Week of December 17, 2001
Monday
Tuesday Wednesday
Thursday Friday
Saturday Sunday
Most Recent Update
Day number one is history. Our first day of advanced access scheduling is now over and for me it was just a little more busy than my usual Monday. I saw about three more people than I would ordinarily have but I started an hour later than normal so I really saw more people in less time than normal. No real problems today, I felt that I was being more responsive to my patients by getting them in today when they called. Of course, this is December when we are less busy so we will see how this looks in early January. Tomorrow is scheduled less heavily beforehand so it will be interesting to see what happens tomorrow. Thursday may be the real test as there are only two physicians in the office that day along with two nurse practitioners.
Today there was also a new physician starting in our office. He helped cover for any overflow that we could not see since he has no patient panel of his own yet. He will build a panel quickly with one physician leaving at the end of February. He's a nice guy which patients will pick up on quickly plus he has had a couple years experience in practice already which will enable him to get up to speed quicker than a new residency graduate.
I still have some more configuration work to do on my peer-to-peer network. I am using Norton Personal Firewall on my Win 2K box and with it enabled the other computer sharing the internet connection with this one cannot see the internet. This is the same problem I was having with WinProxy before the two computers could see each other. Now that they can see each other I thought that the problem would be solved but no such luck. This is a problem I will be working on over the holiday weekends coming up as well as permitting the Win 98 box to transfer files to a folder on this Win 2K box. Although I have enabled sharing for the folder here on the Win 2K box, the Win 98 box still cannot see it. The two computers can see each other through Network Neighborhood and My Network Places respectively so something is still configured wrong. I am not going to spend any more time thinking about it tonight as I have other things to do before tomorrow.
No update.
No update.
I was right about today possibly being the toughest day with our new scheduling. Although the last two days have not been a picnic themselves. As you may have noticed I have not been able to post an update either of the two previous days as there has simply not been enough time. I am seeing more people every day and therefore finishing later. I am dictating more charts after the end of clinic hours which is keeping me later as well. I am very glad we picked this "slow" week to start this project rather than after the first of the year. Everyone seems to still be pleased with it and I am sure I will slow down some once I work through the backlog of scheduled appointments sometime after the first of the year(February?).
Internet Connection Sharing problems still are getting the best of me. I spent what spare time I had at home Tuesday night trying to solve the problem with ICS on the two computers downstairs. Basically, the kids computer does not think it has a connection to the Internet now for unknown reason(s). This without any change to the configuration on either computer that I am aware of. Both computers can see the other one on the network so I know it is not a network card/cable problem but I have not found the configuration problem yet and probably won't get a chance to work on it until this weekend at the earliest.
Delanae's computer is also frustrating me. She has a Dazzle DVC80 Video Capture Device that I gave her sometime this year, at her birthday I think. It had worked fine with Windows ME but since upgrading to Windows XP it had not worked. She had tried downloading the driver patch for XP from the Dazzle website and installing it with no luck in fixing the problem. Both Windows Movie Maker and the software that comes with the Dazzle DVC80 still lock up when you try and record the video from the camcorder onto the hard drive. I messed with it for some time last night and still haven't fixed the problem. Today I got a couple more possibilities after searching the Dazzle website and the Microsoft XP knowledge base. Hopefully I will have the time and energy to try again tonight to see if I can get it working correctly.
I can't wait for the weekend to be here. I still have some Christmas shopping to do which should be fun with all the other people out this weekend. I also need some sleep and time to exercise. Tomorrow at the office will probably be as busy as the past few days. Wish me luck tomorrow!
Another long day today. I was real busy, especially for it being this close to Christmas. I ended the day with a long procedure which got started about 45 minutes late due to the number of patients I had to see before it. Then, it took longer than I had expected which meant I did not get to making phone calls and dictating a few more charts until after 6:30. I did not leave the office until after 8 which put me home very late. Tomorrow will be a shopping day and I am not sure I have the energy to do that but I must find it somewhere. More days of exercise this week would probably have made me feel better.
No luck with getting the video capture device to work last night. Actually, it is not that the video capture device is not working. The video capture software simply freezes up and will not close unless the computer is rebooted. This happens when the camcorder is turned on after the software is running. The software runs fine until then. Uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers and the software did not solve the problem and Windows XP Device Manager says there is no problem with the drivers for the Dazzle DVC-80 nor are there any device conflicts. It must be a USB problem since it does not occur until there is a device powered up and connected to a USB port. We have the latest XP driver for the Dazzle and are using Windows Movie Maker that comes with XP and has been updated since installation. I did another search on Microsoft.com today and could not find any reported problem like this in the knowledge base. I will try a Google search sometime this weekend. This is a very frustrating problem since the video capture device worked fine under Windows ME.
No update.
Christmas shopping all day yesterday and again this afternoon. We fought the crowds at one of the malls in Portland all day yesterday and by the time we got home I was exhausted. 'Course that would not have anything to do with being sleep deprived all week now would it? Long lines at most checkout counters and LOTS of people inside and outside the mall. There was even a sheriff's mounted patrol riding around in the mall parking lot as we came out.
We took Stephen and one of his friends along as well as Stacey. Stephen and Greg wanted to go to a guitar center to look at guitars and all the accessories that every band needs to be able to play. They were there for a couple of hours then walked over to the mall since it was very close and met us in the food court for lunch. Leaving, the parking lot was a real zoo but we saw no fender benders getting out. We were just glad to be out of there and headed home.
Today Stacey and I went looking for a couple of things, one of which she watched me get not knowing it is for her. I just told her I needed to get it for a stocking stuffer and she did not even ask if it could be her. It will go very well with her main gift that she has been wanting for a long time. Until she gets her main gift I don't think she will connect what I got today with herself. The main shop I went to get something from today was closed by the time I got there. That means I will have to go tomorrow at noon before it closes since it is a gift for my medical assistant and I have to have it before we leave the office tomorrow. Nothing like a little last minute pressure!
I do not know what tomorrow will be like in the office. I know I have one patient to see in the hospital tomorrow and we will be discharging him tomorrow as soon as possible. Most Christmas Eves we only have one person stay for the afternoon and everyone goes home at noon or so but we will see what it looks like tomorrow. Of course I am hoping that it will not have to be me stay past noon tomorrow other than to get my medical assistant her main gift.
Our family Christmas picture is now posted. If you can't wait until Tuesday to see it then click here. All design credits go to Delanae. Have a great holiday week!
