feelings about double rooms

[starryx2]

I was curious to see how everyone feels about double occupancy in hospital rooms. I believe that single room are the best for many reasons.

1. The patient is not bothered by other patients visitors/TV

2. It is cleaner, patients have their own bathrooms.

3. Privacy is much easier to uphold.

4. Nurses are more likely to wash their hands between patients.

5. Medication errors and other errors for that matter are more easily avoided.

6. Easier to make the patient comfortable in aspects to temparture in the room, lighting... ect.

I mean i could go on and on about why i feel this way. Im sure that it is most likely that money is the factor in why there are double occupancy in hospital room which is very sad to say. How do you feel about it?????

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

The first hospital I worked in had all private rooms which I enjoyed.

We don't have private rooms here, and most insurance companies here won't pay for them. We try to give employees a courtesy private when we can. We always give CABG's private rooms. Our neuro surgeons copped a deal with administration to get their patients private rooms, saying they would bring more patients and $$$ if their patient alls got private rooms and a better nurse patient ratio (kudos for that one). It's a big pain sometimes to make them private rooms when the ER has been holding patients for 24 hours or more.

[SharkLPN]

You can bet I'd camp out in the ER and be someones overflow pt to ensure a private room if I had to be hospitalized, And yes, I'd go to my own facility, but not my own unit! (I have no history to hide from my immediate co-workers, but it would be awkward for us all if a bedpan was needed, you know?)

I'll backpedal from my earlier post - we've had elderly couples in semi-private rooms together, and they've done very well, and the occasional roomies who get along and make friends with each other during their stays. But that's an exception to the norm. Most will piss and moan about the others TV volume, visitors, snoring, odors, etc. I'd point out that they should be estatic that this country's healthcare is top of the line and rejoice in that, but it would fall on deaf ears. I don't like Leno and want sleep; tell that person to turn off the TV.

[Burnt Out, ASN, RN]

private rooms=good :)

semi private rooms=bad, bad, bad :uhoh21:

the times i have been a patient for various reasons, twice i have been in a semi-private: the 1st time i had a roomie-she was nice, but she was on the light constantly (except when she was gone to dialysis) and she had lots of company. the 2nd time, i was pg and admitted for dehydration...didn't get a roomie then (thank goodness)...

i can guarantee ya'll next time i have to be admitted to a hospital, i will scream "hippa!"

[mattsmom81]

I was hospitalized for necessary surgery twice in the past few years and both times was placed in a room with screaming old confused women whose families had taken over the room, the sink, the bathroom and had zero respect for my needs or privacy. It is ridiculous in this day and age to have semi private rooms, IMO. I complained but there were 'no other options' I was told. So...I called the charge nurse and told her 'either sedate her or sedate me, preferably both' or I'm checking out AMA and will be quite vocal why. I felt I had to. Why should I put up with this when I am ill and hurting too??

The issue of infectious patients bothers me too. Psych and confused Hep C patients, who are leaving blood and body fluids all over the room to infect their roommates...this is unacceptable but this seen regularly on the general ward of my hospitals. If the nurses attempt to isolate these patients they are told they cannot, it is unnecessary and could be seen as discriminating against those patients.

Hospitals are increasingly dangerous and unpleasant places to be. Unresponsive management does not take responsibility and places it square on the heads of the nurses, who are doing too often the best they can in bad circumstances.

[alli]

The unit I work on has only 4 private rooms the rest are four bedded rooms. The private rooms are predominantly used for MRSA or C-diff. Many people request single rooms but we can't accomidate most of them.

The feeling I get on the unit is that for the most part the nurses and the patient like the four bedded rooms over the private rooms, for one thing the patients keep an eye on each other and if something terrible happens another patient can call the nurse.

The patients in the private rooms often complain that they are too lonely.

[KaroSnowQueen, RN]

Most of the units in my hospital are mostly privates, our unit has 36 beds and 28 of those are private room, and the other four are doubles. We also have on our floor but not really part of our unit, a four bed "hold" ward for ER overflow when there are no beds open. Patients hate the 4 bed ward, and most of them do not like the semi-privates.

I think it is a HIPAA violation because as the other posters said, the roommates and their families know all about the other one's business whether it is mentioned to them or not. We had a lady in her early 40's diagnosed with inoperable CA and the other pt's family was talking with her and about her and I doubt she appreciated the "sharing" of her info that was unavoidable....the docs in the room talking about chemo, etc. and the other people right there listening. They keep saying they are going to all privates and I wish they would.

But state or JACHO are going to have to come down on the powers that be before they turn loose of the extra dollars those double rooms are bringing in.

[mattsmom81]

But state or JACHO are going to have to come down on the powers that be before they turn loose of the extra dollars those double rooms are bringing in.

Yes its all about the revenue. And when families complain that roomates are hearing confidential info, the managers will look for a nurse to blame for it. A nurse must have done something wrong.

[julieK]

A private room is always preferable, of course, but I work Oncology and our private rooms are exclusively reserved for our neutropenic patients. I can't stand it when a patient waltzes onto the unit and asks for a private room and then gives attitude when we tell him/her that none are available. I know I can't expect everyone to understand the basics of nursing/infection control, but I do get a little impatient.

-Julie

[Kyriaka]

6. Easier to make the patient comfortable in aspects to temparture in the room, lighting... ect.

______________

as a patient this is a huge issue. One time when I was in the hospital, I was put in a double room. It turned out that the other person was afraid of the dark! So the overhead light had to be on all night long!! I was much younger then, if I had been older I would have complained.

[LydiaNN]

Double rooms s**k for all the reasons cited, and for the patient's comfort too. Back in 1985, my Mom had a double room when she had a hysterectomy, and her roommate smoked! I don't think that's allowed in any hospital room anymore (am I wrong? I live in CA, and it hasn't been legal here for years) but I had to share a room when our son was born. A brand new, state of the art women's hospital opened up next door just 6 months after that, but the only way that affected me was I had the pleasure of listening to the construction noise. My roommate had an abusive boyfriend, and the social worker kept coming in to talk to her. Here I was, delighted with my new baby, but listening to this poor woman's most painful experiences. It was unpleasant. I remember she managed to finagle an extra day's stay in the hospital and tried to talk them in to letting her stay again the day I was released (we both had C-sections, her the day before me). We had Nurse Ratchet attending that day, though, and she wasn't buying it, lol. I just thought it was very sad that she wanted to stay in that yucky, overcrowded hospital rather than take her new baby home. I also got lots of flowers, because neither my or my husband's families live near us and had lots of friends that came to visit. It ended up feeling like an embarrassment of riches. I never even saw the baby's father, let alone anyone else come to call. I hope the next time I need to be hospitalized, its in a room by myself.

[Kyriaka]

Probably the worst case I have heard of was that years ago (my mother told me this story about when she had me). There was a woman whose baby died at birth. She was put in a double room on the maternity floor and had to endure all the proud and happy relatives visiting the other woman! It wasnt for a day either. It was for a week!!

I am sure (and hope) this is not done any longer.

I know when my son was born without a full skull they were very careful to have me away from the other mothers down the hall in the last room. I did not even have to see the other mothers or other babies.

[Melissa H]

The hospital I work at only has private rooms.... The CEO feels that if the patients are being charged for a room that costs as much if not more than an upscale hotel room a night they should have a private room