Today, for the first time in five full years, I billed for psychological services that I completed. This was also the very first day that I’ve ever billed for my services as a New York state licensed psychologist. (Previously, I was a licensed psychologist for many years in Illinois).
Today was my first day of working in a nearby nursing home. I performed multiple initial psychological evaluations of residents. This is a very labor-intensive task, since it requires reviewing the patient’s entire medical record, prior to completing a structured clinical interview. A comprehensive report, with the appropriate diagnoses and treatment recommendations, is subsequently generated.
I had to audibly clear my throat, multiple times throughout the day. One of my residents actually make a comment about this, during her evaluation. Since I was predominantly sedentary today, my shortness of breath was relatively less of an issue, thankfully.
It’s always sobering to review a patient’s list of medications, and to realize that you, as their doctor, have been prescribed many more medications than they are.
For the first time ever, I entered patients’ notes electronically. This requires learning an entirely new way of documenting patient information. As a result, the whole process was rather slow today. I’m confident that it will take me less time to complete my next series of initial psychological evaluations. I very much look forward to performing this new, part-time job once I have had my throat dilatation surgery for subglottic stenosis.
