Telling "STATE" you don't have supplies....

[nervousnurse]

Hi, I've only been in LTC/SNF 7 months, and thank GOODNESS, I was off when STATE was there.....I am hearing horror stories!

One of my friends "got in trouble" from our DON because she told an inspector she was out of a certain supply........UMM--that's just the TRUTH!!!! What ELSE could she have said. She HAD to cover herself, and explain WHY she absolutely could NOT perform a simple procedure. Most importantly, if the vulnerable resident could have been at risk because of the lack of supplies, WHAT choice did she have but to tell the State person there weren't any?!?!!

How do the "suits" where you work handle it when they find out you told a State Surveyor the truth about something negative such as not having a supply???

**Oh, and slightly off topic, but it made me LOL that they suddenly had all of our housekeeping staff help us pass trays----seriously???? Like State is going to believe this happens ALL THE TIME? I like what someone else said about this on another thread--yes, even our secretary helps pass trays.....our teamwork is THAT good, every day....(don't we WISH!)

[Pat_Pat RN]

If "boss" is around. Which they aren't on evenings and nights. We don't have email or the like. We have a sign out sheet in the supply room, but I don't know if she ever looks at it. We've been out of 16Fr F/C for....3 weeks...?

[duskyjewel]

Uummmmm, you seriously work for a company that does not utilize email in any way? How is that even possible? I think that's a sign to run away, not walk. Email is just a basic utility these days.

[VANurse2010]

It IS the floor nurse's responsibility to tell whomever does the supplies that they are in short supply. Not every facility has a supply coordinator.

Should it be mentioned if noticed? Sure. But I do NOT agree with the proposition that it's on the nurse pushing the cart to "inventory" supplies and notify the orderer. It needs to be in someone's job description to inventory this and order it - and I don't mean the floor nurse. I suppose it doesn't HAVE to be, but it does if one expects their residents to have needed supplies.

[NurseQT]

Who ever is responsible for ordering supplies should most definitely be the one monitoring the inventory! The floor nurses shouldn't have to track down the supply person when they're running low on an item, UNLESS a specific item is being used more than previously due to a change in someone's orders or a new admit or something of that nature. Giving the supply person a heads up regarding a change will also help them with adjusting their product order accordingly.

[withasmilelpn]

I can not stand running out of supplies and will track down and notify everyone possible to make sure we get them. We are usually well stocked where I work now. However I did work at a facility that wasn't - and worked weekends only, no email and a sign out sheet was supposed to communicate our needs. Didn't happen. We could go for months without supplies. The worst time was when we ran out of strips for our glucometers. My manager had to go buy new glucometers from the CVS because they no one carried our brand. Very frustrating. As far as the OP's post, my feeling that a place that is not run well, short on supplies regularly, probably deserves the state finding out. If it's not a regular thing, the state doesn't need to know. Regardless, staff should do whatever possible to get what's needed or call the doc to get new orders for treatment so the patient isn't neglected.