[Em1995]

Does anyone know the average # of nursing home hopsice patients seen in a day? I find 6-8 very do-able.

[Hospice Nurse LPN]

Depends. I see 6 n.h. pts. in a day. They are at 2 different facilities. If they were all at one place, maybe 8.

[aimeee]

6 if in two facilities, 8 if in one sounds possible to me. I suppose one might be able to do 10 if they were all in the same facility and all very stable, but when does that ever happen? And that would definitely be a max, not an average.

[Passion for the Job]

Originally Posted by Em1995

Does anyone know the average # of nursing home hopsice patients seen in a day? I find 6-8 very do-able.

I am part time hospice nurse and casemanager. I have about 7 on my case load and we are required to do the "standard" of 6 visits a day. 1/2 are home patients, the other half are nursing home. We feel we are drowning trying to keep up with a case load and visits. We also do our own admits, set up HCA, go to the IDT meetings, and update care plans.

[Em1995]

Are you guys serious? Our nursing home nurses are expected to see only 4 patients a day in a nursing home. I was told by someone at work that the national standard is 4 nursing home patients in one day. I have fellow colleagues in hospice nursing in different parts of the country and they have told me our nursing home expectation is extremely light.Most nurses in other hospices tell me they also see 6-8 nursing home patients per day.

[aimeee]

There's another factor in here and that is how often you visit those patients. If I'm going in twice a week or more I have a pretty good handle on what is going on and I don't need to take as much time reviewing things as I might if I go in weekly (or let's hope its not once every two weeks! Awful, but I've heard of it happening)

The numbers I suggested above reflect the idea that there are 2 visits/wk + prn for unexpected changes and that there is an admission nurse to do any new admissions. They also reflect the idea that in nursing homes there is usually a mix of acuity, but generally patients have fewer acute needs (more debility, dementia, and FTT rather than cancer) and I spend a lot less time teaching because I am just reinforcing the teaching I have already done with the facility staff before not starting from zero like I do with a home caregiver. There is still some teaching with family, but its more likely to focus on explanations of our interventions and disease trajectory.