Being an Executive for a week...

Arrived to Halifax late afternoon today to overcast skies. It has been a long day as I was up at 4am (Saskatoon time). Luckily, I have no problem falling a sleep or at least get some sort of shut eye. Basically had my eyes closed from take off to landing. Thankfully they have an Airporter that dropped me off right at the hotel door - all for $18.00!! (It's about a 30 min drive from the airport). If I had taken a taxi - there was a sign that said $60!! Wow!!

It was still light out enough to see some familar sights like Spring Gardens (obviously no flowers yet); "Jennifer of Nova Scotia" store and of course the Old Town Hall at the bottom of the Citadel Hill. The last time I was in Halifax was in July 2002, when I planned a 10-day tour of PEI and Nova Scotia to celebrate my mom's 60th birthday. Great memories.

I arrived at the hotel and found out that I was on the 15th floor - I was looking forward to a great view. Well - I have learned quickly I will be treated as an executive this whole week. The 15th floor is their Executive Floor - the top floor!! ALL my dinner meals are taken care of too - dining each night - the life of a jetsetter right? (hahaha) I entered my room - a King size bed, an executive desk; a plate of fruit, cheese, crackers and Godiva chocolates (oh okay - yummy and so delicious). Oh yeah - and there was even a card address to me!! There are terry robes to use for the week too. Supper was great tonight - pork tenderloin cooked in a teriayki (?) sauce and I finished it off with a turtle cheesecake and a tea. I am going to be so spoiled this week. Definitely a nice perk about dinner as there really isn't much nearby to eat. I couldn't wait to use my camera - turned it on - it shows up "no card". You have gotten to be kidding me?? Yes, my memory stick is back at my place in Calgary - UGH!!

No matter I have all day tomorrow to go exploring so my first stop will be to find a place to buy a memory card. It is snowing right now (but it is seems to be melting on contact with the roads). I will be working on my own this week at the hospital - which is fine as I only have to worry about my own timetable. It is the Childrens Hospital - and now that I have worked at Calgary's Children Hospital I wonder if I will find similar charts.

Have a good week and keep safe.

Saskatoon

Well, my week in Saskatoon has come to an end. I was greeted with a chilly wind. Monday morning we woke to the temperature being -47c with the wind. Who can say - BRRR!!!

This is my first week participating in the reabstracting study. I will be criss-crossing across Canada on this study - now if the schedule doesn't change between now and the end of March I will be visiting Saskatoon for a week - Halifax for a week - Regina for a week - Vancouver area for 2 weeks - Ottawa for 2 weeks and end with 2 weeks in Southern Ontario (Toronto/Hamilton area probably). I am hoping to find some time to either sightseeing or reconnecting with family and friends, during some of the spare time.

The staff here in Saskatoon were very nice to me and my coworker. One of the positive things about participating in these opportunities like reabstracting studies is to meet other Health Information Management Professionals (HIM professional). One of the commonalities you will find across Canada in our field - most departments are facing shortage of staff and finding our struggle to meet national coding deadlines due to the first reason. We (Calgary) is no exception. For me, it is nice knowing we are not alone in facing these struggles.

Through conversations over the week with the director - when she found out that not only do I code/abstract charts, but I also train and cross train coders at my facility in daysurgery and inpatient disciplines - she asked me if I would like to move to Saskatoon to that here - I smiled and nicely said no - I am quite happy in Calgary. I thought that was a nice compliment though. She asked to even exchange emails as it is nice to be able to ask a question of how we capture a similar procedures. The hospital I worked at this week is also a cardiac and trauma hospital similar to the Foothills Hospital in Calgary.

Up at 4am tomorrow as my first leg to Halifax leaves Saskatoon at 6am heading to Toronto and then onto Halifax. Saw on the weather network that Halifax just receive fresh dumping of snow.

Primer is on the walls!!

While I was at training in Ottawa last week, my friend Jon primed the walls in the kitchen and livingroom. The reason it is a pink/rosy primer is that the colour is "sun-dried tomato" - a rich burgeondy colour. The foyer and part of the living room will be a beige colour. I had a colour consultant come in and the paint name we choose was Benajamin Moore. Jon had done some comparable shopping for the primer and mentioned to me the Ben Moore paints were way higher. So I went to Rona - they were able to match the colours dead on and at their highest quality of paint and it was on sale!!!

I leave for Saskatoon for my first week on the reabstracting study. Then onto Halifax for a week and then Regina for a week. It will be great to see the final result - you can tell already how the rosy colour pops out the white mantle. Imagine the rich colour - I can't wait. Thanks Jon for doing the painting for me.

Training is over...now the test

Well, it is now the end of Day 3 - all the training is over and tomorrow is the all day test. We are coding and abstracting 20 case studies on the topics we are focusing on for this reabstracting study. In total, there are 17 of us here training - some of us too tired to venture into the cold (-20c), we ate in the hotel's restaurant - wow it is interesting that some problems one hospital might be facing in one province is also being faced in another province. Surprisingly, (scary in someway) I observed that a few of our managers/coordinators do not have a health record background or even an understanding of our field. Then they make some directives/decisions without communicating with their "health record staff" on what consequences one might face as well as explaining how illogical that decision makes.

From what I explained above, this is one of the reasons why being able to participate in reabstracting studies I find so interesting. In my eyes, Health Records fields, is a small community, so being able to network and then take back what I have learned and share with my coworkers and management. Especially noticable in even the last 5-10 years, the changes my field has faced (going towards the electronic medical record) already and I know those changes will keep on occurring each year as new technologies and diseases/procedures are discovered.

So where am I off to (if I pass the test - lol) - well this morning it was Saskatoon - but by the afternoon found out that changes had to be made - so by Friday afternoon I will know at least where I am going Monday morning. It will be a great way to see different parts of Canada.

I'll keep you posted.

Survived Day One...

Well, at the moment you would think I was on one of those propellar planes - there is quite the racket right now and I am on the 9th floor!! I know Ottawa just received some snow - but this drilling sound has been going on for the past 30 minutes.

Okay, anyway - today was the first day of training. It is interesting the topics we are going to be focussing on. Similar to last time - this will be another great learning experience especially now as I look at it also from a trainer's point of view too. Asking myself - am I teaching the new coders or cross training coworkers the correct way? Am I interpreting the standards correctly? I will know more tomorrow as we go more indepth into those topics - diabetes, cardiac, strokes and palliative coding are the topics my ears will perk up on as these are found more prevalent at the Foothills Hospital.

Tomorrow and Wednesday will be the "meat" of our prep work and then the "big" test ALL day Thursday. We will be so brain-fried after that day for sure. Friday we find out if we are "up to standard". I am thinking positive we will all pass. Friday morning is actually the fun part as we go over the 20 case studies, we can see just how "subjective" coding really is across Canada. A good discussion is what am predicting as we state why we coded a different way.

I have seen a few familar faces from the study I did last Spring and of course new faces too. There is one other Albertan (Raymond, AB). I will be heading back to Calgary Friday night and then I should be leaving Calgary Sunday to destination unknown. It is their decision ultimately but I did say that Yukon/NWT and the Maritimes would be the places I would like to go. Surprisingly, there are a few of us coders who wouldn't mind going up North. There will be a conflict as I used to work at the hospital - I noticed that Thunder Bay was one of the 55 hospitals in this study. Oh well - I did get to see my mom at Christmas and I will be seeing my dad at Easter.

Let's Play Wii Grandpa Andy!!!

As a part of the activities for Josiah & Hudson's birthday was a Wii Tournament. It was so much fun!! The first match of the tournament was Grandpa Andy against Josiah. They were playing boxing. It was a knockout!! Josiah won!!

Peter taking a photo with his photo of Casendra's face make-up - cupcake icing!! Grandma Char and Casendra's sister Sierra wathing how it turned out.

Canmore's Three Sisters in their beauty after a recent snowfall!! We, Calgarians, are quite fortunate to have such beauty within an hour's drive.

Happy Birthday Josiah and Hudson

Being that they are leaving for Siberia/Russia soon - we celebrated jointly Josiah (5) and Hudson (4) birthdays. It was a fun filled and active birthday party!! They had a cupcake cake - it was very yummy!!



Here comes the cake!! David (their dad) carried the cake to Hudson and Josiah. Their sister Emma (in the black dress) along with their two cousins Solomon (blue shirt) and Journey (green - BTW - TODAY (Jan 18) Journey turns 5!!! - Happy Birthday Journey!!)

Get ready to blow out your candles Hudson and Josiah. Dad instructs them the left is for Josiah to blow out and Hudson has the right side of the cake - no problem - not one candle was left lit!!

The Birthday Boys - Hudson (left), Josiah (middle) with their sister Emma.

Casendra our master crawler!!

Hey - where is that colder air coming from? I should go check it out..

Wonder what this door leads too...

Oh - the door leads to the patio!! That is where I saw the bunny rabbit last night. (sidenote - we are thinking Casendra is teething - hence the drooling on her face). Though I missed her "first time" - it was after I left that Casendra took her first steps solo!!! She still does crawling which she can go pretty fast at. When she was at Grandma Char's later in the day - she took 3 steps towards Auntie Amanda - we all cheered and clapped - a smile appeared on Casendra's face - it was so cute.

Having fun with Sierra and Ethan

Last Friday (Jan 9), I drove up to Canmore to spend the night with Sara, John and the family. Knowing I was going to be away, I told Sara and John I would come up on the Friday night to look after the kids while they can enjoy a dinner out (which they did). It has been awhile since "babysitting" but we had plenty of fun. To expend some energy we went up and down the hallways with Casendra in the stroll - Casendra seem to be having a good time being pushed everywhere. Heard a few giggles from her. In the hotel room - we played with PlayDoo and watched Dora's Christmas and the movie Kit Kittridge (creator of the American Doll). While watching the latter movie, Casendra fell asleep in my arms (I love those cuddling moments I have with her).



Sierra's creation - a colour sunflower!!

Ethan's creating a long green snake!!

Hey - who is at the door?? It's Mom and Dad!! The kids got into their PJs and I read them a book. Then the 5 of us went in a circle saying one of the happy things that happened that day. It was a nice treat being there with the kids. Oh yeah - Sara proceeded to beat me in cribbage too!! Thanks for a great time Sierra, Ethan and Casendra!! On the Saturday, I then drove back to Calgary to go to the next family gathering - at Grandma's house for Hudson and Josiah's joint birthday party.