How are things done in your units?

[dnursewa]

I am trying to find out how things work in other hospitals as this has become a topic of debate in mine. Is there a time frame in which physicians have to see a patient after an admission to a critical care unit in your hospital? I feel that if a patient's condition warrants an admission to a critical care unit, it also warrants a visit from the admitting physician. However, in my unit, it can be HOURS before a patient is seen by a physician after admission, even if the patient is a stat-flight or direct admit from another facitily. My concern is that this puts both the patients and the nurses in my unit at risk. Please respond. Am I being overly cautious in wanting my patients seen by their physician, instead of just activating standing orders or is the practice in my facility unsafe? ~Sarah

[Kerrigan 06]

From my understanding, physicians "officially" have 24 hours from time of admission or consult to physically see the patient. Usually it takes nowhere near that long. In the meantime, we make liberal use of the answering service, using our assessments to relay information to the physician and make recommendations for orders and treatments. In the event that a patient is "going bad," we have the power to request the physician's presence at the bedside, and they have thirty minutes to show up, no matter what time of day or night it may be.