The “Physical Plant”
Einstein Montgomery
Other Offices
Typical Day in My Life
Meetings
Another part of my day is going to meetings. We have a ton of meetings every week that we have to fit into an already busy schedule. In addition to writing progress notes and orders in the charts, we have to fill out data bank registries, flow charts, instructions to patients, prescriptions, letters to referring doctors, insurance forms, disability forms, and on and on.
In any given week I may attend: Surgical Grand Rounds……
Fun
Of course, it’s not all work and no play. We show our support for our team by having academic receptions as well as holiday celebrations.
Community
I am also very involved in the community. On May 1, 2012, I was honored to be selected to be the guest speaker at the Go Red for Women’s Luncheon at DeSales University. Below is the video of my presentation.
End of My Day
At the end of the day, I usually go to my office and read my mail. Often I have letters to dictate and patients to call on the phone. Then, just prior to going home, I always take one last walk through the open heart unit and transitional open heart unit to check on my patients.
At night, my partners and I rotate on duty for answering pages and emergencies. It’s not often, but sometimes we’re up all night long with an emergency operation. If that should occur, we unfortunately will need to cancel the next day’s operations so we can get some rest. No one likes to have their surgery postponed, but most patients understand that emergencies do occur from time to time.
Home Is Where the Heart Is
Guess what is the best part of my day? Going home to my family. Many years ago when I left home for college, my father wrote me a letter in which he said, “I guess, Ray, a guy needs a reason to keep going and when things got a little heavy I would look at you and knew I had my reason.
Well, when I’m working hard late at night, or when I’m tired, or frustrated by all of the challenges of being a heart and lung surgeon today, I look at my family and I know I have my reason to keep going.
As Tom Hanks said playing Forrest Gump, “I may not be a smart man, but I know what love is…”
Thank you for sharing this day at work with me. I hope you enjoy the rest of my website!
