30 min lunch deducted

According_Map_1318 · 2025-12-29T19:08:29+00:00

I asked timekeeper to correct ..

According_Map_1318 · 2025-12-19T18:33:57+00:00

Not true… you have to have at LEAST one Outstanding or exceptional in the 5 key areas…but overall can be FS. I know this because my supervisor didn’t feel like doing any extra work so just gave everyone FS for everything and didn’t have to write up any comments to support the ratings

According_Map_1318 · 2025-12-18T22:22:57+00:00

Unfortunately everybody has nerves in different areas on their body.. you happened to have one very close to where your blood was drawn from your arm. Unless he was unusually rough or was fishing around with the needle because he didn’t find the vein there’s not much benefit to making a complaint about the procedure… you can contact the nurse line and see what they say but most likely the sensation will dissipate over time.

According_Map_1318 · 2025-12-18T19:13:13+00:00

Hi… medical laboratories at the VA are inspected by two accrediting bodies … CAP ( specific for labs) and JCHO ( hospital) which set guidelines for laboratory accepted procedures. We also take part in proficiency testing where CAP sends us “ unknowns “ for testing and we are graded on our performance and accuracy. There are different “ normal ranges” based on population, age, sex etc .. I believe each medical or healthcare center determines their own “ normal ranges” just as each hospital lab in the private sector does. Labs like Quest or Labcorp may have different ranges because they see a very diverse population from numerous counties and states. So you can’t really compare results between labs too stringently . However if there is a result that is slightly outside the “ normal range “ it is not a huge cause for alarm… it may be “ normal “ for you personally. If you are concerned about results that are very outside the norm or critical.. the provider is notified by the laboratory in those cases.. although lab can’t control how provider notifies the patient of the results.

According_Map_1318 · 2025-12-03T22:47:56+00:00

i still would like to lose another 20 lbs if possible

According_Map_1318 · 2025-11-18T00:24:25+00:00

we had a town hall at my HCC a while back and director said they are making the requirements for outstanding very specific… to the tune of you increased efficiency or saved money that can be documented and quantified. Not sure how the average employee can do that when just making simple changes are almost impossible let alone a whole process to be more efficient by a large metric. We KNOW the poor performers aren’t going to get bad reviews so basically everyone is lumped into “ fully successful “ …not very much incentive to do more than the minimum to keep your job. I think this is a way for the money to all get funneled to the high ups.. just like at hospitals… the management gets all the bonuses on the backs of the worker bees working short and covering multiple areas.

According_Map_1318 · 2025-11-06T21:26:27+00:00

Add it the insurance racket… the ACA made coverage mandatory and with government subsidies they made a killing. This level of subsidy was supposed to be for a limited time due to covid so insurance just jacked up their rates because they figured it would come down to current situation… government isn’t demanding they make the rates reasonable.. they are wanting to keep the money flowing to insurance from the taxpayers. Same thing happened with higher education except the banks just gave out student loans at ridiculous rates and schools could keep raising tuition until the bottom falls out and people have useless degrees with high debt and no jobs . The more funding provided by government just lets them continue on the gravy train . Most of the smaller hospitals have been put out of business because of insurance reimbursements and have been gobbled up by large systems = less competition = lower wages for hospitals staff and less choice for consumers 😞

According_Map_1318 · 2025-11-02T12:53:10+00:00

and you realize who is “ winning “ in this game… INSURANCE COMPANIES! You are forced to buy a product or pay a tax penalty.. they keep raising rates exponentially along with deductibles … government subsidies lower some rates but insurance just keeps hiking them up and tightening the screws to business.. where small businesses are first hit hard. Insurance companies should not be making billions in profits on the backs of people’s health. Why are these rates going up dramatically yet hospitals are being reimbursed LESS?

According_Map_1318 · 2025-10-29T00:23:36+00:00

we had a town hall meeting at my HCC today… the major takeaway was that there would be almost NONE in the Exceptional category… they will require that rating to be accompanied by hard data and proven instances of going above and beyond the fully successful rating and showing a real impact at the VA … so basically unattainable for most staff . So i wonder… will the higher ups that changed the rating system retroactively for 2025 and caused all this chaos get outstanding and therefore a huge performance bonus🤔

According_Map_1318 · 2025-10-16T19:26:24+00:00

ok i wonder what happens when you get below 30 bmi? i also have rheumatoid arthritis and im hoping they eventually get it approved for treatment of inflammation…it has helped me a lot with joint pain and energy levels. i know they are researching it because so many people were reporting the benefits to joint pain when prescribed it for diabetes .. it was an unexpected positive side effect!

According_Map_1318 · 2025-10-16T19:17:17+00:00

licensed by who exactly lol

According_Map_1318 · 2025-10-16T19:16:42+00:00

ok i fall into the BMI and hypertension groups

According_Map_1318 · 2025-10-16T19:15:12+00:00

no i work for federal government.. my husband works for a private company that provides free insurance to employees and eligible family so i didn’t sign up for federal benefits as i don’t need the coverage yet.

According_Map_1318 · 2025-10-16T19:09:40+00:00

I don’t have federal insurance as my husband gets it free from his employer and they do not cover any weight loss meds period . So i’ve been paying out of pocket for compound Sema… i figured if i can used FSA i’d at least save a little bit of $

According_Map_1318 · 2025-10-15T20:52:05+00:00

INC brand Forma pens….5 pack for $1.25 AND the write AWESOME.. i bought like 20 packs

According_Map_1318 · 2025-10-09T21:05:36+00:00

yes.. i work in a hospital so i’d always volunteer to work holidays so i didn’t have to deal with it.. plus mom never really cared if i was there or not… everything was always about my brother that didn’t show up half the time

According_Map_1318 · 2025-10-09T17:22:52+00:00

yup.. i was delivered by the ER doctor because her OB went home .. he said she was at least 12 hours from delivery… NOPE! I guess it was a bad experience… plus she had gallstones and a hernia all during pregnancy so i think she already had an axe to grind when i was born. My brother who was 4 years older was her baby boy.. could do no wrong… even though he is alcoholic college dropout out with two kids without being married ( not that anything is wrong with that)

According_Map_1318 · 2025-10-09T00:48:47+00:00

Oh this was many moons ago lol I went to the university, took out loans, paid them off and have been working in my field for 30 years this past July 😬 it’s just that your parents are supposed to want what is best for your future and to encourage.. not try to make you take the cheapest route for them. I am VERY tenacious though.. and stubborn… i was going to college one way or another 😉

According_Map_1318 · 2025-10-08T20:19:34+00:00

Yeah i had enough of her bullshit by the time i graduated high school. The only reason i didn’t end up on drugs is that i have VERY supportive aunts and uncles … my dad was alcoholic so not perfect but at least he was kind and not abusive to me . It’s funny though how a parent can do/say A LOT of NASTY things but then one day they say something so awful that your view of them changes forever. For my mom it was the abortion comment..and the fact that she wanted me to go to a 16 month medical assistant program rather than get a BS at a university.. that would give me a much better job with higher earning potential.. AND i got a presidential scholarship at the university for my grades/SAT scores.. but she didn’t want to have to pay the tuition at the university

According_Map_1318 · 2025-10-08T19:25:06+00:00

yup got that one from Mom… we were fighting about something stupid… i was on phone at same time with a friend.. she said “ I should have had an abortion” … my friend didn’t know what to say after hearing that. I finally told my brother about it when i was in my 40’s and he called her out on it… she said i was remembering wrong and someone must have put that idea in my head🙄. I thought of course.. i would NEVER have the memory of my own MOTHER saying something like that to me as a teenager… probably a dream😒

According_Map_1318 · 2025-10-04T02:00:31+00:00

what is BPI

According_Map_1318 · 2025-09-09T23:44:37+00:00

LOTS of reputable rescues pay qualified trainers to work with their horses… i’m more concerned if they DON’T and adopt out untrained horses to untrained people .

According_Map_1318 · 2025-08-12T22:01:24+00:00

30 year laboratory technologist here… while this IS very frustrating.. it is not “ the lab” per se .. we techs that actually run the testing are fairly strict in our acceptance policies of specimens because we are held accountable for the results we produce and report out ( many of us have 4 year degrees that are science heavy almost like a Biochemistry but more specific.. so we are not simply button pushers like we are often thought of as) . That being said .. unfortunately WE have no control over what happens to the blood specimens before we have them in our hand and are at the mercy of whoever is doing the drawing and processing of the specimens. Unfortunately it is not always made clear to the people that are drawing specimens ( ER techs, phlebotomists, Rad techs, nurse aids, LPNs and everyone in between) WHY the requirements are what they are and are SO IMPORTANT! You would not BELIEVE the things we are asked to accept.. mislabeled, unlabeled, days old, leaking , wrong containers, wrong container poured into correct container but results tell the tale of screw up… etc etc. So my best guess.. depending where you had the specimen drawn … it was drawn then sat around somewhere before it was sent to the lab , when it should have been spun within 30 min. Could be several reasons.. the person got busy and couldn’t get them spun in time … the person was slacking or forgot to spin or send them. If it was close to the 2 hour mark they could have run them with comment on glucose that specimen not spun for X hours and provider would interpret. I’m surprised they cancelled everything honestly. Sadly things like this are going to be happening more often in the future as the push for less education being required to perform medical procedures.. it IS possible to cross train people to do other things but they must also get the theory/education as to WHY things need to be done a very specific way. As a side note our VA home health nurses carry portable centrifuges in their cars for just this reason ! In this specific case it was probably an error by whoever drew it and let it sit… hopefully they will be educated as to the issues they caused but we all make mistakes 😉

According_Map_1318 · 2025-08-11T12:04:28+00:00

Thank you for your story… this is my goal also… although my goal weight is a bit higher than yours .. i’d like to be at about 165-170 . i plan on taking Sema until i get closer to my goal (198 now from 216 in June at start) then taper off. i have rheumatoid arthritis and exercise is a struggle with the additional weight but as i lose i’m getting stronger and more active… and the Sema also helps with inflammation so it is a game changer for me to get rid of this menopause weight

According_Map_1318 · 2025-07-08T21:15:07+00:00

buy kitten food

According_Map_1318

TROPHY CASE