we have started something at our small town hospital that i wonder how many of you have seen.
we are admitting patients to the hallway. we will be renovating our er in the next year so they will not be able to hold our overflow pts. we are currently renovating our downstairs unit so some beds are not available right now. in light of this we are now putting pts in the hallway. in theory this will happen when we are expecting a discharge and the pt will then be put into that room. however last night we admitted a pt to the hallway at midnight. this poor lady slept in the hall all night. she couldn't sleep because the light above her was on all night long (there is no way to turn it out). to use the restroom, we wheeled her into the nearest female room. she was on o2 which we had to use a portable tank. her call bell was a silver ding bell. we had "privacy screens" up but they didn't afford much at all.
i was just wondering if any one else has seen this? i don't see joint commision being happy or the fire marshall. and we have worked so hard to get our press ganey scores up. we finally succeed in that and then this. :angryfire each hall can hold two hallway beds. this would take our normally 22 bed unit to 24 pts. :bugeyes:and no extra staff is allotted. we are frustrated anyway and this is just making things worse. we are all supposed to be "on the bus" and most of us are feeling that the bus is just running us over.
sorry this is so long, but i would appreciate any responses.
I don't think that JCAHO or the fire inspector would look at it too favorably. And the practice of sliding a stretcher in between tow beds (with no regard to gender!) is shocking to me. It has all the makings of a tragic story should there be a disaster to strike the hospital. Patient rescue would be severely compromised and patient accountability would go straight in the toilet.
The bottom line is that the suits at the top have to realize that full means full. It is unfortunate if you are the only hospital in a rural area. So accomodations may need to be made on occasion, but these hospitals should also have tangible and safe overflow plans in place. And of course during true times of crisis there may need to be some accomodations made, but these are in fact rarities.
I know that some places have a "fast track" portion to their ER so they don't take up a stretcher or room for someone that doesn't necessarily need one. ER's by me are fairly close in proximity, so it is not uncommon to hear an order to the ambulance that So and So hospital ER is on divert.
how are these patients charged ? if they don't have a room, do they get charged for a bed in a hallway? i would be very upset if i were a hallway patient
how are these patients charged ? if they don't have a room, do they get charged for a bed in a hallway? i would be very upset if i were a hallway patient
praiser :heartbeat
recently, i was a patient in an er for about six hours, in a hallway bed. i was placed in the hall by the ambulance bay and felt that blast of air every few minutes while i was vomiting off and on.
the bill - $2300 for six hours in the hall. no diagnostic radiology. just an iv, bed in a hall, zofran, 3 liters of ns, and a cbc and electrolyte panel. i was told $600 was for the 'room' fee which applied even with being in the hall. another $595 was for the iv, but didn't include the ns or medication.
My husband was a hallway pt and it was TERRIBLE! He was 6 days postop Aortic Valve replacement, on O2 and admitted for fluid in the chest/pericardial sack just 24 hrs after discharge. He stayed in the hall 30 hrs, next to the doors where the medics bring in pts, (and the wind was blowing), had to crawl off the gurney twice to find a nurse because his portable O2 tank ran out, didn't have a call button, and missed his meals because "hallway pt's usually don't get them!" And was dehydrated as he had a Hep Lock but there was no where to put a water container! And I thought we lived in the USA, not a third world country. Then when I called to check on him, the hospital said he was not a pt there because hallway pt.'s don't have a room number! Of course I thought he had coded and they "forgot" to call me...
That is unreal. I am so sorry that happened to both of you.
Is this what health care has come to? Wedging stretchers in between patient beds- yikes! Sounds like an infection control nightmare. I can't imagine that parking beds in the hallway is allowable under fire codes. Both practices sound like a nightmare waiting to happen.
That is unreal. I am so sorry that happened to both of you.
(hug)
What happened next was even worse. He ended dying 4 weeks later from an even worse episode of care...but thanks to the med mal settlement I received I now stay home with the kids....
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Flare, ASN, BSN
4,431 Posts
I don't think that JCAHO or the fire inspector would look at it too favorably. And the practice of sliding a stretcher in between tow beds (with no regard to gender!) is shocking to me. It has all the makings of a tragic story should there be a disaster to strike the hospital. Patient rescue would be severely compromised and patient accountability would go straight in the toilet.
The bottom line is that the suits at the top have to realize that full means full. It is unfortunate if you are the only hospital in a rural area. So accomodations may need to be made on occasion, but these hospitals should also have tangible and safe overflow plans in place. And of course during true times of crisis there may need to be some accomodations made, but these are in fact rarities.
I know that some places have a "fast track" portion to their ER so they don't take up a stretcher or room for someone that doesn't necessarily need one. ER's by me are fairly close in proximity, so it is not uncommon to hear an order to the ambulance that So and So hospital ER is on divert.