Working on the road

I'm writing this from a drive-by Starbucks in Stockton.

For this week, I'll be doing some temp work for one of the corporate chains in California.

It's a pretty busy schedule with quasi-borderline treatment planning.
A lot of the work is subpar. A lot of it is rushed.
It'll be things like 4 quadrants of scaling and root planing and a crown in one hour.

In the mornings, there is a "huddle" that consists of assigning each dentist a production number.
We're expected to make that amount of money.

The assistants don't really know what's going on.
It's fun for them, because they do more than the usual suctioning.

However, for us dentists, it's pretty gruelling.
We're expected to do quadruple the usual private clinic production at HMO rates.
We're expected to do it to the minimum standard of care.

It's a numbers game. We are supposed to make at least 4 times what we cost to the company.
Otherwise, it's a loss.

I'm glad that I'm just a temp, an I intend to stay that way...
Because here, you get what you pay for.