Discharge from ER after Medication administration

Specialties Emergency

Published

I know this question may seem trivial, but we are having some issues with when to discharge patients after they receive medications? What are other institutions doing regarding this?

Thank you for your response!

pretty much like bob said. unfortunatley, we are a busy er and don't have the time to monitor up to four hours for adverse side effects.

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:eek: I work in a Children's ED and we have a blanket 20min wait. Doesn't matter whether PO, IM or IV.

Can really get hectic

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Hey and ya know...ya gotta address that 40/10 HORRIBLE pain the pt with nrml - neg. wrk-up( and no ride) claims to have, cause pain is the 5 th vital sign.... So when level 2 has a few rooms come open we have to set up for a "spend the night party" for all those medicated for pain and HAVE NO RIDE.. and are to compromised by their pain meds. to drive home. But they are alert enough to uitlize fine motor movement and press the call button every fifteen minutes, and state articulately WHAT they want to eat and how many pillows and blankets they HAVE to have to be COMFORTABLE!!!! ........DONT I WISH I could say heres 600mg motrin see ya bye......:devil:

P.S. had one drug seekers husband brought her in she had two kroger bags full of sodas, and junk food...he left..she got medicated..he wouldnt come get her till A.M.,..she had no $ for cab fair....maybe next time she'll bring her sleepin bag and own pillow....PLLLLL:p AAARRGGGHH

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If I didn't know better I'd say that we probably worked together in the last ED I worked. Except you're in Ga and I'm in Al. Just goes to show you they're the same no matter where. Lucky for us, Huh!!!!!:uhoh21:

Have a good one

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GA--Al... Hey maybe they're all KIN ....haha.:rolleyes: .. GREAT, more evidence supporting that Drug seeking (addiction) is genetic.... :rotfl: :rotfl:

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originally posted by 2ndcareerrn

po meds, otd (out the door) immediately, im meds 20 min hold.

iv meds..by the time you d/c the iv and give instructions, more than enough time has passed.

bob

what bob said, but if the iv was an antibiotic, or if the injection was an antibiotic, we kept them an additional 20 min. to be sure of no allergic rx. if an injection of pain medicine, they had to have someone drive them home, or go home by taxi. all of this was always documented because of the liability issue if something went awry. :rolleyes: :D

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It sounds like it's pretty much the same everywhere. We do the standard 20 minutes...anyone who gets narcotics needs to have a ride home. We just started a policy that any patient who gets narcotics is walked out to their vehicle and we have to WATCH them get into a vehicle with someone else driving and WATCH them drive away. Had a lady a couple months ago walked out the door with someone who was going to drive her home...we watched her get into her friends car and then we went back inside. Five minutes later, we were listening to the police scanner and this woman was pulled over for crossing the center line...sigh. We wrote NO DRIVING FOR 12 HOURS on her discharge instructions, but she ignored them...

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It sometimes makes me wonder when my responsibility ends. We've had similar episodes of patients leaving(with proper instruction re: driving) and they feel they don't have to listen. We can't go home with them to make sure they're following instruction.

And to top it off, when my little lady left the ED, she was hot footing-it to another facility in an attempt to get more.

Go figure :uhoh3:

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