How I miss my beloved text-paging

[evilolive]

For the first 16 months or so of my current job, we had this glorious, convenient way of communicating with whatever in-house hospitalist was covering our unit - The Text Page.

With The Text Page you could send a nifty little message to Dr. to get a short and sweet message across. It especially worked well for when patients refused a medication - this way Dr. can get the heads up that LOL refused her Senna at 9pm, and you don't have to slow his roll if he's in the middle of an admit. Not like he really cares that granny refused her med, unless she's constipated.

Hey doc, can you please put in CVAD verification for Pt. XYZ? Five minutes later you can "officially" use the PICC that day shift began using anyway.

We could even request pain medication, let them know a DNR/I had to be signed, etc. etc. Of course we would call if something emergent requiring their help was needed, or if the situation was too long to be explained via text, or if the MD was taking too long to enter orders/reply to the text.

Some MDs made damn well sure that the night nurses communicated this way. It made life simple, sweet, and easy for everyone involved.

Can you see where this is going?

Of course all good things must come to an end. From what I understand, a Cardiologist at my facility made a HUGE stink, calling The Text Page a HIPPA violation. Per my manager, we are no longer allowed to use this method of communication at night. Because of this, I have truly had to DRILL into my nurses' heads what does/does not warrant a physician call overnight. DO NOT call to d/c orders like blood glucose tests that you did anyway, and aren't due until the morning. DO NOT call because your patient is refusing to drink contrast (per day nurse) and you haven't attempted to resolve the issue yet.

My question to all of you is, have you ever used a form of communication this way at your facility, and was it ever shot down by someone higher up the food chain? I say if text paging your unit, room number, and initials of the patient are a HIPPA violation, then the Bedboard/Transport beepers who use the patient's full name, MR#, attending physician and diagnosis are even more of a HIPPA violation.

At the end of the day, all of these beepers are for In-House use. What is the problem here?

[RNKel, ASN, RN]

We use text-paging but we are never to put in any identifiers. I usually just write "please call me at ext 2300".

[teeniebert, LPN]

maybe you should start routing all night time calls through his personal phone... just sayin.

I almost shot Mt. Dew out my nose. Thanks so much for the laugh.

[BluegrassRN]

We text page through out hospital system; the hospital internal website has a page we use to text page the physicians. Yes, private info is included...it's the same as private info over the phone or in an internal email (which also happens all the time: how many times have I gotten the email from an administrator that I didn't sign off on a specific patient's meds, etc).

Our physicians would probably punch someone in the face if they had to stop using the text paging system. It's great for all of us.