Christmas Admissions

[SilverBells, BSN]

In the hospital setting, Christmas admissions are inevitable.  However, for those of you who work in other settings such as long term care or rehab, do you accept admissions on Christmas? If so, how do you plan for admissions when everyone in management is scheduled to be off and no one volunteers to assist? 

[amoLucia]

Am retired from SNF/LTC/NH  - facilities are open 24/7 and the mantra has always been, "we don't get paid for empty beds'!  So yes, I did accept admissions on Christmas couple of times. What is there to do for an admission on Christmas Day that is any DIFFERENT from one on any other regular non-holiday day???

The admissions personnel did their financial/insurance stuff. What else is there for others to assist with??? Everything else is just nsg coordinating with MD orders, therapy, pharm. Pharm is 24 hrs, but with the backup med system, meds are usually OK. And that includes getting IVs squared away with the backup IV equip. We usually had all the equip needed, like pumps, and things. I never had the luxury of administrative staff helping out with any admin processes, incl paperwork.

And just know, that I admitted a pt once on 11-7 Christmas Day. (Long story re her adm.)

Staffing might be a little short, but generally, the spirit of the holiday shines with staff and families. You make the best of the times, just like you would for weather or other occurrences.  

[Hoosier_RN, MSN]

29 minutes ago, amoLucia said:

Am retired from SNF/LTC/NH  - facilities are open 24/7 and the mantra has always been, "we don't get paid for empty beds'!  So yes, I did accept admissions on Christmas couple of times. What is there to do for an admission on Christmas Day that is any DIFFERENT from one on any other regular non-holiday day???

The admissions personnel did their financial/insurance stuff. What else is there for others to assist with??? Everything else is just nsg coordinating with MD orders, therapy, pharm. Pharm is 24 hrs, but with the backup med system, meds are usually OK. And that includes getting IVs squared away with the backup IV equip. We usually had all the equip needed, like pumps, and things. I never had the luxury of administrative staff helping out with any admin processes, incl paperwork.

And just know, that I admitted a pt once on 11-7 Christmas Day. (Long story re her adm.)

Staffing might be a little short, but generally, the spirit of the holiday shines with staff and families. You make the best of the times, just like you would for weather or other occurrences.  

Exactly this. In fact, my last Christmas in LTC, I did 3 admits on Christmas day. 2 of families had come the day before to sign mom/dad in and complete what the resident couldn't, and brought their stuff. It was sad, because no family showed up for these people on that day. We were a small facility and it took all of our resources to do it. I was supposed to be off, but for that many coming, I came anyway, to help my coworkers because I knew no one else would. As amoLucia stated, its like getting admits on any other day

[JBMmom, MSN, NP]

In every medical setting Christmas admissions are inevitable. I know in our facility, admissions showed up 24/7/365. Anything that could be done remotely related to insurance was taken care of off site by staff, but all the nuts and bolts of the admission was done by whichever lucky nurse was on duty. 

[cecile9155, BSN, RN]

We've had admissions on all holidays and I have them on the overnight shift fairly often.  Our admissions nurse and management never help with admissions anyway so really it's no different. Other than the crappy pharmacy always tries to refuse to deliver the meds on holidays and tries to ask if we really need them.