Making a ‘super clinic’

Did you know?

  • Last year, health care in Clark County grew 7 percent, and will grow about 5 percent each year.
  • Short- and long-term industry growth projections indicate professional and health services will grow at above average rates compared to other sectors in Clark County.
  • In Clark County, health care is among the industries that experience the most vacancies. And with the exception of construction, most vacancies were for replacement jobs, not new positions.

Here’s my concern: That the demand for health care workers will dilute the pool of top notch applicants into the fields of nursing, administration, technical positions and so on.

Considering the two mammoth openings in the last couple of years – Southwest Washington Medical Center’s Firstenburg Patient Tower and Legacy Salmon Creek Hospital – and sizable projects on the horizon such as the new Vancouver Clinic at 87th Avenue and Southwest Washington Health System’s planned ‘super clinic’ in the Discovery Corridor, that demand won’t lessen any time soon.

Recent experiences with a well-known local physician’s group have given me grave concerns about the abilities of our future workforce to manage the impending needs of a half million Clark County residents. The culture of customer-facing administration at this particular clinic is one that offers no confidence in the end result. Each time I have visited, the young women staffing the front desk have mainly spoken with each other rather than with patients, had to interrupt their personal conversations many times to help or address a patient, had their own colleagues interrupt them about administrative duties such as printer issues while helping a patient. I learned quite a bit about what kind of car one young woman’s boyfriend was buying – while sitting about 15 feet from the front desk.

My favorite part of my first experience at this clinic was how the medical receptionist kept loudly referring to my doctor by her last name only – as if we were on the set of some kind of hospital television drama. While I am a huge fan of FOX’s hit show House, and I love the way the whole cast shouts his last name across the fictional Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital, I would likely call him Doctor House if I actually worked for him.

Add these customer service experiences to incomplete blood tests, a mistakenly cancelled referral, having to set my coat on the floor while being weighed and my vaccination technician coughing into her hand without washing it, and well, I wonder why I ever stopped seeing my acupuncturist. At least she played soothing sounds of the forest while fixing my problems.

As you’ll read in Dr. Gratzer’s opinion piece on this page, a free market approach to health care may address skyrocketing costs and administrative pork, but he makes no mention of workforce development – which is the backbone of an efficient medical system.

A scan of Clark College’s Medical Office Specialist Associate in Applied Science Degree and Medical Receptionist Certificate of Achievement course catalog page reveals no required work in the area of customer service. There are three required communication credits. But – and I think this explains a lot about my experiences – there are two non-required electives: Therapeutic Communication Skills for Health Professionals and Customer Service.

Personally, I would give anything for these folks to have therapeutic communication skills. Anything.

During the 2005/2006 school year, 35 students total enrolled in Therapeutic Communication; this year, it was only 30. Last year, 27 students took Customer Service – this year, it was 38. A total of 271 students enrolled in a Medical Office Business Technology program in the last two years. Keep in mind, the Customer Service course is a requirement for other programs at the college, so likely the lion’s share of these students are not from the medical office programs.

My recommendation would be to require these courses for graduation, and for esteemed and popular medical office programs like those at Clark College to put as much emphasis on customer service as any other area.

Then – if you ask me – a “super clinic” would actually be a super clinic.

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