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Discussion

Distance limit

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?

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    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.

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    • Author

    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.

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    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.

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    • Experts

    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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