The clinic is located in the main hospital, just steps away from the procedure rooms. The clinic has 5 exam rooms and an office for providers. The support staff is incredible, including 3 nurses, a front office supervisor that manages all the referrals, they get 10+ referrals a day, and the clinic manager.
The GI Suites are just down the hall from the clinic and have a full support staff. There are 2 procedure rooms in the suites that providers are able to rotate through during procedure days.
Current Team
Dr. Bisher Abdullah – Part Time, 2 weeks a month
Dr. Ma’n Abdullah – Part Time, 2 weeks a month
Dr. Murali Nalluri– Part Time, 2 weeks a month
We are looking to add at least 1.0 FTE to the team, with the potential to add 1.5 – 2 FTE in total. In addition to the current team, we have a GI Nurse Practitioner, Brian, that recently started (less than 6-months ago). I was able to sit with him and get his thoughts.
“This place is really nice, smaller hospital. You get to know everybody on a personal level, very nice stuff, you know, like the staff we work with are really nice people, like, really nice. And that's, that's good. So that's an advantage too. This was the biggest draw for me, because I did emergency medicine for almost 20 years, and I'm done with the big hospitals, I was out in Vegas for a lot of years, and I just was done. And I'm 55 now, and so I was at the point it's like, Okay, I'm done with ER, I can't do this anymore. So I interviewed with two places, and you know, I was offered better payoff up north, but I refuse to drive up north anymore. I just, I'm not doing it. When it turns my, you know, 10-hour workday into a 14 hour work day.
This was the first time that I've ever had, like administrators, like, appreciate you as a provider. I never felt appreciated. At Mary Bridge never felt appreciated. Providence did feel appreciated. It's almost like, the golden ticket, you know, pays pretty good, not greatest, but it's pretty good for me. But they have, like, you know, the whole Wellness Center is like, when I have a lunch break, I time off, I go cross street and lift weights for half an hour, 45 minutes. And it's a work life balance for me. The team here is amazing. These docs are great, so that is even better.
The most unique part is the patients are grateful for the most part. Bigger hospital systems, you know, have unrealistic expectations, not here. They're just so thankful that there's GI here, and so I'd say 90% of time, they're like, you know, thank you for this. Thank you for talking to me. Thank you for seeing me again. Thank you, guys, for being here. And so it's for that it's been better to work like, I'm not coming to work pissed, I'm not going to work like I don't want to go, right, you know?
We see a lower volume of patients now so I can spend more time with them. And on the other hand, really allows you to focus on the quality of care, because you're not always behind. That's one thing is these patients, they don't want to be rushed. They want to be heard, and they should be heard, fair enough. You know, it's their body, the other ones that are when they see you this, yeah. I mean, this place is great. They just, you know, Ken's great. I mean, I have no complaints of anything.”
Schedule
The basic schedule is going to be a 4 Day work week with 9 hours of clinic time. There will be 2 Days in clinic and 2 days doing procedures. If a provider wanted to be even busier, they could add a day doing procedure day at Capital Medical Center in Olympia. Not everyone will get Fridays off, but the final details of the schedule will be worked out amongst the providers.
4-Day work week
2 Days in Clinic
2 Days doing Procedures
Call
There is no ED call and the hospital sees no emergent GI cases, as this is a level IV trauma so anything that is high acuity gets stabilized and shipped to Capital Medical Center in Olympia. GI patients do occasionally get admitted, hospitalist team will admit and provide care. During the day, they do get calls from the ER asking about patients or the floor asking about patients, but they would just be calling the clinic.
When I was doing a tour of the ED I spoke with the attending physician and asked what happens if there is a GI bleed that presents. His answer was: “It’s limited, you know, we stabilize as much as we can, and then we're on the phone to transfer out. As far as GI’s involvement, because they're not part of the inpatient team, we operate as if they're not here. If we do admit, because we don't have them as a inpatient option, the hospitalist manage it. I mean, we have definitely admitted hepatitis, obstructions, colitis and whatnot. It would be great if the GIs wanted to round on them, but it’s not the structure so we just make it work.”