In the World of Downton Abbey

Chapter 12 - The Hospital Accountant

Mandy had already gotten used to the fact that everything in the world of Downton Abbey looked exactly like it did in the show. Dr. Clarkson and the hospital were no different. She had gotten an interview with him concerning the accounting position, and she got the job! The moment she said she had a degree, the job was hers. It was a lot easier to get a job in this time period rather than her own. She had to sit through six different interviews before she got her job at the law firm.

Mandy was given the tour by Dr. Clarkson, and Mrs. Crawley accompanied them. Mandy walked through the room full of patients, a few of them young men who eyed her as she walked by. Her nose smelled the sterilizer and alcohol. She was shown her work office. The room was small, had a single mahogany desk with a typewriter on it, as well as piles of files on the desk and stacked everywhere. Mandy gasped when she saw the mess. "Oh, gosh..."

"Now, here is our financial paperwork that needs to be sorted out," Dr. Clarkson said and put a hand on the mound of folders on the wooden desk. "Yes, I know, this place is a mess. Usually my right hand man and myself deal with the financial paperwork and running the finances of the hospital, but since we have been quite busy lately, we haven't been able to work on them for a few days. And as you can see, even after a few days, the paperwork piles up."

"So, it will be my job to sort out all the finances." She waved her hands, indicating the room. "Sort out all this."

"Yes." He took a folder off of the top of the stack and showed it to Mandy. She recognized the layout of the form from the law firm, but of course, the information on it was difference since this was a hospital. It looked like a form that detailed the cost of medication for a patient. "For example, this form tells us that this patient needs this medication, and this is the price of it. Of course, we order the medication and pay for the order, but the patient pays for the medication. We organize this folder with other forms alike to it, and when the patient has paid for the medication, we put it in a separate file with the other forms stating that the medication was paid off. There is another stack detailing ordering forms."

"I see," Mandy said and took the form. "I have my work cut out for me."

"Yes, indeed." He took another folder from a different stack and opened it and showed it to her. "These forms outline the amount the hospital needs to pay for new bedding, blankets, and things like that. It is your job now to calculate total cost of each expenditure and create a total amount for each category—bedding, food, furniture, medications, etc. This form, for example, shows the order of a doctor's stool needed in the patients' room and the cost of it. This will need to be stored with other order forms that have been paid off, and there is another stack with pending orders."

Mandy nodded. "I understand. It's not all that different from my last job, only I was dealing with people's bank accounts."

"Well, you will not be dealing with people's bank accounts, but you will be keeping track of their payments for their hospital stays and medication and so forth."

"Understood."

"Any questions so far?"

"Not yet. I'm sure that I will have some when I get started with the job."

"And you will, which is alright. Feel free to ask me, or my right-hand man George Buckle."

"Alright."

They exited Mandy's new office, and she cringed when she looked back into it as they left it. She would be spending her whole first few days of her job organizing that mess of a room. At least she would be able to stay busy.

Next up was her bedroom, which was up the stairs from the main hospital area. The three of them stepped into the room. It was a single room, wooden-floored with white walls and a single bed, which looked like the patients', on the far side next to the window. There was also a dresser on the other wall and a portrait of pink flowers on the wall. Aside from that, the room was rather drab.