ICD-10 Codes And A Very Annoying Coworker

My mama always told me not to post anything when angry, which is why I waited until now. Actually, my mother never told me any such thing. What she was saying had more to do with beds and anger. Not the fun kind but the sensible kind.

I'm annoyed today. Perhaps it has to do with my vanishing eye, perhaps I'm getting a cold, perhaps it's just the season. But maybe I'm annoyed because it's Back To The Future Day today and my charming and patient self traveled back to 1955 or 1985. Or simply because I only possess a certain amount of patience and what I currently have I spend on patients. Patience for patients - now there's a slogan.

I have a coworker who is mostly ok but probably shouldn't work in healthcare. The thing about working with people - sick people specifically, is that it takes a lot of patience and empathy - and if you can't muster up empathy, try to be compassionate. Sick people don't care what your day is like. They are generally scared, and as I very well know fear can quickly turn into anger. I can't tell you too much about where I work, but I can tell you it has to do with patient care. My point is, if you haven't got a compassionate bone in your body, you probably shouldn't work with patients. It doesn't do you any good nor the poor patients who have to interact with you.

I'm not saying it's easy. There are days I have to fake it till I make it, but I will never let a patient suffer for my crappy day or for my own personal reasons. Even if you're the biggest asshole in the world, I will - at the very least - be polite to you, because most often it turns out that the reason you came across as rude and demanding was that you were feeling like crap or you were scared out of your mind.

In addition to lacking compassion, this person will put her nose in my business constantly. As soon as I am done talking with a patient, she will ask me what they wanted. I'm thinking, "bitch, if you only did your job, you wouldn't have to fear every phone call". See, 90% of the calls are about her not doing what she promised she'd do. In an atypical passive aggressive way for me, I will usually pretend I didn't hear her, other times I will give her the shortest answer possible.

ICD-10 codes. Where do I begin. Oh, joy. The whole ICD-10 circus was postponed numerous times and I suppose I was hoping it would be postponed one more time - but no. For those of you who haven't got the foggiest what I'm babbling about, I'm talking about diagnosis codes we use in healthcare. In order not to put the cart before the horse, here's a link to Wiki that explains what ICD codes are. If you click it, you'll learn more than you'd every want to learn about diagnoses codes.

Now that I've written this, I'm no longer annoyed. See, writing about it prevented me from getting an ulcer or choking someone out.