by Hinde Gribi
The
Mission Neighborhood Resource Center (MNRC) helps homeless people in giving
them social services referrals and medical assistance.
My
job responsibilities as an intern are scheduling and changing patient
appointments, faxing prescriptions, referrals, scanning patient’s forms
(patient registration forms, consent, address, income and insurance
eligibility), checking insurance validity and filing documents.
I
start at 8:30 am, and the first thing I do when I arrive is to prepare patient
registration forms in English and Spanish.
After that, I log in to my computer. When patients start to show up, I
ask them if they have an appointment or if they are a new patient. If they are new,
I give them the forms to fill out, but if they have an appointment, I ask them
to give their name and date of birth, so I can check them in and also verify
their insurance validity. Sometimes, I answer the phone, take messages or
transfer the call to the appropriate person. I also scan all the new patient
registration forms and other documents. I
do some research on the internet too, for patients such as looking for clinics
that offer free acupuncture or free dental services etc…
Every
Thursday MNRC staff has a meeting from 12:30 p.m. until 1:30 p.m. At each
meeting they discuss different subjects: one was about how to deal with patients. The other subject was about how to get patients
to open up and talk about their personal
lives… if they have experienced abuse or rape…..and offer them help.
A
challenge I have faced at MNRC is that most of the patients speak Spanish, so
sometimes I can’t help them because I don’t speak Spanish. So, I apologize to
them and I call a coworker to help them. But when I sometimes understand what
they’re saying, I help them.
As
an intern I have learned a lot of fascinating things at MNRC. Every time I go there, I
learn something new. All the people who
work there are friendly, nice and work as a team. It’s has been such a
wonderful and interesting experience.
