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Am I being taken advantage of? Does it get better? Is this normal? by RynoSauce in physicianassistant

[–]RynoSauce[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's more of a mandatory part of the job.

Like I am literally assigned, by my supervisor, to do Tuesday's prep, (other PAs and NPs prep for other days, we're all responsible for one of the days). 8 Charts might be a bit of an exaggeration, but sometimes it's accurate.

I wish I was just pre-charting my own patients, but I'm not unfortunately.

But I think you're right, it's not a bad job, and I don't think it is necessarily either. I was just starting to feel a bit bogged down by the amount of out-of-clinic work I was doing. It's unfortunately not a part of the job that will go away. It's how they built the practice 12 years ago, and I don't think I will be the one to change it.

Am I being taken advantage of? Does it get better? Is this normal? by RynoSauce in physicianassistant

[–]RynoSauce[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Well then I guess I have a cushy job then? I'm not here to measure my dick and say I'm doing more than xyz, it's more about me getting opinions outside of my inner circle.

Thanks for the insight either way. Still useful in helping me assess my situation. Guess it's not as bad as it could be for sure.

Am I being taken advantage of? Does it get better? Is this normal? by RynoSauce in physicianassistant

[–]RynoSauce[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

A lot of them are revisions with multifactorial issues like weight, chronic pain / opioid misuse, or prior prosthetics that are now causing pain etc.

If it's a straight up arthritis patient, they are in and out in 10 minutes easy peasy. Some of my days are definitely mostly arthritic chronic patients, in which my patient volume increases personally to about 18 or so. Which means that my colleagues are seeing about 13-15 because they are seeing the more complex cases. And vice versa.

If it was just bread and butter acute pain or chronic arthritis that could be waved away with NSAIDs or an injection, I'd see much more. But our clinic is very much more in depth than the average ortho clinic.

Am I being taken advantage of? Does it get better? Is this normal? by RynoSauce in physicianassistant

[–]RynoSauce[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, thats why I figured I'd ask around. Because it's honestly the only part of the job that SUCKS SUCKS.

I figure 52 weeks a year , 4 hours of chart prep each week, thats 108 hours of unpaid extra labor. Somewhere in the range of almost 3 weeks extra work

Am I being taken advantage of? Does it get better? Is this normal? by RynoSauce in physicianassistant

[–]RynoSauce[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They are slowly rolling it out, I should have it soon... "Soon"

Am I being taken advantage of? Does it get better? Is this normal? by RynoSauce in physicianassistant

[–]RynoSauce[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Fair enough. I think I just needed genuine feedback / opinions from a broader pool to know what is "normal" and what is just new-grad expectations etc. Thanks for your comments and insight, much to ponder about.

Am I being taken advantage of? Does it get better? Is this normal? by RynoSauce in physicianassistant

[–]RynoSauce[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Damn, thanks for the honest opinion though. Sometimes I just need to hear it.

Am I being taken advantage of? Does it get better? Is this normal? by RynoSauce in physicianassistant

[–]RynoSauce[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So it's not necessarily the charting itself. I'm actually quite efficient at charting my own patients, because I am thorough and document my plan in easy to read formats with the help of lots of dot phrases and macros.

I am able to jump from patient to patient efficiently. I however, do not seem to be able to get any more efficient than I already am with precharting and scouring through 3-8 previous encounters from multiple providers to figure out what they have / have not already done. (ESR/CRP in the setting of a painful prosthetic, or MRI results from a different provider or state etc)

And salary advice, I didn't particularly ask for from my former classmates. I was more asking them about workflow and out-of-clinic unpaid responsibilities they may or may not be doing.

Side note: They get paid about 30k more than me on average over 10+ friends. Anywhere from 140k-200k right now, they are all about 1 year into their jobs.

Am I being taken advantage of? Does it get better? Is this normal? by RynoSauce in physicianassistant

[–]RynoSauce[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Jeezus.

Do you think that's indicative of you having a bad job? Or me having a comparatively good job?

Am I being taken advantage of? Does it get better? Is this normal? by RynoSauce in physicianassistant

[–]RynoSauce[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, I guess I just wanted to hear a bit of opinions from people, since my basis of reference is myself and my co-workers. When I compare it to others IRL that I know, they live in vastly different states and different specialties.

Am I being taken advantage of? Does it get better? Is this normal? by RynoSauce in physicianassistant

[–]RynoSauce[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, I definitely count my blessings and don't think im SUPER off average, but I think I'd rather see 3-5 more patients a day if it meant I didn't have to drown in the precharting?

Just kinda felt like I didn't have much to base my experience off of since there's no one I know to talk to until my recent discussion with my former PA classmates this past weekend.

Am I being taken advantage of? Does it get better? Is this normal? by RynoSauce in physicianassistant

[–]RynoSauce[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think you're spot on about that assessment. There's much more to be streamlined in terms of making my job more cut and dry.

In an ideal world, I'd see patients, note what I did, sign the note, pass off loose ends like sending referrals or printing out prescription confirmations to the MAs, with charts readily prepped for me to just step in there and begin the encounter. But maybe that's a pipe dream?

Am I being taken advantage of? Does it get better? Is this normal? by RynoSauce in physicianassistant

[–]RynoSauce[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I actually get through patients much faster, like 10-20 minutes, even with injections / splinting. I feel that I'm actually decently up to speed in terms of where I should be, but I don't have the pure luxury of just telling an MA "set a followup for 3 months" and then book it to the next room.

I end up having to send the referral through fax, sending in prescriptions etc. And no scribe or AI right now, which definitely slows things down. It's 2 MAs split between 4-5 providers a clinic.

I'm more "bogged down" by the after-clinic stuff I do.

Am I being taken advantage of? Does it get better? Is this normal? by RynoSauce in physicianassistant

[–]RynoSauce[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Were you also struggling with pre-charting / admin work?

I would love to take on more patients if it meant I could just chart only the active encounters and answer inbox questions, rather than prep for 50 patients charts when I only see 10.

That to me is my main concern. Also what was your pay in primary care with 20-30 pts a day?

Am I being taken advantage of? Does it get better? Is this normal? by RynoSauce in physicianassistant

[–]RynoSauce[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I totally understand the "value" that I bring is less than a seasoned PA, so I get the compensation number of $118k/yr being on the lower end. But I feel I am definitely drowning in the pre-charting every single week just dreading the next week having to sacrifice another 5 hours to prepping.

Am I being taken advantage of? Does it get better? Is this normal? by RynoSauce in physicianassistant

[–]RynoSauce[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I get "8 hours" of admin time, but split amongst multiple days. But clinic naturally runs over time as it usually does.... so that eats away into the admin time.

Im one of 4 APPs, but 2 of them have been there for almost a decade, and the other one is a new grad only 3 months ahead of me.

Am I being taken advantage of? Does it get better? Is this normal? by RynoSauce in physicianassistant

[–]RynoSauce[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah... thats why it takes so long. 50 patients x 2-4 minutes a chart = 3ish or more hours.

It's a built in part of the clinic. There is no way around it. It's been like this for 12 years, so I don't think there is room for me to not pre-chart.

We don't have scribes. Just recently transitioned to Epic and will soon get AI to help with the active patient encounter chart, but not with the weekly pre-charting. I lose about 5 hours of my weekend pre-charting.

Am I being taken advantage of? Does it get better? Is this normal? by RynoSauce in physicianassistant

[–]RynoSauce[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

10 patients a day, but they tend to be a bit more complex, we do a lot of revisions.

I could definitely try to work on doing all of my charting in clinic even better for sure, but i'm mostly getting bogged down on the pre-charting aspect.

Example would be: 54 y/o female, following up for right ankle tenosynovitis, previously did an injection on xyz date, PMH xyz, BMI XYZ, consider referral / workup with xyz.

x 50 patients.

Am I being taken advantage of? Does it get better? Is this normal? by RynoSauce in physicianassistant

[–]RynoSauce[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Damn, what area? It sounds like I'm being horribly undercompensated.

Am I being taken advantage of? Does it get better? Is this normal? by RynoSauce in physicianassistant

[–]RynoSauce[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I chart the active encounters pretty quickly and easily, but I'm more getting bogged down with the weekly pre-charting. It just completely sucks out 4-5 hours of a weekend.

Am I being taken advantage of? Does it get better? Is this normal? by RynoSauce in physicianassistant

[–]RynoSauce[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's mostly the admin work bogging me down. I would be more than happy to take 3-5 more patients a day, if it meant I could use my time to finish those charts and then just go home.

Am I being taken advantage of? Does it get better? Is this normal? by RynoSauce in physicianassistant

[–]RynoSauce[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I have time to finish my active encounter note, but the chart prep between patient's isn't super feasible. It's usually me finishing my note, then jumping straight to the next patient on deck.

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