Marnivia and her Cart

They sent us this heavenly woman named Marnivia to help us learn to use the new computerized medical record we are adopting in our office. When I first came back to work in January, they had me meet with her several times to catch up on the training sessions I had missed. She has the perfect temperament for this kind of work. Marnivia is consistently upbeat, positive, and optimistic. She always has a big smile on her face which is a plus when you're teaching a bunch of clueless doctors how to do something new. In addition, she is non-threatening and approachable despite the simplest question. She has really been a help to me as I’ve tried to catch up to everyone else already using the computer system.

Now that our center has moved from the training phase to the implementation phase (called a Go Live), we are actually using the new system to document our patient visits, to order labs, and to write prescriptions (yeah, we are now part of the 21st century just like the Jiffy Lube down the street). As you can imagine, things don't always go so smoothly. Fortunately, Marnivia is still hanging out in the clinic everyday to help us troubleshoot. She grabbed a rolling cart that we use for unloading supplies and parked it directly in front of the nurses area along one of the walls. It is also near our patient rooms, so we can dash out to ask her help if we get stuck, which happened ALOT the first day that we started using the system in the clinic. Not everyone would be willing to work everyday on a rolling supply cart, but Marnivia is that helpful, practical type. She even has a card laminated with her kids' photos that she brings everyday to place on the cart near her laptop. There are no cubicle or pod walls for hanging photos in her makeshift "office" but hey, she's not letting that stop her. I'm already lamenting the day she'll leave us to help the next clinic, lucky guys.

I do think that our first week of the Go Live has gone remarkably well. Imagine trying to use a computer for EVERYTHING you ever did on paper, and you about have the size and dimension of the task. One of the doctors joked that she had bumbled through a visit and felt the need to assure her patient that yes, she did actually know how to be a doctor. Funny how that feels like the "easy" part now. Well I thought we did pretty well in our first week, and soon it will all be the easy part.

Today’s photo: Marnivia at her cart in the center hall helping me with the computer.