Tuesday, April 17, 2007

I Wish to Register a Complaint!

17 APR 07

Now that I sit in the Big Chair as the Chief of Staff for my department, I am occasionally the subject of criticism. I know. You find this hard to believe. How can anyone complain about someone so awesome?

We have 19 residents and 13 staff radiologists. Anytime you get a group that big, there is bound to be at least one disgruntled member. Well my disgruntlee has chosen to focus his incompetence in my direction. Not only that, but he chose to write it down and file a formal complaint. And he delivered it in person on my birthday.

Happy Birthday!

I won’t go into all the details. Believe it or not, there was actually some merit to a couple of his points. I just want to highlight some of my favorites.

Unprofessional Behavior: Among residents, it is a common complaint that residents feel that whenever we are on a service with Dr. Chako, he does not provide any help in getting through the daily work. What is most concerning is that he sits behind us and talks about his hobbies like vacations and poker while we are trying to get through studies. His behavior becomes a distraction.

Unprofessional Teaching. Staff members have very few days of assigned teaching per year. Dr. Chako, however, chose to have his wife, a financial accountant, lecture the residents on starting up a retirement savings. That day was assigned to him to teach us radiology and not his wife. Many residents were upset for having wasted their time.

Really?

So, this morning, I gathered all the residents together and apologized for my unprofessional behavior. I told them I’d never bring my wife back to lecture again. I also scolded them for not having the courage to come to me directly if they were so “upset for having wasted their time.” They wouldn’t even let me finish my sentence. Every single resident that attended my wife’s lecture reiterated how wonderful and important the information was. They also thanked me profusely for being the ONLY attending physician to show up to every single morning report.

Unfortunately, the complainer wasn’t there. He’ll be back next week. I have a feeling there are several of his peers that might want to have a chat with him.

Oh yeah, on that business about, “he does not provide any help in getting through the daily work.” It turns out that I am the most productive radiologist in the department. By far.

And, if you don’t like my bad beat stories, well, tough noogies.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

As someone who works in finance and is surrounded by free mobney information at work, I can't see anyone who'd turn down a lecture like that.

Did you suck out on someone again? :)

TripJax said...

EVERY office has at least one. And why are they never at the meetings that matter (i.e. the one's you are going to slam them at)?

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the offhanded compliment here, sweetheart. Remind your readers that I did give that advice for FREE, with no personal gain to myself or my firm.

I just like powerpoint. And cartoons with accounting humor.

:)

PS He's a moron. Maybe next time I can teach the class on how to measure your personal utilization in the department, like we do every month.

Anonymous said...

Oooh Oooh Oooh! Can I take him out back and shoot him? Can I, bro? Can I? Huh?

DrChako said...

After what I did on Friday, you may not have to. His fellow residents are likely gonna do it.