So our long-awaited visitors arrived yesterday morning. This post gives a nod to the behind the scenes stuff at my hospital; things I would never have realized go on in a given day. (You don’t see much from behind a desk in an office with no windows on the ground floor just off the loading dock, yo.)

My receptionist texted to let me know while I was on the way to work, but my phone was buried in that suitcase I call a handbag and we all know I don’t text and drive under any circumstance, so I didn’t see it right away. About five minutes out, my boss called to let me know that they were in the building and that I was going to scribe for the Life Safety portion of the program.

Ordinarily, I would have been stoked, because a day or two away from my desk and routine would make me a happy girl, but I’d twisted my stupid ankle some kind of way a couple times during the night in such a way that it hurt enough to wake me from a dead sleep long enough to peel myself off the ceiling, so it was tender, to say the least. I’d brought my running shoes with me, because the weather forecast was for a trace to an inch of snow yesterday morning, so at least I had good walking shoes for touring the building.

Our “trace to an inch” turned into a good 3 inches and it didn’t stop till early evening. I figured I’d need my native Minnesotan boss to come retrieve me from the house this morning, as the drive home yesterday evening was dicey, at best. Especially over the bridges. He called me and told me to be ready between six and six-fifteen this morning as he needed to be in at six-thirty. Hell, I’m just getting outta bed at six-thirty on normal days, LOL…

So I digress.

The first order of business, as a “scribe” was to sit in on a two-plus hour document review of generator information, fire suppression systems and utilities paperwork, and to notate anything of interest, deficiencies, or any items the surveyor deemed problematic. As boring as it sounds? It really wasn’t. Granted, I’ve been involved with this particular facet of hospital operations for almost fourteen years, so I knew what they were talking about, which is a big-time plus.

The second order of business was the building tour, which started in the penthouse (which is a glamorous name for the top floor of the building that houses a lot of elevator-related stuff, a crap-ton of pipes and an echo). We worked our way down to the third floor before calling it a day. We were in our Behavioral Health area and our surveyor (who was a hoot) was rattling off items of interest and one of those was, “Loose screw…” and I about fell out, simply because that isn’t exactly a PC thing to say when in the Behavioral Health area, ya know? 😀

The first time EVER in an OR as a vertical, coherent person. 🙂

I started typing up the notes I took yesterday during the relative quiet of the office this morning, and before too long it was 8:15 and we were on the move again. We went through Food & Nutrition, and I saw things I’d never seen before, and I gotta admit; I have SO much respect for the people working that department. They bust ass. Seriously…And it’s not something I could do. Food service has never been my thing, so they get mad love from this girl.

My favorite area to visit was the Operating Room Suites. As you can see from the image to the left, I had to dress out in a bunny suit, mushroom cap, shoe covers and a mask. This is the second time I’ve been in an OR. The first time, I was the patient. This time? I was vertical AND coherent. Honestly? Those rooms seem a WHOLE lot bigger when one is sedated. While fascinating, I got a major case of the heebie-jeebies when standing outside of one OR and hearing the “clank, clank, clank” of a hammer hitting something hard. The signs on the door warned us not to enter…total joint surgery was going on and I was internally freaked. *shudder*

After we finished our building tour, we had lunch and had to meet again at one o’clock for a couple of meetings. Our first meeting is when our surveyor was going over the work of one of our committees. The monthly and annual reports for this committee come from my office, and there is nothing better than pride of ownership when you actually have your crap together. (Yay, #TeamServiceCenter, LOL…)

Once those meetings were over, our portion of the survey was finished and I went back to my office, feeling like a kid on Christmas morning AFTER all the gifts have been opened.

What I can say, though, is that my schedule has opened up, again, and that I can make plans during the week without the threat of the survey hanging over my head.

Lessons learned? People are just people. The surveyors didn’t have fangs. Nursing Directors are awesome. My team of Boss, Electrical Facilities Supervisor, his second in command, and the Maintenance Manager kicked butt and took names and we had some seriously good times. Regarding my personal job? I have more pride of ownership than I ever had, and hope that I’ll get to scribe for the next survey in 2018…Sadly, all but one of my group will be retired.

All in all? A great couple of days and tomorrow I’m back to the regular grind. Plus snow. (We’re under a winter storm warning, and I’m wishing winter would just go away.)

Until next time…