Is low census a problem at your hospital???

U.S.A. Texas

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I was just wondering if many hospitals are dealing with the issue of there being a low census. For the past month or two, someone (and sometimes even two of us) routinely has to go home from our unit or gets cancelled and placed on call. I work at a smaller hospital in Central Texas and I wasn't sure if this trend exists in other parts of Texas as well. I am seriously considering looking at PRN work in other cities because I really want to work. Are any of you experiencing this trend at your hospital?? Please share.

Specializes in Med Surg, Ortho.

yes we are experiencing this as well.

It seems everyone is having this problem.

Specializes in Gyn Oncology/EENT/Urology.

Yes, I have been being cancelled constantly!

Is this because fewer patients are insured or shorter length of stay in the hospital?

I used to work at North Central Baptist Hospital in San Antonio. Our patient census went from a full board of 30 down to 12-15 over the weekend. Beng cancelled and put on call didnt work for me. Additionally, being a Med surge floor we would typicaly run minimal nurses wth each nurse carrying 6 patients with 1 admit.

We had 1 full floor of the hospital shutdown for the entire month of August. When I found a prn job at another hospital, I could not work for more than 4 times in 3 months due to closures. Another hospital in the Bay Area intermttantly closed one out of 3 floors till December. Now there is a pre-holiday surge. I don't know how long will it last.

Specializes in OBGYN.

Us too right now.. and I work in a major level 1 trauma center. We're getting cancelled and sent home all the time.

This is surprising to me. We are not experiencing this at Methodist in San Antonio

I'm o.k. with it as long as my PTO holds out. I'm hoping to get moved from Med/Surg to Ped by next month. Somtimes the stress in Med/Surg is too much, so i'm glad when i'm called off which has been twice this week already.

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