Medical Office Assistant, Primary Care Clinic
Interviewed by Anna Weick, 12/8/2020
“Coming back here from my disaster-relief work to the situation with COVID-- it’s bad, I’m not putting it lightly. But I’ve dealt with the worst of it. It’s using your head. Listen to the experts.”
Helping Where Help Is Needed Most
I worked through SARS, in the midst of all that. I worked during the AIDS pandemic. The COVID pandemic is not my first rodeo. I’m on the National Disaster Medical Services Medical Assistance Team. I’ve been on it since right after 9/11. When that happened, and I saw what was going on, I saw a lot of my coworkers and friends were going there, through FEMA, but I couldn’t be part of it because I wasn't on the team. So, I applied and I’ve been on the team since. So I’ve been there. I was at Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Isaac, fifteen different hurricanes and tornadoes and disasters. I was at Hurricane Katrina for fourteen days. We slept on the Baggage 5 Carousel at Louis Armstrong Airport -- that was our sleeping quarters.
In March, I was in California in San Diego for the Princess Ship that came in when this whole thing broke out. I was dealing with patients there. We went there blindfolded. We didn’t have the supplies or N95s we needed. We made it work. I didn’t have enough equipment. Of course I was scared. But we managed. I’m pretty well grounded on this stuff -- I’ve been dealing with it. I was in California for fourteen days dealing with COVID. I was in PPE for twelve-hour shifts, seven days a week.
Dealing with COVID, Firsthand
COVID is so very exhausting. I’m a lucky one -- I got it and I’m still around talking about it. My husband and I both have tested positive. It’s hard because we all do what we are supposed to do. We wear goggles every day. We wear the mask every day. We do our hand sanitizer and wash down our stations and everything. My husband got sick first. He came home from work not feeling well. My daughter got it in April. She works in the ER. She was bed-ridden four or five days with joint pain and headaches and fatigue. She would literally fall asleep talking to you. She lost her taste and sense of smell for a couple weeks. It did take her a while for it to all come back, but she’s back to normal again.
Working with Unknowns
This is our job. When a paramedic is assigned to pick up a COVID patient, that doesn’t mean they signed up to be assaulted by that patient. I didn’t sign up to get COVID because I had a patient with COVID. No one signed up for this. But this is our job, this is what we do. This is just one thing that is happening and we have a long way to go -- God knows what else can happen. You will come up against these roadblocks, you have to know how to tear it down and keep on going forward. I still got COVID while doing everything as carefully as possible. I had a friend who was literally in the ICU for eleven days on a ventilator because of this. He was a nurse in the ER. He pulled through. Thank God he’s fine now.
Day-to-Day Challenges
Previously, I worked in the ER at UMass Memorial for twenty seven-years. I’ve been in my current job for two and a half years, working as a Medical Office Assistant. The doctor I work with is with Internal Medicine. He has a huge clientele. He’s one of the busiest doctors in the clinic. His patients range from all different ages. I go over my doctor’s schedule. I get all the patients in the rooms. I do their evaluations with them. I go over all the medications. And I talk to them, do their vital signs and so forth. I report everything to the doctor that I did, he does his part, and then I go back in and reschedule the patient for their follow ups, any test results they might need, and I draw their blood if needed, get them to different x-rays, whatever else they need. We do EKGs. We keep them comfortable. We try to do as much as possible in the clinic with the patients so we do not have to send them to the ER. I keep my room stocked with supplies all in order. I make sure all the orders are correct. I do sometimes draw the patient blood, but mostly send them to the lab for blood draws, only because my doctor is so busy. On a Tuesday and Friday I have between sixteen and twenty patients. It’s nonstop. I don’t think people realize all I do in the office until they fill in for me, and then they’re like, How did that room get clean? And who just hooked that patient up to the monitor? Who just did those vital signs? Who changed the bed? Who fed that patient? Oh my god, you do so much!
How Do We Keep It Going?
We don’t get recognized enough. It takes a whole village. We do a lot of COVID precautions before patients come in. It could be worse, we could be in the ER, doing what they have to do every day. With COVID, everyone is all about the nurses. Sometimes I think people forget that the person below the nurses are doing a lot of the work, too. The ER techs, the PCAs, the medical assistants, without them, they wouldn’t get everything done. We do a lot of that to get everything going. I think we are forgotten sometimes. The nurses do a lot of work, but without support from the Tech, and from the MOA, that’s not happening. The Food Service, the ER Techs, Trauma techs, Housekeepers -- without them, we would be in a crisis. They are putting themselves in harm’s way. It’s all of us, all together, making it happen.
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I feel like I’m accomplishing things doing patient care, something that is important to me. That’s what I always strived for. You’re making a difference helping the patient out, you make a big difference in their lives, which is important to me. With the family members it’s always gratifying when a family member comes back and thanks you for taking care of somebody they love. They know your name and they come in and say Denise, thank you for being here, I’m so glad it’s you today. It makes you feel good, I’ve left a good impression. I will call patients at home at times to schedule appointments, to make sure they are doing better. They appreciate that and I like that. It makes me feel like I am worth something for them.
I feel good that I’m making a difference, even if it’s a regular patient in for something simple. I know I made a difference with that person, I made them smile as they walked out the door. No one is doing this by themselves -- there is no way -- we can’t do it by ourselves! Our roles are very important and people need to realize that we are all in it together.