hall patients

[rnlightening01]

Hi all i was wondering does any er nurses have to deal with managers allowing patients to be in the hall to be treated and they seem to keep putting them there even though they can't be properly monitored and is also a fire code violation, does anyone have suggestions on how to approach mangement about what i feel to be dangerous and unsafe thanks for your input

[JBudd, MSN]

Hall beds are more and more common, we run anywhere from 4 to 12 hall beds during the day. Try to wean them down on nights since I've got only half the staff that is scheduled for days......

At night it is usually the ETOH overnighters in them, or the in and out medical clearances.

We have roll around monitors, and VS machines. The beds are even listed in the computer as ER beds.

[nuangel1, BSN, RN]

Hall beds are more and more common, we run anywhere from 4 to 12 hall beds during the day. Try to wean them down on nights since I've got only half the staff that is scheduled for days......

At night it is usually the ETOH overnighters in them, or the in and out medical clearances.

We have roll around monitors, and VS machines. The beds are even listed in the computer as ER beds.

same in my er .we have hall pts almost every day at some point.we try and have the etoh or lesser non monitored pts in the hall.ie if someone is admitted and just waiting for bed.we too have portable monitors for vs.if we need to do ekg or something private we will use a spare xray room or when another pt leaves dept use the empty room temporarily.hall beds are a reality .

[Larry77, RN]

I've never seen a department that never has hall beds...hmm

[bill4745, RN]

We sometimes admit, treat, and discharge from hallway beds. We use portable monitors. You are not likely to convince management to stop using the hallway beds.

[BrnEyedGirl, BSN, MSN, RN, APRN]

I've never worked an ER that didn't use hall beds. We are trying to make sure every pt starts in a reg room, at least until the Dr can do his exam, then the ones who can are moved to the hall. We also have "nurse on a stick" and can monitor the hall bed pts. I'm not sure how you could function w/o hall beds as we can't just turn away pts. "Sorry medic 30, can you just circle the parking lot for an hour or so,.we need to clean out some rooms? I don't think so!

[canoehead, BSN, RN]

Hall beds are a fact of life when the chips are down. If they are being used daily you have to staff for them and consider expanding into another dept. On nights our ER takes over day surgery if we are full to over flowing.

[Altra, BSN, RN]

The reality is that the only alternative to using hall beds is longer wait times in the waiting room, and ambulance diversion.

[nservice]

Our hospital will soon be moving the hall patients up to the floor halls in order to decongest the ER. This is supposed to be in emergencies only. My guess is that it will be the norm.

[jellybean_1]

We used to have many hall beds, but now we only have 2...we do try not to use them.....but sometimes , when triaging you might put a patient on 1 till you find another spot...

[mianders, RN]

We always have hall beds in our ER. Even if there is no one in them when you start your shift they will still assign a nurse to them, and they will float until they get patients in them. It will do no good to approach administration about it. ER's in this country are bursting at the seams. There has to be a solution to that problem before you can fix the other one.

[Toquay]

We utilize hall beds as well and in season they are usually full. We tried sending the admit overflows to floor halls and was told that is a BIG NO NO and hippa violation, however it is ok for them to stay in the ER halls indefinately. There are patient ratios for the floors but not for the ERs, and diversion was done away with as well a few years ago. Thank God we have great supervisors that work their tails off the get admitted patients moved out.

Toq