Perks of the job....

A few hours ago, I went on cnn.com and started to browse the website, like I usually do daily and saw a poll question... re: Do you like your job? I was able to pick from the following:
1. Hate it
2. Don't really care for it... but it's a paycheck
3. I'm living my dream

I would say for me it is usually #3, but I think we all have days that 1 or 2 sometimes pop up for various reasons. For me, my primary job of treating people with different orthopedic ailments never gets old, and it is always so cool, when you can get someone to feel better and get back to the things that they love to do. People are usually so appreciative of that. On Thursday, I worked at our South Tampa clinic and got to run 8 miles on Bayshore Run before I started my day, saw a lot of my former patients, and got to work with my co-workers who are good friends of mine....we always trip out when I work down there.... fun times....
Last night, I was able to run with a former patient of mine and help with her running form as she has been recovering from a nagging injury. It's nice when you have the same passion as someone else, and you are able to help them with your training. On Wednesday, I saw a new patient that came in for a few ailments that developed while running. Before I could even say anything to him about my running, he said to me, "Even though my MD told me that I should come to this facility, I wasn't completely convinced until I went on your website and saw your blog... I then knew that you had the same passion about this as I do" I felt as though he realized that I could relate to him, and I just thought that was great!!!


The days that I hate my job, is when I don't have the ability to treat someone the way I want to because of insurance. Some people come in our doors and have some serious ailments, and you know from experience that they can get better, but it will take time. Unfortunately most insurance companies don't care, and the patient might have insurance benefits (we shouldn't even call it benefits anymore) that allow them to come for 2 or 3 weeks, even though the MD and myself feel as though they need to come for therapy for a few months. So, sometimes we are slaves to the insurance industry, and they try to take away your expertise and force you to treat patients the way they want to pay you... it's just so frustrating....ugh!!!! The health care industry is so unstable because at any time, an insurance company can drop your reimbursement by as much as they want, and there is virtually nothing you can do about it.
If you really think about it, how crazy is this concept???
If I owned a pizza shop, and the price of cheese and meat and bread went up by 50%, what would I do? You got it.... raise my prices for the pizza.... but in health care, we continue to get paid less every year for doing the same treatment on patients... but patients have to pay more for their insurance...so obviously 2 of the 3 people in this equation aren't happy (the health care provider and the patient), but the insurance industry is laughing all the way to the bank. It is extremely frustrating to even talk about it, but when a frustrating situation comes up for a patient that needs care, I feel like I hate what I do....at sometimes I wish we didn't have insurance, and that people would just save the money that they use to pay their premiums to insurance companies in health savings account. When they got hurt, they would pay health care providers from that stash of money... when they aren't hurt, keep the money in the stash... I think it would give people more incentive to try to live healthier lifestyles... but that's just my opinion...whatever....
For me #2 answer doesn't come into play. It's either I love it or hate it... it has never just been a paycheck for me.... I'm dealing with people here!!!!
All in all, I realize we all got problems at our respective work places... whether its my issue, or having jobs shipped overseas, or greedy corporations trying to lowball their employees... it just stinks sometimes... but it's all good... I'll just continue to have fun and keep running!!!!!