Do you let ambulances drop off in triage?

[Anagray]

Hypothetical situation: you have 10 people in waiting area, 2 of which are chest pain and 4 of which are cold symptoms and lacerations, 4 others definitely need a room, but can wait. You have 2 empty rooms and 3 hallway stretchers. Mind you, people with lats and cold have been waiting for 2 hours to get in and it is 8 pm.

Ambulance calls with : a) detox patient, who is a+O and comes in every week to sleep and eat, then D/c when he feels like it b) a 21 year old college student with ankle pain.

What do you do?

In our ER these types of ambulance calls get a hallway as they come in. Only one of our charge nurses sends them to the triage to wait their turn, which I think is fair.

What is it like at your hospital?

[LilgirlRN, ADN, RN]

Unfortunately yes.... I've patients go from the ambulance to a wheelchair in the waiting room, IV in their arm when we have no bed to go to.

[chip193]

Unfortunately yes.... I've patients go from the ambulance to a wheelchair in the waiting room, IV in their arm when we have no bed to go to.

We start NS wells on patients in our waiting room, so this wouldn't really bother me!

[medic1488]

Being from the other side of things (The one getting the call for the patient that needs a taxi ride) I find most hospitals will send directly to triage. It amazes me how many patients still believe it gets you in quicker. And there are alot of patients you may never see because they are explained the cost of an ambulance and that they still may go directly to traige.

On a side note, most places we go take our word for it and we turnover care to the traige nurse.

[9309]

Yeah, but if it ever became a legal issue, your quoting her might portray you as hostile toward him or her. Not always good to be totally graphic. Often, the less said, the better.

I disagree. It is objective information. Documenting objective information should always be safe. Make no judgement or interpretation, just write what you saw, heard, or did. Documenting that the woman was unreasonable, or an idiot, could be problematic.

9309