BUSH DIARY AUGUST 1995:
8-1: Many PSO officers brought in a patient to ER who had had a seizure, he could not remember having a seizure and was really pissed off to wake up in restraints. He screamed for over an hour before sedation kicked in. He went home the next day.
Work wise things are much better. I can almost see light at the end of the tunnel I still have two dictations to transcribe. Still have to deliver the death certificate, waiting for signature. One of the consequences of delaying a death certificate is that the court house will not issue a burial permit until then. I still have to run statistics for alcohol related visits for last month. I managed to squeeze in setting up two terminals on the X.25 pad so the two computers can communicate anywhere.
Heard a rumor we have a new Health Department Director. The last one departed and everyone breathed easier. New guy has worked in Alaska at least.
Real Deal: Watched the Comedy Channel special "Real Deal" . Six comedians sit around a poker table telling jokes whilest playing seven card stud, drinking, smoking and telling dirty stories. The funniest one goes like this.
Three couples decide to go to Tahoe, stay at a hotel, gamble in the casino. There are only two rooms left and each has a king size bed. They divided into boys and girls for sleeping arrangements. They go out, have fun and retire for the evening.
In the middle of the night the guy in the middle of the bed suddenly wakes up and yells, "Let me out of here! I gotta go to my wife! Let me out of here!"
"Why do you have to go see your wife?" asks outside guy.
Middle guy says "I gotta see my wife, I have the biggest erection I've ever had in my life! Let me out of here!"
Guy on the outside says "Well in that case you have to take me with you."
Middle guy exclaims, "What!? Why do I have to take you?"
Outside guy says, "You gotta take me because you have a hold of my erection."
First Sunset: The sun set for the time in over 2000 hours on 8-2-95 at 2 am. It stayed below the horizon for about 45 minutes. The local Polar Bear club took a dip in the Chuckchi sea. Temp of both air and water was about 37 degrees F. Not an ice berg to be seen, they were all blown out to sea.
Of ALL the nerve and then some: One of our nurses departed on emergency medical leave taking her several month old child with her. She left her two teenage sons, dumb ad dumber, unsupervised in her apartment quarters here in Barrow since APRIL. That is FOUR months...unsupervised. She has not resigned her position. She has not been back to work. She even applied for work at ANMC.
The topper is that these two juveniles have been having parties, drugs, sex and rock and roll. One of their more delightful habits has been to order a taxi-load of food from a restaurant and which the taxi delivers. They then stiff the cabbie for the money and scamper off with the goods. Pretty sure the PSO should be involved at this point. One afternoon a Mr. John Lee, a very nice Korean cab driver made the delivery and the boys promised to pay and did not return. Mr. Lee developed chest pain and was seen in ER and admitted with myocardial infarction. He was transferred to Providence in Anchorage.
Our CEO, Carolyn McClintock has been trying since May to get those boys out of here and back with ma-ma. She tried calling PSO and Children and Youth Services who declined as the boys had not been abandoned. The kids claim that Mom calls them every few days or so.
I'm not exactly sure what Carolyn did but I wouldn't put it past her to pop for a couple plane tickets herself just to get the little beasties out of Barrow. I did hear that they only trashed the carpet.
The Bloom is coming off the alcohol ban. There is a bit of a statistical rebound from the 85% drop in ETOH related visits since October 1994. Gradually a little at a time there have been more visits. It is not really bad as of yet. Don't know what is going on but there have only been four or five "busts" made here. People have discovered they could not be arrested for being public drunks just for importing the stuff. I still think it is a lot quieter in my neighborhood and PSO has not brought in any ETOH juvenile visits in quite some time and that is a very good thing.
Deadly weekend. This past weekend previous to the first, one man died and his cousin came to town for the funeral and the visitor wound up getting stabbed to death in what the PSO thinks is an alcohol related incident. Both are coroner's cases and we will probably have a murder case to try in a few months. I haven't received a mail notice for jury duty, maybe they haven't caught up to my new name?
Area has for some god blessed reason expedited the computer purchase, it was upgraded from "routine" to "emergency". He promised next day air. Which in Barrow means takes one week.
Monica took the new Health Department Director, Dan Middleton, for a tour of the department. He was impressed with the need for a site manager for the computers. He promised to put that in the budget. Thank you, management gods.
Grand Jury Duty: Well lucky me, got a Grand Jury questionnaire in the mail. Filled it out and will be hearing which number I have and will have to call in for a certain amount of time. Good thing about Grand Jury duty up here is that each case only takes a couple of days.
I have been working a split shift the last couple of days. Thursday area send a billing module by GoldStreak. The package got here last night. I went in to work and popped the thing in and no worky, tape error. Gah.
Am presently waiting this rainy Friday evening for a cartridge with the same info on it to arrive GoldStreak. Cartridges are old and clunky but are extremely reliable. So hope to get this printed out on the weekend.
8-26: Saturday in Barrow, breakfast at Pepe's, walked to the hospital to computer stuff, still backing up. went to AC, shopped, bought bananas 49 cents a pound, which is a bargain anywhere. Went home and made banana bread. I printed out the Bush Diary. I got a call from Monica the computer was still not working. Talked her through the back up process. Did not hear back from her so all went well.
I might have to recruit another boss. Monica took me aside to confide that she was actively looking for another job elsewhere. She says she is mentally and physically exhausted. She has been here almost a year and came up in good health with husband and child with a five year plan. Now she is in increasingly poor health and has no husband and no five year plan. I sure have enjoyed having her for a supervisor, what a gem!
Billers; Our contract billers have arrived in Barrow all bright eyed and bushy tailed. There eyes glazed over a bit to see the two year back log of unbilled accounts. (Two years you say? Yep). The prior method was to tear down the visits and mail the pinks to Albuquerque for input and there was a six month to one year delay. So it was taken back on our end and the billing was handled by one or two clerks in admin and also by our coders when they had time. Thus the backing up of billing. Oy. The billers make about 18 bucks and hour and probably think they have really stepped in do-re-mi.
We have a couple new nurses on board as well. One is from Oregon. She brought her ten year old son and 300 pounds flour to make bread. Um, something smells GOOOD.
Monday 8-28. Phew 48 walk-in's. I always tell myself that I get to go home at 5 pm, everyone else is still here. I am evil.
Weather has been unusually foggy. The passengers are waiting to take off and the planes ain't landing.
We had media in town today covering the arrival of surplus military base stuff. Senator Ted Stevens and Danial Inouye of Hawaii decided to make it so. We were dreading MRE's but it turned out to be things like tongue depressors, bandages etc. What did not get covered and probably should have is that the borough has donated gently used generators to Russia. However the generators are still sitting undelivered over there awaiting import fees to be paid. Comrade, do you take Wodka?
Renovations at long last. It has taken eight years of planning but the plan to expand doctor's offices, treatment rooms, waiting rooms and the loading dock is being implemented. The supplies have arrived. Lots of shifting around of personnel, mostly our coders.
So, plan to rest my fingers. G'night folks.
8-1: Many PSO officers brought in a patient to ER who had had a seizure, he could not remember having a seizure and was really pissed off to wake up in restraints. He screamed for over an hour before sedation kicked in. He went home the next day.
Work wise things are much better. I can almost see light at the end of the tunnel I still have two dictations to transcribe. Still have to deliver the death certificate, waiting for signature. One of the consequences of delaying a death certificate is that the court house will not issue a burial permit until then. I still have to run statistics for alcohol related visits for last month. I managed to squeeze in setting up two terminals on the X.25 pad so the two computers can communicate anywhere.
Heard a rumor we have a new Health Department Director. The last one departed and everyone breathed easier. New guy has worked in Alaska at least.
Real Deal: Watched the Comedy Channel special "Real Deal" . Six comedians sit around a poker table telling jokes whilest playing seven card stud, drinking, smoking and telling dirty stories. The funniest one goes like this.
Three couples decide to go to Tahoe, stay at a hotel, gamble in the casino. There are only two rooms left and each has a king size bed. They divided into boys and girls for sleeping arrangements. They go out, have fun and retire for the evening.
In the middle of the night the guy in the middle of the bed suddenly wakes up and yells, "Let me out of here! I gotta go to my wife! Let me out of here!"
"Why do you have to go see your wife?" asks outside guy.
Middle guy says "I gotta see my wife, I have the biggest erection I've ever had in my life! Let me out of here!"
Guy on the outside says "Well in that case you have to take me with you."
Middle guy exclaims, "What!? Why do I have to take you?"
Outside guy says, "You gotta take me because you have a hold of my erection."
First Sunset: The sun set for the time in over 2000 hours on 8-2-95 at 2 am. It stayed below the horizon for about 45 minutes. The local Polar Bear club took a dip in the Chuckchi sea. Temp of both air and water was about 37 degrees F. Not an ice berg to be seen, they were all blown out to sea.
Of ALL the nerve and then some: One of our nurses departed on emergency medical leave taking her several month old child with her. She left her two teenage sons, dumb ad dumber, unsupervised in her apartment quarters here in Barrow since APRIL. That is FOUR months...unsupervised. She has not resigned her position. She has not been back to work. She even applied for work at ANMC.
The topper is that these two juveniles have been having parties, drugs, sex and rock and roll. One of their more delightful habits has been to order a taxi-load of food from a restaurant and which the taxi delivers. They then stiff the cabbie for the money and scamper off with the goods. Pretty sure the PSO should be involved at this point. One afternoon a Mr. John Lee, a very nice Korean cab driver made the delivery and the boys promised to pay and did not return. Mr. Lee developed chest pain and was seen in ER and admitted with myocardial infarction. He was transferred to Providence in Anchorage.
Our CEO, Carolyn McClintock has been trying since May to get those boys out of here and back with ma-ma. She tried calling PSO and Children and Youth Services who declined as the boys had not been abandoned. The kids claim that Mom calls them every few days or so.
I'm not exactly sure what Carolyn did but I wouldn't put it past her to pop for a couple plane tickets herself just to get the little beasties out of Barrow. I did hear that they only trashed the carpet.
The Bloom is coming off the alcohol ban. There is a bit of a statistical rebound from the 85% drop in ETOH related visits since October 1994. Gradually a little at a time there have been more visits. It is not really bad as of yet. Don't know what is going on but there have only been four or five "busts" made here. People have discovered they could not be arrested for being public drunks just for importing the stuff. I still think it is a lot quieter in my neighborhood and PSO has not brought in any ETOH juvenile visits in quite some time and that is a very good thing.
Deadly weekend. This past weekend previous to the first, one man died and his cousin came to town for the funeral and the visitor wound up getting stabbed to death in what the PSO thinks is an alcohol related incident. Both are coroner's cases and we will probably have a murder case to try in a few months. I haven't received a mail notice for jury duty, maybe they haven't caught up to my new name?
Area has for some god blessed reason expedited the computer purchase, it was upgraded from "routine" to "emergency". He promised next day air. Which in Barrow means takes one week.
Monica took the new Health Department Director, Dan Middleton, for a tour of the department. He was impressed with the need for a site manager for the computers. He promised to put that in the budget. Thank you, management gods.
Grand Jury Duty: Well lucky me, got a Grand Jury questionnaire in the mail. Filled it out and will be hearing which number I have and will have to call in for a certain amount of time. Good thing about Grand Jury duty up here is that each case only takes a couple of days.
I have been working a split shift the last couple of days. Thursday area send a billing module by GoldStreak. The package got here last night. I went in to work and popped the thing in and no worky, tape error. Gah.
Am presently waiting this rainy Friday evening for a cartridge with the same info on it to arrive GoldStreak. Cartridges are old and clunky but are extremely reliable. So hope to get this printed out on the weekend.
8-26: Saturday in Barrow, breakfast at Pepe's, walked to the hospital to computer stuff, still backing up. went to AC, shopped, bought bananas 49 cents a pound, which is a bargain anywhere. Went home and made banana bread. I printed out the Bush Diary. I got a call from Monica the computer was still not working. Talked her through the back up process. Did not hear back from her so all went well.
I might have to recruit another boss. Monica took me aside to confide that she was actively looking for another job elsewhere. She says she is mentally and physically exhausted. She has been here almost a year and came up in good health with husband and child with a five year plan. Now she is in increasingly poor health and has no husband and no five year plan. I sure have enjoyed having her for a supervisor, what a gem!
Billers; Our contract billers have arrived in Barrow all bright eyed and bushy tailed. There eyes glazed over a bit to see the two year back log of unbilled accounts. (Two years you say? Yep). The prior method was to tear down the visits and mail the pinks to Albuquerque for input and there was a six month to one year delay. So it was taken back on our end and the billing was handled by one or two clerks in admin and also by our coders when they had time. Thus the backing up of billing. Oy. The billers make about 18 bucks and hour and probably think they have really stepped in do-re-mi.
We have a couple new nurses on board as well. One is from Oregon. She brought her ten year old son and 300 pounds flour to make bread. Um, something smells GOOOD.
Monday 8-28. Phew 48 walk-in's. I always tell myself that I get to go home at 5 pm, everyone else is still here. I am evil.
Weather has been unusually foggy. The passengers are waiting to take off and the planes ain't landing.
We had media in town today covering the arrival of surplus military base stuff. Senator Ted Stevens and Danial Inouye of Hawaii decided to make it so. We were dreading MRE's but it turned out to be things like tongue depressors, bandages etc. What did not get covered and probably should have is that the borough has donated gently used generators to Russia. However the generators are still sitting undelivered over there awaiting import fees to be paid. Comrade, do you take Wodka?
Renovations at long last. It has taken eight years of planning but the plan to expand doctor's offices, treatment rooms, waiting rooms and the loading dock is being implemented. The supplies have arrived. Lots of shifting around of personnel, mostly our coders.
So, plan to rest my fingers. G'night folks.
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