Twenty Years

June 16, I completed my twenty year anniversary working at the University of Utah.

A colleague in the ER had recommended the job for me. I met with the manager and she hired me on the spot. I hadn't filled out an application, so she had me complete the application while I was in her office. I remained working at SLRMC ER part time and later moved to PRN.

Halloween on the 6N unit

I began my time at the U as a HUC (Health Unit Coordinator) on the inpatient orthopedic floor. I learned a lot about myself. I learned to stand up for myself. Looking back, I couldn't be paid enough to do that job again. Maybe it was the nurses, the doctors or the unit, but the HUC was everybody's stepping stone. Everybody yelled at her. Back then, we documented on paper. The HUC received the admission or post surgery orders and had to decipher the handwriting, then transfer them to the appropriate location on the unit.
I left my position as a HUC in a flaming blaze of glory; burning bridge and all! It's super funny now, but I was at a pretty low point back then.

1999 - Catwoman costume

I changed positions from inpatient and moved to work in a registration call center: Pre-registration. We'd call patients for their outpatient visits and register them on the "new" computer system. A system I would one day train to other new users. A system that feel ancient now.
It was during my time in preregistration, where I met my mentor. I was so angry during that time. Going to therapy and learning to stop hating myself. It was a hard time and I took out my anger on a lot of people. My boss, who would become my mentor, nearly fired me during that time.
I learned a lot about accountability from that boss.

I left preregistration and moved to billing. Billing was...about as exciting as it sounds. *yawn* I stayed there for about a year and a half and learned billing procedures and insurance rules, That's about all I can say about that time.

After billing, I moved to help open a new department. I was fortunate to be hired by that mentor/boss. He was creating a new department to improve the insurance authorization process. I moved from clinic to clinic working through their existing process and creating improved ways of authorization and working through deposit processes. I enjoyed working in the clinics and stayed in this position for nearly four years. I loved working in the clinics, meeting physicians, nursing and other clinicians.

From insurance auth, I moved to financial counseling. A pay grade increase position. A position I was terrible at! I could not make this work for me to save my life. I was beginning to worry that my position would be eliminated when the training team opened a new position. I applied and interviewed and was offered the job on April Fool's day of 2004. A huge relief!

I've been training since that time. Our training group has moved from department to department but now report up through IT. I have loved working as a trainer to the various audiences.

In those twenty years, I've met and married the love of my life. Celebrated achievements with my family and friends and mourned the loss of some of those family and friends.
I decided a long time ago that I would chose not to live with regret. It has helped me push to be honest and compassionate in my dealings with myself and others.  Looking at the past twenty years at the U, I'm grateful to have been fortunate to work in jobs I both loved and hated, with some of the most gracious people. I'm grateful to have a mentor who helped me learn and grow into a contributing team member.
Some of the days in the past twenty years:

2008 - taking a daily self portrait (before "selfies" existed)

2009 - Thanksgiving in LA

2010 - I have cut my hair every year. I usually cut between five and eight inches.

2010 - July 24 with Andrew

October 2011 - A visit from Leo

2012 - October - The Patriots game! Yay!

2012 - November - A back injury took me out of commission. This day I had the first of two back injections.

Feb 2013 - Eric and I at a charity dinner

April 2013 - Playing with the kiddos. They always bring me so much joy!

2013 - Halloween. Remembering my cousin who'd passed away weeks before. 

July 2014 - Iceberg with these nuts!

May 2015 - Feeling rejuvenated.

Jan 2016 - This girl! 

Nov 2016 - Another visit to see the Patriots. 

2017 - returning home from a camping trip. They look exhausted. 

May 2015 - Celebrating 20 years!

Service Awards Banquet - Twenty Years

In June I will reach the weirdest achievement of working twenty years at the University of Utah Hospital.
Twenty years ago I began working as a HUC on the Orthopedic inpatient unit. To this day, I think it's one of the toughest work I did at the U. We began working thinking to myself that I would work for the U for about 2-3 years.
At my five year achievement dinner, there were several who were recognized for working twenty years. I thought how crazy it must be, "who are THESE people!?"
I've worked in registration, billing, insurance authorization, financial counseling and training. I've been in IT training for 14 years.
I'm fortunate as hell to have a job I love.
The celebration was very nice. We were invited to dinner at the Grand America hotel. The food, company, music and ambiance were wonderful.

I'm grateful to the leaders who have seen my potential and helped me be a better version of myself.

Gingerbread (Graham Cracker) House

Thanks to pinterest, I found some ideas on how to make a gingerbread house using graham crackers, because who has time or energy to do real gingerbread? (not me)

At work we all brought various candies and decorating ideas and got together and made graham cracker houses.

My coworkers are very much like a family. We get along and fight and get on each other's nerves like siblings.

(as a side note: I donated this graham house to an auction to raise money for the Utah Food Bank. It raised $50. wahoo!)

LDI Video/Slide Show

I wasn't given a lot of time but thought the challenge sounded fun and ... well, challenging.

When I worked on the pictures, I had a moment of frustration with one of the managers (who I have been less than impressed with in the past) who told me she was fine with me coming to take pictures but she couldn't see how "photographs will tell the story." She was very resistant through the entire conversation on the phone as well as while doing the photo shoot! I finally told her, "this is what I do; tell stories through pictures, so let me do what I do best." She left me alone after that. :)

All the other managers, though, were fantastic and immediately caught the vision and were asking me to try this shot and that angle and this room and that employee. Many had their staff "be the patient" so that we could get pictures of patient interaction. It was really fun.

When I put the pictures to the music that was written and sung by Jake Hendriksen (of Jake of the Web) , I was moved by the emotion of the song and the pictures I had collected and I really think it tells the story I wanted it to tell.

It was presented on Thursday by Hospital Administration to the hospital leaders through the LDI.
Here's the video/slide show:

Work BBQ/Picnic

July 13, 2011: My team has a new manager we have been trying to get to know. And, we have added a new team member. AND, we are all a little burned out. So, we decided to take an afternoon for a team picnic at Liberty Park.

Lori's husband grilled chicken for us. We brought the sides and we played some boccie balls (which I'd never played before). Overall, we had a very enjoyable afternoon. The weather cooperated with an overcast, yet very warm (not hot) day.

We watched the squirrels jump from tree to tree and declare their territory with tail waves and loud squeaks. We watched the dogs walk by and suddenly stop in their tracks as they caught the fast moving squirrels in their vision.

We had a marvelous cheesecake from the cheesecake factory and it wasn't until we'd each had a slice that someone decided to read the nutrient information. It was shocking! 800 Calories! eek! Saturated fat: 29 grams!! carbs: 62! SIXTY TWO CARBS! yeah, well, that ended my love of the cheesecake factory plain cheesecake! (even their low carb, made with splenda is still 570 calories, 37 carbs, 26 sat fat.)

It was a very enjoyable afternoon. My coworkers are like a family, which is nice. Here are the pics I loved:
Two Squirrels:
Veronica, a new coworker.
Lisa:
Tasha and a baby puppy:
A friendly game of Boccie Balls:

Work Treats

For our work party, we had a pot-luck luncheon and a pinata. It was pretty funny when the pinata busted open because we all sat there and looked at the candy on the floor. No body moved to get any of it, which is how I got the picture, with no people.




Then we we had a bake sale of sorts...it was an auction to raise money for the Utah Food Bank. The bake sale alone raised more than $400! The auctioneer was the CIO, Jim Turnbull.


For my work buddies, I put together a 'Holiday Survival Kit' - which I can't claim as my own, because when I went to google ideas, there was already a little poem out there...so I used it.


It was really fun to put together and see the responses.

Revenue Cycler

This week, all my hard work to be certified was recognized. I (along with three of my fellow training coworkers) were given a certificate and a pin (and a bonus) for completing our individual projects. I was very happy to get this recognition because I really love what I do.
Having joined a new group of trainers, each teams was tasked to introduce yourself and what you train to the whole group.

Our group decided to do an infomercial. Our new team name is Revenue Cycle so we created a product called the Revenue Cycler (a large blender). We totalled up our various trainings and then created an ingredient for that training. And, of course, we had to add money (in the form of green yogurt).

Derek, Tasha and I wrote the script. Kevin wrote a jingle (which was great!) Shawn created the product slide.

Here are some of the pictures of our presentation (which totally ROCKED!):

Tasha and I high-five eachother. (We played the part of that dumb person who never quite knows what the product is going to do) ("Oh isn't this great!?") Derek and Jenn were our demonstrators:

We got to the part where we add the "money" to the mixture and Jenn couldn't find it: "Where's my money?"

Found it:
Blending the mixture:
Audience testimonials: "Revenue Cycler works for me! Thanks Revenue Cycler!"
The entire team came up at the end to hand out samples (juice boxes) Scott (my boss), Kevin, Derek, Jenn, Deb, Tina, Tasha, Shawn, Bonnie, Muriel and Tim.