A Couple questions about your LDRP facility

[zaksmomrn84]

good afternoon everyone,

i am writing to see if there is anything out there to help our unit. we became an ldrp unit a year ago. we moved to a new hospital and it has definitely been a change among everyone!

i am writing to see how everyone does things. we have 8 total efm on our unit and 14 ldrp rooms. therefore, we have to move our equipment a lot and someone pieces from monitors are missing and sometimes broken. do you deal with this on your unit?

how else does your unit save money? we are in hard times and i'm looking how to deal with those things on our unit.

also, how does your unit give report? bedside?

thanks!!!

[nurturing_angel]

we move our equipment around too. it sucks but thats how management likes it. we also get lost and broken equipment because of it.

i can't give any specific ideas for saving money since i am not in management but i know everything is very tight. no frills, nothing special!

as for report, we do it at the main desk. wish we had more privacy for report but we just have to be very careful that pts or visitors are not around to hear anything.

i do love having ldrp's instead of ldr's and postpartum. its nice not having to move mama's to another room.

good luck with your new dept!!

[tablefor9, RN]

I think moving EFM equip is the nature of the beast w/ LDRP. We just have a policy of not robbing peter to pay paul, for the most part. Our extra pieces live on the wire supply cart in the clean utility room...that's where you go for an extra. Also, we are all really good abt putting in biomed orders for broken equip. Finders, keepers. Our unit is the hospital "step child", so we know that we have to take care of our own stuff...we may not be able to swing much in capital budget next year.

To save $$$...we circulated a list of what our supplies cost the hospital, versus what we get reimbursed for them. When you see how much your unit loses every time you tube a pack of pads to the ICU, you start sending folks to the stock room for their own supplies. And, it helps goose you to remember to charge for that bag of pit. We also have stopped stocking extra linen in rooms, have dimmed the lights after visiting hours, have a saline lock instead of KVO policy, send EFM belts home w/ Labor checks instead of tossing them, "here, hon, bring these back with you when you're coming to stay". We don't use graduates for urine output w/ foleys, when you can use a hat all the way through the stay. And tons more. We are the recessionistas of the hospital, baby, because our unit has the smallest budget of any in our facility.

About report: We do a shift huddle in the conference room, which is basically a charge report & any assignment changes that need to happen, then individual pt report in a locked med room or empty triage room. Then walking rounds.

HTH

[zaksmomrn84]

That was VERY helpful!! I like the belts idea and the linen idea because our linen is getting stolen. Nice, i know.

We also have that policy but it's broken all the time!!! I can't take it myself.

How about delivery tables, what do you use for those?

[tntrn, ASN, RN]

We have LDRP and have for several years. Our monitors stay in the rooms. I understand the idea of the family not moving to a different room, but I would want to be in a fresh clean bed, not one that I just gave birth in, that is washed while I am in the shower, and still damp while the new linen is put on.

Our laboring women who go to C/sections are moved post op to our "postpartum" area, which is where our surgicals also go. Planned C'section patients are usually admitted in our triage area, go to the OR from there, and then to one of the surgical rooms.

I have worked both kinds of arrangements, and much prefer the LDR then postpartum setup.

[tablefor9, RN]

How about delivery tables, what do you use for those?

Delivery cart has suture, needles, supplies of all kinds in it, and is locked in an extra closet in the room. Table is set up with minimum supplies, then anything needed in addition is added to the sterile field from the cart. Is this what you meant?

Also, about saving $$$ on the supplies...we found one particular suture pack that was running almost $100/box for the three pack more than the exact same suture in the singles. Guess which one we order now?

[Irishobrn]

Wow we are totally spoiled where I work. We have delivery carts, monitoring equipment, warmers, and pumps in every room. The only supplies we need to get separately are vacuums, forceps, and telemetry units. Those are located between the rooms so you don't have to go far. I have to say that our manager is very good at manipulating the budget to get us everything we need. Good luck to you all! :)