Do Acuities Work At Your Hospital?

[live4today]

Acuities have never worked as far as I can remember.....not even today where I am currently working, yet we still have to input acuities into the system every morning before 1100 hour.

Do acuities work where you work? If they do, how?

If they don't work, why do them?

[Mimi2RN, ASN, RN]

Our acuities are a part of the patients permanent record. Unfortunately, the numbers don't mean anything, or make any changes in our staffing. We are staffed by the number of warm bodies available for that shift.

[Huq]

Acuities are part of the permanent record for one reason only. The higher the acuity number, the higher the pay (Medicare/ Medicaid) and, although the difference may only be a few dollars per patient, this can add up to thousands per facility.

I think you will find more and more pressure placed on you to fill them out.

We are being 'written up' if we fail to do this.

Staffing/ acuity is a big joke.

[KRVRN, BSN, RN]

And why do infants get higher acuity scores because they're total care and incontinent?

[vaughanmk]

We are required to complete acuities every shift. Staffing is done accordingly. Our system is computerized and is very inaccurate. It doesn't take into account many things we utiize in the stepdown setting or group it into such a generalized category that you recieve hardly any credit for the activity.