OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I:

PCA-Choosing an Organization Worksheet

Worksheet Objectives:
1. Identify an organization and situation you want to study over the remainder of the course.
2. Describe the organization and situation.

Complete the following making sure to support your ideas and cite from the textbook and other
course materials per APA guidelines. After the peer review, you have a chance to update this and
format for your Electronic Portfolio due in Module 6.

1) Describe your organization.

A small medical office with 8 total employees, 2 of which are the medical providers/owners. We
are an integrative traditional medicine mixed holistic health office and each individual has their
own position. There are no duplicate positions in this office, and often times we leave at different
times due to what work is remaining to do for said job. We are granted a lot of positional
freedom but also more responsibilities with how we want to “own” our roles and uphold our
policies and values.

2) Describe how Describe your role in the organization (it can be internal or external).

My role is very internal but deals with much more interconnectedness with our external
corporate office. I am the sole medical receptionist. I personally deal with any referrals, faxes,
phone calls, text line messages, emails, scheduling, office management, and time management to
keep the team on task and on time. We often times see upwards of 40 patients a day, with a
monthly volume of 1000+ visits, all being check-in, greeted, and scheduled by myself.

3) Describe the situation. (see the Canvas instructions for details, especially about how
your situation will be analyzed from five different perspectives over the next five
modules)

It is my first holiday with the company: Halloween.

As we sit in our morning scheduling meeting going over patients, we are told that we will be
closing an hour early so we can go experience the holiday with our families. This was not
expected, but more so a surprise that got the remaining 6 of us employees excited about the
opportunity to enjoy the night more than usual given our later work hours.

Dr. Brian (Director/Boss): “We have adjusted the schedule to where we will all be able to leave
early and hopefully spend some time with our families tonight! We will be out by 5:20”.

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I, and a few others quickly take the chance to text our family and friends just to make them
aware of this good news and change plans accordingly.

I had previously spoken informally during lunch in brief to Dr. Brian about my plans to trick-or-
treat with my SO’s young nephews, as their parents had asked myself and my SO to take them
since they would be working. This plan initially was intended for when I got off work but
changed after learning this new information about closing early. Doctor Brian and another one of
my coworkers spoke about their plans to bring their grandchildren out for the night, chiming in
that I would have so much fun when I did eventually have children of my own.

As the day comes and goes, we arrive around the time of our last patient scheduled. We have a
strict 15-minute late cancellation policy for patient appointments at my job—as enacted by Dr.
Brian himself. After 10 minutes passed and the patient had not arrived, I called the number
provided and the patient stated that they would be there in less than 20 minutes, effectively
putting us at least 30 minutes behind schedule. I informed the patient that they would have to
reschedule, went through with scheduling them for a different date, and inform the provider that
the last patient would not be coming in today because they would be 30 minutes late.

Dr Brian: “Why would you reschedule them? You know we are having an issue with retention
currently and need patients! Call them back and have them come in if they're still able.”

Myself: “But we close now in 30 minutes, they wouldn’t be out of office until 7:00 after
paperwork and I thought we’d be gone at latest by 5:30PM”.

Dr. Brian: “You don't have children to celebrate Halloween with anyways, I'll give you the keys
to lock up once I've finished my exam. Parents deserve this extra time.”

At this point, he walks away and starts telling my other coworkers who have children that they
are free to leave and to have a great night. This left just the provider, myself, and the incoming
patient. I then had to call the patient, have them come in, and they we're not completed with their
visit until 7:10PM (later than days we are open on a normal schedule), at which the provider
himself left by 6:10PM.

The next day I asked to speak with the provider/boss himself and voiced my concerns on how he
valued other coworkers times over myself because they have children-- Despite previously
already telling him of that I was taking care of other children that night. While this extra free
time wasn't a given, it felt as though he valued other people's time over my own, going as far as
to surpass his own policy for patient lateness and leaving me on my own to close the clinic.

Myself: “I just feel as though it is unfair to say that we would all get off early when it frankly
feels that you disregarded my time just due to that I don’t have children of my own.”

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Dr. Brian: “I can see why you might feel that way, but you will understand when you have
children. Sometimes you need to take one for the team too, we need the patients as well. There’s
always next year.”

At this point, he gestured to the door and I did not press the issue any further.

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 Reference or References