acute rehab vent

[ayla2004, ASN, RN]

Right i would like to get some idea from other people on what they thyink of acute rehab.

in your trusts/hospital is there a proper m-f 9-5 medical team for a rehab ward. this is one of the biggest frustation of were i work. our pt are considered stable so need only oncall like coverage by arragment with other wards. yet the medic feel overworked and and nurses cannot get things sorted and if a pt goes south the first thing the medic would say is that the nurses didn't let them know.

we are filling numerous AIR forms which do not have a caterogy docotros ignore bleep or doctors get inofmred of urgent jobs and ignore.

i feel at times it would be eaisr to get a doctors licencse and do it myslef than get a doctor to review a pt.

[LiverpoolJane]

I suspect it will be different from Trust to Trust. In my last Trust we had rehab wards that were in effect like any other medical ward with "office hours" medical cover as well as the same access to on call care as any other pt in the hospital. We also had another ward (intermediate care) that was in the Trust but was actually part of the PCT and the pts there were not under the care of the hospital but of a GP practice. These were medically fit and ready to go home but need some support and maybe waiting for adjustments to be made in their home. There would I'm sure be sort sort of service agreement between the Trust and the PCT about pts needing an urgent review so you would need to know what this is. Some Trusts have PFI wards / units within their grounds or actually in the hospital building and in some cases if a pt becomes ill they have to go through A&E.

Is the ward you are referring to actually part of the Trust?

[ayla2004, ASN, RN]

yup part of the trust and when a bed shortage occurs as ever it becomes what non ward staff have called a dumping ground.

We have a proper referal system so that we get rehab only patients however we do take medical outliers if bed manger say we are getting them. or even better we get non rehab but ready for discharge 1-2 days with no discharge done and a battle to get anyone our team verus their team to do it. We have a formal agreement with 2 other wards medical team to take half our pt each. doesn't help that our consultant is part time.

[misswoosie]

yup part of the trust and when a bed shortage occurs as ever it becomes what non ward staff have called a dumping ground.

We have a proper referal system so that we get rehab only patients however we do take medical outliers if bed manger say we are getting them. or even better we get non rehab but ready for discharge 1-2 days with no discharge done and a battle to get anyone our team verus their team to do it. We have a formal agreement with 2 other wards medical team to take half our pt each. doesn't help that our consultant is part time.

We have a combined acute/rehab stroke unit which also gets used as a dumping ground at the weekend (partic' for confused patients) and we have normal medical cover. However before the unit was combined the rehab ward was at a "cottage" hospital and had Nurse Practitioner cover, with back up from the Stroke Physician at the acute hospital.