Hospice Admissions

[incognito]

Hello, my name is Jen. I have recently taken a hospice travel position as an admit nurse. I am not new to hospice, just the admissions process. I have learned a lot in these past few weeks (slightly overwhelming). If anyone here in this forum has had admissions experience or is currently working as an admit nurse I would appreciate any feedback and advice. Thank you. Jen:welcome:

[cookie102]

a hospice admission (home care) can take up to 3-4 hours, includes , in our agency, registering the patient in hospice phamacia, getting equipment set up, ans. all the ???? the family has, what i have found to work best is to have the pt seen for a visit the next day , even if it is a "stable" hospice pt...this has worked quite well, that way if anything is missed on admission it can be readily taken care of. i think if you can do 2 hospice admissions in one day, that really is a full day. best wishes

[aimeee, BSN, RN]

I manage our admissions department. Do you have specific feedback and advice you are looking for?

[jCLNC]

Hello, my name is Jen. I have recently taken a hospice travel position as an admit nurse. I am not new to hospice, just the admissions process. I have learned a lot in these past few weeks (slightly overwhelming). If anyone here in this forum has had admissions experience or is currently working as an admit nurse I would appreciate any feedback and advice. Thank you. Jen:welcome:

Hi Jen, great name:lol2: (my name is Jenny)

We have a permanent Intake Coordinator, and she primarily does all the referral taking, obtaining medical documentation, getting initial orders signed, calling physicians, and getting the Medical Director's approval. This is the first step for us before the actual admission visit takes place. Sometimes she actually does the visit, sometimes she gets the case manager to do it. The actual admission visit, for us, can take up to 2 hours for the visit and an additional hour for documentation/ordering equipment/ and/or communication with the MD for additional medications. We also do another follow-up visit within 48 hours to answer additional questions that come up after the first visit.

It's a lot of information to get "heaped on you" in one fell swoop. Add to that their grief, their feelings of being robbed in many ways, or just general feelings of loss, and there you are.

If we know it's going to be a complicated admission, we take a chaplain or social worker with us. Hope this helps.

Jenny