auditing call lights?

Nurses General Nursing

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Any one else dealing with this at their hospital?

We were told that our call lights were being audited from now on. In ICU we rarely have call lights (we're typically in the pts room or very close by, and the pts can't usually use them).

Now anytime a call light goes off, the unit clerk is supposed to visually locate the nurse and make a note of what he/she was doing when the call light went off and where they were in the unit. I'm trying not to be irate about this, but I'm having a very, very hard time with it.

The whole point of using a call light is that your nurse is not in the room, right? So basically we're going to be reprimanded if we have too many call lights during a shift. Management believes we should either be in our pts room or directly outside their door at all times during a 12-hr shift. We don't have enough computers to chart outside our rooms so we typically chart in the nurses station in the middle of the unit.

Anyone else encounter this?

my thought is that these hospitals with a focus on customer service need to have a pt consierge! They could run around fluffing pillows, bringing ice to pts, snacks to families, and all manner of butt kissing so that I can be free to actually provide the nursing skills I went to school for, the ones that are keeping my pts alive and healthy! Ah, one can dream, right?

We have trackers we have to pin to our scrubs when we walk in for shift. They are programmed to work with the call bell system and our ascom phones so that when pt calls out for whatever it is they need the unit secretary "chirps" our phone to go to that room. From that moment on we are on a timer, sort of like the fast food drive thru window with the monitor that counts down how long it takes for an order to be filled. We do get audited. I call mine my "floor arrest". She can also see how often we round on our patients and how long we spent in each patient's room. It really makes my day when my unit secretary tracks me and uses the pt room intercom to ask me to go to another pt's room because they need xyz.

Specializes in Med/Surg, Academics.
my thought is that these hospitals with a focus on customer service need to have a pt consierge! They could run around fluffing pillows, bringing ice to pts, snacks to families, and all manner of butt kissing so that I can be free to actually provide the nursing skills I went to school for, the ones that are keeping my pts alive and healthy! Ah, one can dream, right?

Here's an idea: You have student nurses on the floor? Request of the schools that each student nurse spend one shift as a volunteer each week on a unit to be determined by the managers based on need. They can answer call lights, pass trays, fluff pillows, etc. The students' performance as a student nurse and a volunteer can also be used as a recruiting tool.

LOL LOL @ teeth itch!

The last floor I worked audited call lights. They were able to generate a report from each shift how many times individual lights went on, how long they went unanswered and if they were bedside/bathroom/etc. They could not show if they were answered by the desk or shut off in the room, however, so many patients would state 'they just shut the bell off, no one ever came to the room.' My answer at our staff meetings on 'improving call light response' (ugh) was to provide adequate staff; not surprisingly, this was usually ignored.

I've since left that facility but hear they have instituted 'rn trackers' which monitor your movements through the unit. Apparently they're interested in how much time nurses spend in the room and how many times we wash hands. Good riddance to that place and all of its 'smart' technology. *eyeroll[/quote

I was at a facility that had this system. It was a blessing and a curse....depending on who you asked.

A lot of the nurses loved it because there was a record that showed how much time they spent with the patient. Other nurses hated it because it showed how much time they spent with the patient. Most of the aides really liked it...wonder why. ;)

Specializes in ER, TRAUMA, MED-SURG.

We also started wearing the locators before I retired but they aren't in use there any more.

One facility - a wound/vent LTAC - entailed the administrator and DON would actually go into a pt's room and either pull the CB cord or the bathroom light and time how long it took to be answered and then how long it took the nurse to get there.

I was at the station charting and one of my unresponsive pt's bathroom light - I got up immediately and went to the semiprivate room. Spoke to both patients when I entered the room. The bathroom door was slightly ajar, and out popped both DON and CEO. Asked why I didn't answer the light at the desk - I eplained to them that since it was the bathroom light and the room was the first pt room away from the station I came to the room - and since neither pt could use the light or get OOB for that matter, they said they would excuse the fact that I didn't answer the light at the desk.

Anne, RNC

Specializes in Lvn to RN, new grad med/surg.

You would think the money would be better spent on additional staff Ie: more techs that could actually answer call lights rather than add in the hospital arrest (RN tracker). If they choose to hire unprofessional staff, they pay the price, not the rest of the floor nurses.

Specializes in ICU/ER.

Our facility uses those lovely "tracker jackers" (as we affectionately call them...NOT) and they're considered "part of our uniform" and therefore mandatory each shift we work.

There are two philosophies behind their use though...the first is call light response time/rounding compliance. The second is covering our posterior end...because the pt complains "no one came in and took care of me all night! I sat stewing in my own juices for 12 hours and nobody did a thing...I didn't drink/eat/I couldn't breath and no one cared...nobody did nuthing for me!!" WE have proof-positive that staff was in the room.

Do I like Big Brother watching my every move? Um, no but I'm very fond of them covering my bootie when Mista/Missus CrankyPants says I didn't do my job and I clearly did...Saves me from family members flaying off my flesh! :laugh:

Specializes in ICU.
Any one else dealing with this at their hospital?

We were told that our call lights were being audited from now on. In ICU we rarely have call lights (we're typically in the pts room or very close by, and the pts can't usually use them).

Now anytime a call light goes off, the unit clerk is supposed to visually locate the nurse and make a note of what he/she was doing when the call light went off and where they were in the unit. I'm trying not to be irate about this, but I'm having a very, very hard time with it.

The whole point of using a call light is that your nurse is not in the room, right? So basically we're going to be reprimanded if we have too many call lights during a shift. Management believes we should either be in our pts room or directly outside their door at all times during a 12-hr shift. We don't have enough computers to chart outside our rooms so we typically chart in the nurses station in the middle of the unit.

Anyone else encounter this?

I hate Big Brother.

Specializes in Family Medicine.

I need a new gig.

Management keeps coming up with better and better ideas. NOT.

I'm shaking my head so much (everyday!), I look like a bobble head.

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