By Joseph “Jody” Harris

Joseph “Jody” Harris

The goal is a smooth transition
The last workdays of any professional should be spent tying up loose ends—contacting vendors to give them new contact information, and contacting the people you talk to day to day to assure them that business will continue as usual. Change will always cause people to be uneasy, even if it is a positive change. People, as a rule, prefer continuity and if they cannot have that they want an easy transition that allows them to continue their business as usual.

 

8:00AM:  Reaching out to clients, vendors
I begin the daily routine and meet with the Manager of IT to discuss tape backup and archive of tapes. I explain that I have been archiving tapes at my home in Mobile for the past two years and a new archival method needs to be established. My recommendation is a safe deposit box in a local bank. The next order of business is emails to administrators and the CFOs of managed hospitals to establish responsible parties for IT issues. I will no longer act as the primary contact for MedSeries4 issues, nor will I be the primary contact for IT issues. The Manager of IT will now handle the network issues, the Manager of Field Operations will handle desktop issues, and each facility will have to contact Seimans (the vendor) directly for support on MedSeries4. I then return back to the office organization effort I started yesterday. Today’s goal to provide easy access by my colleagues to information I have compiled over the past 2 years.

11:30AM:  A goodbye lunch with friends
I go out with friends that I have made here and that I may never see again. The food in the Lafayette area of South Louisiana is some of the best I have ever had. These people know how to eat! I will miss the food. Cajun cooking is the best and the only place to get it is Acadiana, Louisiana. I may not be Cajun, but I think my stomach might be. On the positive side, I may be able to stick to a diet long enough to keep off those 10 to 20 pounds of ugly fat if I stay away from this great food.

1:00PM: Back to transition checklist
I am contacted by our internal hospital medical records department. We discuss user setup, and what needs to be done in order to allow printing of face sheets for additional people in medical records. I give the department manager the contact information for Seimans and explained how and when to contact the vendor for MS4 support. I then speak with vendor to update him on his new contacts, and contact information for the chief accounting officer here at Camelot as he will be taking responsibility for purchasing new application software for the hospitals.

3:00PM:  Organizing contact information
I meet with the manager of accounts receivable to discuss document management for mailers in MS4. I plan to work through this with one of the AR people on Thursday morning. I spend most of the rest of the afternoon working on the documentation organization and making all vendor information easily available.

5:00PM: Emotions come into play
Another day is over. Time seems to stand still when you are waiting on an event of this level. Everyone wants to think that changing jobs does not affect them but it is a very emotional time. You really have a lot of anxiety over the leaving of the position and what type of position will you move to and in many cases even if you will find another position. In the best of conditions leaving a job is difficult and you should be aware of how it affects you and not allow yourself to become depressed. Think of things that make you happy and focus on the work at hand. The point is that everything will work out and you will find another position and how you leave this position could affect you later. You may run into people you work with now at a later date and what you do now could affect how they react to you then.

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