Oncologist will miss people, not paperwork
By 10:58 a.m., Dr. Mary Ann Allison already has been working for more than four hours.
The prominent local oncologist is tired after seeing nine patients, and in the two- to three-minute window before her next appointment she rests on a short white stool and sips from a glass of water as a nurse briefs her on lab results and missed calls. Then she’s back on her feet and hurrying down the hall for the next installment of what promises to be another 12-hour day.
A Review-journal reporter trailed the 66-year-old Allison, co-founder and practice president of the Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Southern Nevada, on a recent Thursday as she made her rounds, an opportunity afforded by a job-shadowing program offered through the Clark County Medical Society.
It was a good time to catch Allison, as she plans to retire on April 9 after more than 35 years as a doctor, leaving behind a slew of patients grateful for her care during difficult times in their lives.
She says she’ll miss her patients, but not the ever-growing pile of paperwork that confronts her each day.
“You get to the point where you really kind of want to back off for a bit,” Allison said, sitting in her Henderson office alongside a filing
Doctor
cabinet sprinkled with photos of her family, including two sons and a “grandbaby.” “And things continue to get more complicated, just all this paperwork.”
From Texas to Las Vegas
Allison received her medical degree at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston in 1978, then completed her internship, residency and fellowship at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, during which time she married and had two sons — her proudest accomplishments, she says.
She recalls that when she first entered the field, the paperwork was negligible compared with today. Technological changes, including electronic medical records and insurance authorizations, and laws like the new Nevada Controlled Substance Abuse Prevention Act, which took effect Jan. 1., have made meticulous documentation an everyday part of the job.
“The amount of charting that you have to do now that’s mandated is much more significant than it ever was,” Allison said, adding that while she appreciates the extra safety net, the paperwork can add up to two hours to an already long day.
In her case, that day typically
begins between 6:30 a.m. and 7 a.m., though she often begins with calls to colleagues on the drive to the office. Before her first appointment at 8:15 a.m., she reviews lab results for patients she’ll see that day.
“People have no clue what we do,” Allison said. “You know the perception is that we work 8 to 5, I think.”
After spending six years working in the small city of San Angelo, Texas, Allison decided to try working in a faster-paced group practice, so her family of four picked up and moved to Las Vegas in 1993.
Saying goodbye
Though she’s only allotted 15 minutes a patient in order to fit 25 appointments into the day, Allison makes a point of getting to know each
one.
There are rundowns of prescription medications, odd symptoms and preventive screenings, but also conversations about one woman’s grandchildren, a man’s home renovation and another woman’s changed life as a recent widow.
“That’s what they need,” Allison said. “If all I do is the breast exam and look at their labs, then I don’t know who they are.”
As she jumped from appointment to appointment, Allison was met with shaky voices and sentiments of “I’ll miss you.” Some patients have relied on her as their oncologist for decades.
“I can’t believe it,” 70-year-old Barbara Gibney said as Allison took a seat at her computer, referring to the