The post by erdiane brought up something I've been thinking about. We have had an outrageous number of pt's the last 3-4 weeks, it's been BRUTAL. Now, I know I work in a small hospital, our ED has 13 beds. I work 7p-7a,staffed w/ 2 nurses after 9pm and 2 nurses after 2am on the weekends. It has been my experience so far that we are usually pretty busy until around midnight or so, then it slacks off til around 4 - 5 am when people start waking up and come in. For the last month or so, I've come in to anywhere from 10 - 15 people in the waiting room, a packed house in the back, and it does NOT STOP until 3 - 4 am. And by does not stop, I mean people are coming in to be triaged until then. LOTS of people. And like erdiane, we are not able to stop for our full breaks, although sometimes I can heat up my meal and grab a bite occasionally when I walk by. I'm not really complaining about that, I work with great people and we have a great team atmosphere. I'm just wondering if anyone else has noticed a higher volume than normal FOR THEIR ED SIZE lately.
For our ed "fast track" is our low acuity patients, ones that can be in and out in roughly an hour- stitches, ingrown toenails, etc. It's staffed by 1 RN and a Nurse practitioner from 11a-11p every day. Ours has specific criteria for who can and can't be seen there. It really helps a lot but REALLY makes people angry when "healthy" people go back before people who are truly sick. But that's how it goes, and it does keep the main ER beds open for those who really need it.
I'm not sure what it is, but we too have had very high volumes! We set a new ED record two weekends ago (but one of the local WICs was closed) and have been close to that record number several other times within these past two or three weeks. It's crazy! Granted, we had a full moon in that time period, but that still doesn't explain all of the really sick people that have been pouring into the ED.
luckylucyrn
124 Posts
For our ed "fast track" is our low acuity patients, ones that can be in and out in roughly an hour- stitches, ingrown toenails, etc. It's staffed by 1 RN and a Nurse practitioner from 11a-11p every day. Ours has specific criteria for who can and can't be seen there. It really helps a lot but REALLY makes people angry when "healthy" people go back before people who are truly sick. But that's how it goes, and it does keep the main ER beds open for those who really need it.