Hi there!
You know who I am (check out the “About Me” page) but where am I and why? Currently I am in Doha, Qatar working for the public health provider Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC). We are working from home because of COVID-19 but usually I can be found in the office at Barwa Tower 2 working on a number of projects relating to the impending implementation of Health Insurance for Qatar, Clinical Coding Auditing of HMC, Clinical Costing and/or any other job that is sent my way. My job is very diverse and interesting AND it is the longest I have EVER stayed in one place OR for one company in my entire working career. That must mean that I am happy and like it? It has been interesting that’s for sure over the last almost 9 years that I have been a resident of Qatar.
When I first arrived in October 2011 things were very different, work-wise and the city itself – the changes over the last 9 years have been staggering. I shake my head every day with some new or easier process than I had ‘back in the day’. As for day to day work we moved from paper records to an almost complete Electronic Health Record during this time along with implementing a Health Information Exchange. I was heavily involved in both of these projects as the Subject Matter Expert for Health Information Management, Paper and Electronic Data Migration, Clinical Reporting and Clinical Research Solution groups. It was quite an experience with the copious amounts of paper medical records for 8 different facilities and their many outreach sites, I became very well associated with the provider for scanning and secondary storage of our records, fortunately I have had many years of experience in culling, archiving and scanning of medical records over the course of my career and this averting many possible disasters along the way.
Personally I have traveled to so many countries over the last 9 years that I only dreamed of when I was living down under in Australia so far away from the rest of the world. That is one of the most precious personal gifts I have from the time I have spent in the northern hemisphere, also my geographical knowledge is a whole lot better! I have been fortunate enough to travel with all my children across the globe here and there over the years with so many amazing memories that I will treasure for as long as I can remember.
So now Qatar is gearing up for 2022 and the World Cup (soccer that is) – I am not a fan but I have learned that I am in the minority! There are so many new roads, signs and of course stadiums, I am sure it will be a raging success but I have never planned to be here for it – if it was rugby league now that would be a different story.
That’s it for today, I hope you are having a wonderful day making memories. I will answer the why part in my next post.
Carolyn in Doha
