How much can a clinic manager impact your job? Advice needed.

[LUCPM]

This is my first job out of residency and any advise/wisdom would be much appreciated.

I'm curious to know how much impact a clinic manager can have on your job as a physician on a daily basis. Can a clinic manager really make or break a job? In our residency clinic, we never interact with our clinic manager but we go through our program director/coordinator/faculties for any clinic-related issues. So I'm not familiar with what their role is in terms of how much they can affect our job.

A little background: I am fortunate enough to secure a job after residency within the same hospital system associated with my residency program. I've already signed a contract to do both outpatient and inpatient where I will be covering my own patients in the hospital for certain number of days and one weekend/month and the hospitalist will be covering for the rest. As of now, I am the only person in town who will be taking care of their own patients in the hospital as other physicians have recently quit doing so - which is why the hosptalist group has to cover my patients when I'm not on call. I have discussed this with the health group president (who also happens to be one of our residency faculties) and he hinted that the hospitalist group might "whine" a little bit but he has been very supportive of this and he will try to make thing work for me.

A few days ago, I received an email cc'ed to me from the clinic manager asking which call group I will be sharing and bluntly telling me/my boss that my schedule can be very confusing to their after-hour call agency as well as hospital staff". I have not even met this person yet since the clinic I'll be working at is almost brand new and she is also new. In the past few months, I have been directed to contact her a few times via email regarding miscellaneous things - for example, asking how to schedule vacation ahead of time (as I'm planning to move), asking if they can print out business cards for some of my patients who have been asking me where I'm headed after residency, etc. Each time, I either get no response or she will say they won't print out a business cards since they don't want patients to start calling the clinic to schedule before I even start.

I'm a little concerned as this is my first job as a physician and I tend to think 'if a person doesn't know how to put their socks on, they probably cannot tie their shoes either'. I can totally ignore this clinic manager and go on about doing my own stuffs as long as he/she doesn't affect my job directly but I also don't want daily headaches either. I currently have no intention of working anywhere else as I have established a fairly good working relationship with hospital staffs/pharmacists/specialists, which was one of the important factors for me staying in town after residency. Any thoughts/wisdom/advice would be much appreciated.

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[deleted87716]

The office manager works for you (if they don't, you're in the wrong job), and shouldn't be telling you what you can or can't do. Set your expectations early. It's a lot harder to break bad habits later. The fact that you're new is irrelevant, especially if they're new, too.

I've had the same OM for over a decade, and we have a great relationship. A bad OM can make your life suck. Hopefully, you have hiring/firing authority (you should) in case things don't work out.

 

[TableMD]

“'. I can totally ignore this clinic manager and go on about doing my own stuffs as long as he/she doesn't affect my job directly but I also don't want daily headaches either.“

That is absolutely the wrong attitude on this issue. One of the most important things you will need is to have power in influencing office flow/procedures, etc. This effects your long term health as a physician.

Do not be a drone who burries their head in the sand and says “Ill just see patients.” Bull****. Get this turned around now. Find out who the manager answers to, call a meeting, get it figured out as far as emails ans everything else that you need. You make these people money. They arent doing you a favor by hiring you. The job of the manager and other office ataff is to help you efficiently see patients and tackle admin BS so you can focus on making medical decisions/providing care. If this comes to nothing and no one shows an interest in helping you, then you are at a bad place and you ought to find out now....

 

[Keona]

I interact with my office manager multiple times a week. He is very good at doing his job and has been there a long time. I recently had an issue where staff was acting inappropriately. I discussed with him what to do and it was handled in a way where the staff member did change their attitude and apologized to me. Not having a competent office manager would make life awful.

 

[simpler2]

I recommend making a point to meet this individual in person as soon as possible. It appears that e-mail communications are not producing desired results. For some people, this may always be the case. Realize that you are the "new person" that is creating change and change will always cause some people you work with a great deal of anxiety. Try not to make any assumptions or react harshly to anyone before you firmly understand the situation that is resulting in conflict.
If you must take corrective action, do so in a transparent manner and use the appropriate chains of command (express concern to the person(s) involved in the conflict and then your supervisor if needed). If recommend avoid CCing someone's supervisor or unnecessary other administrators regarding your concerns. The administrators likely have little ability to help and this can be interpreted as a direct challenge to someone's ability to perform their job and further encourage opposition.
I try to always assume that people want to do their job well and to address conflict as a problem solving issue, not a interpersonal one.