How many admissions can you do or have been asked to do in one day?

Specialties Home Health

Published

Well, the weekends are becoming unmanageable for the on-call nurse at my agency.... They will now schedule 4 admits without blinking an eye on Saturday and then we turn around on Sunday and start all over again. Last nurse on-call last weekend has 6 admits to finish still d/t not being given any charting time and no day off.

Thoughts? Comments?..... How many admits can "you" do, start to finish, in one day... just curious.

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Specializes in Home Health, Case Management, OR.

The most I have ever done is 2 in one day.

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tow admits=8 hours; two admits and a repeat visit=10 hours; two admits and a resumption of care in 11 hours, three admits is just about 12 hours. Anything more than that=JUST PLAIN CRAZY!

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Specializes in COS-C, Risk Management.

The most SOCs I've done in one day is 4, 4 more the next day plus two follow-up visits for 2 of the patients from the day before and sent one of those to the hospital.

"Doable" depends on a lot of factors. How well you know and understand OASIS, how functional the patient is (the less functional, the easier the OASIS assessment), how many meds they have, what you have to teach, how much the patients talk, what you have to teach/do (wound care takes longer), how far away they are, and how much overall paperwork your agency requires.

I think 4 SOC is doable in ideal conditions, but those ideal conditions rarely happen. Don't know that I would want to do it all the time.

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Specializes in MedSurg/Neuro/Ortho/Home Care VNA.

"Doable" depends on a lot of factors. How well you know and understand OASIS, how functional the patient is (the less functional, the easier the OASIS assessment), how many meds they have, what you have to teach, how much the patients talk, what you have to teach/do (wound care takes longer), how far away they are, and how much overall paperwork your agency requires.

I think 4 SOC is doable in ideal conditions, but those ideal conditions rarely happen. Don't know that I would want to do it all the time.

Well most of the times you do end up with pts. with 20 to 30 meds; others are very chatty; and you must be firm to get through the SOC process. Others have either their nosy neighbor that interupts every 5 min or so, or either they are c/o their hospital stay. While, I am thinking of the next visit time.

Oh yes, wound care, imagine have multiple of them, you need to measure. There are many factors. One time pt. had to use the restroom, I was sitting there for almost 30 minutes, I was upset, so imagine doing so many admissions with regular visits. Also, consider the traveling time between visits, traffic, roadblocks.

I am comfortable with 2 SOC and 2 revisits or 3 SOC in an 8 hr. day.

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Specializes in Certified Wound, Ostomy & Continence Nurse.

Yesterday I did one recert, one resumption and two admissions. My agency expects documentation to be transmitted by the next morning. I told my supervisor that I couldn't get it done by the next morning so she gave me until Tuesday morning. Fortunately I know the recert and one admit so keeping the patients clear in my mind is not a problem.

Good luck with your job.

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Specializes in Home health.

2 admits is an 8 hr day at my agency. Anything more than that and you're going to go into overtime. Our agency uses Allscripts software and it takes a great deal of time to input all your data and compose your narrative and have it ready to go by 5p.

I don't know why other agencies think they can keep adding more and more patients to our already busy days. Patients today are being discharged earlier from the hospital with more complex health issues than in the past. It takes time to assess and provide quality care not to mention the drive time to/from patient's home.

Other things that hang up your time: Inservices, computer software updates, problems with the computer, staff meetings. On the weekends one of us is the "charge nurse" which means we have to take calls from the hospital we're affiliated with and troubleshoot any patient calls to our exchange as well as see patients. Unfortunately, the charge nurse does not get a lighter patient load or an increase in pay on those days.

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Specializes in home health, trauma/surgical step down.

I'm a full-time "assessment specialist" (admissions nurse) at my agency and a full-time day of 8 hours is 3 admits. It's do-able, but many of my patients are elderly, CHF/diabetes/COPD type folks.

Mary

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I'm a full-time "assessment specialist" (admissions nurse) at my agency and a full-time day of 8 hours is 3 admits. It's do-able, but many of my patients are elderly, CHF/diabetes/COPD type folks.

Mary

I think it depends on the computer program your using, how much "extra" your company demands you document above and beyond what's necessary and if you have additional "paper" forms to fill out. At my company we have 9 forms to fill out and have patient sign, also 10 additional "paper" forms to fill out to turn into the office (plot sheet, direction sheet, diagnosis page, etc., etc.... and the computer program and what that entails... Three admits in 8 hours is impossible at my company.

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Specializes in LTC, Med-Surg, IMCU/Tele, HH/CM.

at my agency we have an admit nurse on the weekends who works 12 hour shifts. She does a maximum of 4 admits in 12 hours. I am not being asked to do admits yet because I am still learning the admit process.

Edit* our admit nurse has been with the agency for 35 years. So that probably makes a huge difference.

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Also, I forgot to mention we are covering 3 counties. Slows you down when it takes 1 1/2 hours to get to your next admission.

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I have done 4 admits in a day on a few occasions, 3 would not be unheard of on a busy day.

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