service which supposedly gets me a game the day it comes out (you know, the point of pre-ordering it) and fails to perform. BB has no good explanation, but they apologize and I get over it. No fast forward to today, I come home from work excited to try out Uncharted 3 to once again find that the terms of the contract between BB and myself violated. No game. I check the shipping status online, sure enough, it may not be here until the 7th. It would appear that BB.com has absolutely ZERO idea why someone pre-orders a game. And while I don't claim to be an expert, I can tell you for sure its not for the purpose of waiting to get said game 3 days later than it could have been had at a store.

Once again I call BB.com. This time the representative lies to me. She states that the games ship on the day they are released. I call that garbage for what it is and then ask to speak to a supervisor. Word of advice to anyone in customer service. Don't lie. And especially don't lie when your customer has a legitimate reason to complain. Just say you don't know, you're sorry and fix it. I know taking crap sucks, I take crap from my customers all the time. But thats service. That's the economy. That's how it works.

So now enter Tony the Supervisor. Tony talks to me in that deep, authoritative supervisor voice, trying to convince me he knows what he is talking about. And maybe he does. But much like representative #1, he fails to offer me any new information and his apology sounds less real than hers. I am done. By this point the rage is rising, and I know if I don't disengage soon I will start letting it out. I tell Tony to forget it, I don't want his 10% off, I am done with BestBuy. Forever. I am answered by silence on the other end. I've been hung up on.

Keep in mind, I never yelled, I never asked for anything, I never demanded something in return. All I wanted was to know why the contract hadn't been fulfilled for the last two orders. I wanted to understand what had happened. I was given, in the following order: lies, and rudeness. This from the people who screwed up. Wow, if I pulled that kind of garbage I get sued.

Long story short. No more BestBuy. Amazon offers better prices, better service, and a faster loading website with a greater range of products. Never has Amazon failed me, or anyone else I know. Heck, if I want an in-store experience I will go to GameStop or Wal-Mart, both still have better customer service (which ain't saying much) and more or less the same prices/selection.

And let me tell you, I spent a lot of money at BestBuy. Are they going to go broke because they lost me? Probably not. But if they treat all of their customers this way I can't imagine they won't go broke eventually.

Do what you say you will do. If you don't, make it right. And do it with a smile. Its that simple.

Stay Healthy