Finally, A Job with Heart

At some point in the next 1-6 weeks, I will no longer be with the temp agency and I will be an actual employee at the doctor's office.  It is almost as if all my work experience in various areas of healthcare have lead up to this point.  Right now I am at the check-in/check-out area of the office (at some point I will move into billing).

My job isn't the average doctors' office.  Nope.  I work for a Federally Qualified Health Clinic (FQHC).  This means that we get grants from the government to take care of the poor, struggling and huddled masses.  Well, maybe not masses but we are there for the people who need it most.  The fees are based on income (or lack there of); we get a lot of chronically ill patients who would normally have no where to go but a free clinic.  Some of their conditions are heartbreaking.

The "heart" of my job comes from the doctors.  They come in and work for less than the average MD.  Some of their 30-45 minute appointments are $15 total.  There is no insurance to supplement and no agency that helps out, that is it $15.  And our docs treat the patients as if they were in the office with the platinum policy of any commercial insurance.  These patients get to have a primary care physician, a local office where we know all about them and they are treated with respect.  The docs aren't doing this out of some warped need for boosting of their egos, it is because they have a love of medicine.  It have been a while since I have seen that.

Because we are located in a poor side of town, we are able to meet the needs of a community in struggle.  I think this is what Jesus was talking about when he said, "Love your neighbor as yourself," and the part where we are instructed to take care of the widows and children, to not look down on others because of circumstance.  Our patients may not be the easiest to deal with and they may not always be the epitome of happiness and sunshine.  I am okay with that;  it is far better than catering to the hypochondria of the bored and computer literate.  I feel as though I am making a difference.  The job in rewarding yet humbling.  It's the first time in a long time that I don't mind getting up and going in to work.  I also feel that in some way, God has lead me to this position.  And there is a something very comforting about it.