Hi All,
I just wanted to ask everyone if they have the same problem that my ED is currently facing. The last three weeks we have been holding patients in our department because the hospital is full.
My department is a 34 bed Level II ed. The last three weeks we have been holding patients up to 24 at a time and some pt's sometimes stay for three days. I can see it burning the staff out because we are running a department on top of caring for these patients. Our adminstration currently has no plan and the ED nurses take care of the holdings and ED patients. I work nights and we sometimes go down to three RN's and have 20+ holding patients and a busy department. Our waits for non urgents to get seen has gone up to 12 hours+ because the hallways are literally lined with patients. A Very dangerous place for a RN to work and I see the patient care suffering; since we are emergency nurses by nature and tend to neglect the holding patients. They do get care but I also find myself caring for the MI patient or the trauma first.
Is there anyone out there in the same predicament? Any solutions? Ideas? Your experiences in dealing with such situations?
Thanks and Be Well