After a rough week, I am glad to see the weekend!
What I do isn’t easy. I try to explain to people who ask what I do for work what I do instead of just stating my title. But, I’ll start there today–my job title. I am a Patient Experience Navigator, III, formerly a Central Scheduling Specialist, III. I schedule patients for radiological scans and invasive procedures.
My daily goal is to be sure my patients get the best scheduling experience possible, and I make or exceed my goal with every encounter. How? I love speaking to people, however, I am not a socially-thriving person outside of my work duties. I am an introvert and I prefer peace and quiet and I have a small circle of friends.
I take a wide range of calls, both inbound and outbound, and work various queues when they are assigned by our Work Force Management Team. I am well-versed in two different big markets (Greater Winston-Salem, NC & Greater Charlotte, NC) and I operate in four different pods, skilled for sixteen various forms of calls. Are you still with me? To put it plainly, I can learn anything and am used basically everywhere.
I am one of forty cross-trained agents and the only agent cross-trained in two big markets who also works the number of skills and pods that I do. I also train new hires part-time. I tackle our Teams chats for our Guru and SuperUser chats, which means, I answer questions all day (whenever assigned) and add on patients for appointment slots many agents do not have access to see.
To make it even plainer, my team depends on me, and I depend on them.
I am high-functioning with a double dose of energy and I am keen on how I operate while being detailed-oriented. There is no one in our department like me. And that’s really thanks to my brain and how it’s wired. I have hundreds of zip codes and cities memorized and can tell an agent where to schedule a patient based on their city (or county) and zip code. So, as you can imagine, my personal Teams chat and email blows up regularly. I get messages from our supervisors, other agents, our referring providers’ offices, etc.
Adjusting to a new queue
This past week, I was assigned to the oncology queue because my co-worker who works that particular queue was on vacation. I have never worked the oncology queue by itself. I typically take the oncology calls that come in or are placed outbound, but I have never worked the entire queue. Let me tell you . . . I have a newfound level of respect for my co-worker.
I am an Empath, so the majority of my calls can be heard (and seen; our calls are not only recorded, but visual displays of us operating in the system are recorded, too) with me empathizing with our patients. I am also the type of person who can track moods and adjust to them accordingly.
A phone call with me will render you feeling differently than before you answered my call or I answered yours. I assure you. If you’re sad, my goal is to make you laugh. If you want to vent. I am here to listen. If you are not feeling so hot and chemotherapy sessions have you nearly at your wits’ end, I can drum up something to say as a means of comfort. That being said, my calls tend to be a bit longer because of this, but my higher-ups do not care. They know I am doing the job necessary and I do not get penalized for it and it does not affect my quarterly metrics. I get 96.09% or 100% throughout every month for my calls.
Because of this, my calls are used in training sessions throughout our markets, so, many agents know my voice. When we have company functions and I finally meet these new agents, when I speak, they actually shout, “OMG, TRE! It’s you! I listened to you every single day for two months!” or something to this effect. I still haven’t gotten used to this and I am often bewildered by it, but grateful they’re learning, too.
Oncology is a BEAST! There are so many invasive procedures and specialty scans to schedule and they are often ordered with a priority of ASAP (to be scheduled within 3-7 days) or EMERGENT (to be scheduled within 24 hours).
The providers, I believe, are rushed as well because most of the orders placed are incorrect and have to be documented as such and sent back for clarity and updating. I had the Greater Charlotte Market Oncology queue this past week and I am still overwhelmed by this week’s events.
At one point, there were over 310 orders in the queue. Whenever I cleared 15 orders, 20 more would appear. It is a neverending and constant workflow of exhausting review and scheduling. I also ran into leaving a TON of voicemails. Why? Most patients are in some form of therapy (to assist with pain) or treatment when a call is placed to them, so they are unavailable to answer the call. Our method for calls: we place three calls over 6-8 days.
If a patient has not responded to those 3 calls, a letter is sent to the patient notifying them of the attempt to schedule their appointment ordered by their Oncologist and then the order is sent back to their Oncologist so they are aware.
By the end of the week, I felt positive I had at least five more gray hairs. But I ended Friday with only 154 orders in the queue. I tackled it to the best of my ability with the assistance of another agent on Wednesday and Thursday so we could get the order number down below 200, and we DID IT!
The oncology queue has gotten so maddeningly insane that it is impossible to be manned by only one person. I now understand what my co-worker has been telling me over the past few months. She is mentally drained and thoroughly exhausted by the end of each day. I can say now, I know why.
I am grateful to see the weekend
After tackling the oncology queue and going about my days as usual responding to emails and chats, I am so happy to see this weekend. It came right on time! It has been a rough week, and I am completely drained from it. We have our company cookout today from 11:00 AM until 2:00 PM. I am about to get myself ready to go to it and spend about an hour and twenty minutes there.
It is going to be one of the hottest weekends on record, so I will not stay long. My people meter depletes after a certain amount of time. One of my Work Force Managers will usually pull me to the side and say, “You look out of it. Is your people meter at 0?” She knows me well. I’ll usually laugh and say, “YOU KNOW IT!” And shortly after, I will leave.
I intend to read, relax, cook, and watch movies this weekend. I will also treat myself to a seafood lunch later today from one of my favorite family soul food restaurants.
After the week I’ve had, I’ve earned it!
A Cornered Gurl 
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