Home Health OnCall

[regencyfarms]

Curious how other Home Health companies run their Emergency On Call. In our company 1 nurse is oncall an entire week in six weeks. During that week we still see our own patients. Pts call in to a oncall service, which calls that nurse on call. Last night I had a demented pt call over and over again. Clearly not an emergency but each time I was woken up to call the pt back. A lot of times we get the overflow pts and the weekend pts that our weekend nurse cant see, not to mention all the telehealth calls. Its overwhelming and everyone is getting disgruntled including myself. Does anyone have a system they are happy with?

[Marisette, BSN, RN]

I worked a hybrid case management / home health job for many years. We were promised call about every six weeks but in reality it was more like every 4 weeks, because of nurse turn over( nurses leaving) , or vacations, or sick time. When your on call, you just have to have the mind set that you are working and you will be paged or called. Otherwise, you will be dissapointed. Personally, I feel that it would be better to have nurses working regularly the "on call hours" . Yes, have everyone take a turn and just have them work regular hours. It's just challenging to be on call and carry on with your life at the same time. I try to steer away from on call nursing employment when I can. The pay for the "on call" does not justify the time that may be spent on the phone troubleshooting problems or issues. All I can suggest, is to change your mind set and assume your working and you'll feel less disgruntled when called.

[cardiacfreak, ADN]

I'm an on call nurse and the case managers are my back up one weekend a month and usually one night a week. They only go out if I am with a patient and cannot get to the next call in a timely manner. The weekend they work they get one day off before and after the weekend. I try not to use my back up nurse but sometimes it is necessary, like the night I had 3 deaths. It was impossible to be in 2 places at once.

[caliotter3]

There is a home health forum where 'on call' is discussed quite frequently.

[regencyfarms]

Oh good! I have not found this yes. Is there a way to link it?

[regencyfarms]

Thank you for your comment. Do you have any suggestions on what youve witnessed as "good" on call procedures? My company is at least open to suggestions but I have no prior HH experience so it makes it difficult to help with suggestions.