Distance limit

Specialties Hospice

Published

I was called to go to a city that's 3 and a half hours away. However, I declined because I told my DON I felt that it was too far. Is it reasonable to decline services due to distance?? Will I be viewed in a negative light from my DON or administrator for declining? I love my job and I know much of our time as outpatient hospice nurses is spent on driving but the maximum I've driven one way to a destination is an hour and a half and I thought 3+ hours was too far.. My assumption is that another hospice was short on nurses. What are your thoughts?

Specializes in NICU, PICU, Transport, L&D, Hospice.

So, they wanted you to travel 7 hours for a one hour visit?

Were they willing to pay you OT to drive?

Were they willing to pay for a hotel room for you so that you did not have to drive for that length of time (which increases your risk of accident)?

Was this to cover a case for a different regional office for a larger hospice provider?

I would have refused unless some other things were negotiated.

I would make detailed notes relative to the employer request, the location of the case and the location of your start, and any other pertinent information.

Thank you so much for your input! I will keep that in mind if the discussion comes up again. I was asked for my availability for this particular location. As far as the details of the visit, I wasn't able to clarify that with my DON since I declined after learning about the distance of the visit. The city is definitely out of our area. I assumed the need was from a different regional office.

In Utah, a hospice agency can only serve locations within an hour's drive of the office. We restrict our service area to 3 counties. We are urban, however. A rural hospice will by nature need to cover a much larger area. I would not refuse a request to drive 3.5 hours, as long as I was being paid by the hour round trip, and my mileage would be fully reimbursed. This being said, I can't imagine how an agency can make any money by serving a patient so far away. I also question if it is in the best interest of the patient.

I also question if it is in the best interest of the patient to have their nurses so far away. I take more than an hour to get to my current hh client and they complain about it (I complain under my breath). I have found that when long distance is involved, the better agencies always present the request with a proposed incentive, such as full mileage or increased rate of pay. When they do that, it makes it harder to decline the request.

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