Any facilities that stop accepting pts if there is insufficient staff?

[Nurse Ratched, RN]

This came up recently. We were woefully understaffed at the hospital (I hear you out there: "NO! Say it ain't so!") It was potentially dangerous. I figured we could maintain the status quo but that any admissions would be impossible (already short a nurse and would be short 2 nurses according to the staffing grid if another person came in.)

Told supervisor we had to do something in such situations - could we block remaining beds when we were already working short? Told that management states they are never to refuse an admission as long as there are beds, regardless of staffing.

Does anyone practice this?

[gwenith, BSN, RN]

No we have bed ceilings (not ceiling beds lol) if we are short staffed. We can refuse admission (with some exceptions ) if we do not have the staff to cover for that admission. HOWEVER - I work state goverment and they can and do divert in and around the state especially with critical care admissions.

[lee1]

Be careful. Go to your local library and read the state regs for your state's hospitals. There ARE staff/pt ratios for some types of units. AND in mine it does state that they MUST close beds if dangerous staffing exists, so that the leadership must always be informed because they CAN be held accountable.

[SmilingBluEyes]

wow GOOD question Nurse Ratched. I am interested in hearing what many say here.....

I think in OB we have had to "divert" on VERY rare occasions when all our LDRP beds were full. That is rare , however, very unusual.

[meownsmile, BSN, RN]

I dont know that my hospital would close beds for low staff. They would pull nurses from management and slip them into staff positions as long as the bodies matched up with the numbers. They may not do to much but it only says that we have to have X number of RN's on the unit, doesnt say they have to actually DO anything. I'm pretty sure very few of them would either(do anything i mean).

[SmilingBluEyes]

i can't ever recall a time when we diverted due to insufficient staff....that was what I meant to say before and did not.

[rpbear]

I work L&D and we will divert if we are full, not for low staff. However, our NICU has closed due to staffing. They do take babies that we don't forsee ahead of time going to NICU, but they transfer out any stable mom who will deliver a pre-term baby. Lets just say it doesn't sit well with the patients.

Molly

[SmilingBluEyes]

yes, I agree. there is no relief when the "labor bus" pulls up. WE just have to suck it up and deal til every bed is full.

[kontakt]

Our ICU has been closed due to staffing. I work for a small hospital. It doesn't take much to have a staffing crisis.

[butterflynurse]

I work in LTC and our problem is just the opposite. We have a low census so we can't hire anyone. They are also cutting hours for the department heads and office staff.

[LYNNORA]

The hospital I work for blocks beds if there are no staff. I don't know how places don't do that. For example if there are 5 tele patients per nurse and one nurse is short - 5 tele beds get blocked. There are creative things we can do to staff the beds though - for example put people who are not in the count in such as resource and swat nurse.

[Repat]

I have been told the same thing - we do not close while there are open beds. And, with a new manager, we now are not allowed to divert - all ER visits must be allowed, regardless of staffing. And, I cannot find anywhere a law, ruling, or guide that states that this is not allowed. However, we are required to report unsafe practices by the BON yet I am sure the BON won't stand up for any of us who lose our jobs because we spoke up...