J A n U A R Y 2 0 1 8 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y. N E T • 4 7
each day. "They wanted to know how many hours I work," she
explains. "It's come back to bite them a bit because I can bill for
overtime. When you're the point person for so many things, it's
hard not to be here all the time."
In addition to her many clinical and business tasks, she's in
charge of building maintenance and making sure the facility's
grounds are well maintained. She's also the lunch relief for the
center's circulating nurses.
The physician-owners tell her she's doing a great job, although
she's also been told that she's on the high side of the administra-
tor pay scale. "I'm like, really?" says Ms. Discouraged. "For per-
forming a job-and-a-half?"
With her frustration mounting, she stuck up for herself and sug-
gests other facility managers who want to make more do the
same. "I knew what the administrator who left received for a holi-
day bonus," she says. "I made it clear that I wanted the same
amount."
Ms. Discouraged doesn't have the benefit of working with a big
parent company to ask for best prices on surgical supplies or con-
tacts for local reps when capital equipment goes down. "I have to
make all those calls and do all the footwork myself," she says.
She's started to keep track of the money she's saving the facility
and will present the figure to the physician-owners, who each
make more in a quarter than she makes in a year. "I don't
begrudge them their money, I really don't, but it would go a long
way for them to say, 'You're doing your job and most of a second
job, here's a 10% raise," she says.
Despite her frustrations, she likes the surgeons she works with
and the team she's built. If she were to leave for a new job, it'd be
