Playing Secretary

So this week was all about customer service. I was re-located in the customer service area. This week I was calling patients to remind them of their upcoming appointments. The clinic works by calling patients three days in advance of their appointment to confirm or cancel the appointment. My bilingual abilities once again paid off! I worked with two veteran women in the clinic; They are very nice and we connect immediately! The majority of the patients I called were going to see a podiatrist or an optometrist. Once again, their problems can be connected back to diabetes. ALL of the patients I called had diabetes (mostly type II). It is funny how the patients do not remember of their appointments, or evenmore, the especialist they are seeing that day. It was a busy day, the busiest I have ever have in the Clinic. But it was so worth it, I learned a lot in this rotation. Customer service it is a vital part of the Clinic.

Excuse me....Can I ask you a few questions?

That's how my volunteer week went on. I had to survey patients because the Clinic wants to know how the patients feel about their new facility and their service. Most of the patients-if not all- I surveyed were on the Dental Clinic. It was good for me to see what their thoughts were about their dental appointments. I, as an aspiring dentist will benefit a lot from this survey too. Questions ranged from if the doctors explained the procedures well, how the staff was treating them, how hard was to get an appointment, and if they got any remainder before their appointment day. Surprisingly, in average, the waiting time was not that long. All the patients were really pleased with the staff's amiability and the doctor's care for their health. The clinic got excellent reviews and many of the patients were ecstatic to see that the Clinic actually takes their time to hear their opinion's and comments in order to improve their service. This week really made me feel really good. It was by far the best experience in my volunteer run. Been able to talk and hear the patients is something so rewarding and fulfilling. I can't wait to be in the Clinic again!

A great Week!

This week I found myself very active in the clinic. I finally got my username and password which are required for logging into any computer in the clinic. This time I was working with the medical practice director. I had to create a brochure in both English and Spanish for a new service the clinic is trying to offer. The design was very simple but I believe it conveyed the information in a clear and concise manner. While I was doing my assignment, I couldn't help to notice that some of the patients that were getting prescriptions suffered from diabetes and/or high blood pressure. Diabetes seems to be a very dominant disease among those who come to the clinic. I think that more information on the subject should be more visible in the clinic. I have only spot a few fliers about healthy diet for diabetics, but nothing about the disease itfself. It would be very good to make an information brochure with general things, but also with things that people normally do not associate with diabetes. The more we spread the word, the more we can prevent!

New Rotation...New Exposures

I loved my volunteering assigment this week! After a meeting with our coordinator, Vy and I toured the Dental clinic facilities. After a while, Vy went on to filing paperwork and I was more than happy to survey the kids that were in the clinic. San Jose also does survey work for other companies, in this case, there was a children's book that is in a testing state. The book was bilingual, so I read it in both English and Spanish. There was not a lot of kids though, but the few that I was able to see had very strong opinions. The older kids (6-8 years old) did like the story of Toñito and his dream of becoming a professional soccer player. Toddlers on the other hand, hatted it because it was boring and "there was not space for coloring" according to these little critics. The kids that were around 4-5 years old, had a mild opinion of the book. They like it but they were not thrilled about the dense narrative. It is impressive how a one year old can give you a blunt clear opinion. Too bad that the ability of being very sincere  gets blurry as we grow older. I loved working with the kids, they were very attentive and excited. It make me realize that those little people have a mind and opinion of their own!!! The last thing I did this week on my volunteering was proofreading several  brochures in Spanish that the clinic is planning to release to its patients in the next month. Well, I cannot wait to see what I will be doing on my next rotation.