Private Rooms

[CapeCodMermaid, RN]

Do all y'all have a procedure for determining who gets a private room? I don't mean for a clinical reason such as MRSA in the sputum. Is it first come first served? Do you have a list? I feel I should be able to keep the private rooms open for short term rehab patients or keep them open in case we need it for the aforementioned MRSA patient. However, people around here don't see it that way.

[Talino]

Admissions should have a procedure disclosed on how a private room is allocated. A "first come (or 1st request), first served" policy is ideal. A signed/dated request should stipulate an agreement to temporarily transfer the occupant when the private room is required in certain circumstances.

[achot chavi]

This is a toughie- I'm sure your administrator would be happy to give it to the top bidder and there is logic to that as long as the happy recipient understands (in writing) that the room has to be made available in the event that the administrator and you decide that someone else needs it.

I would not give it to short term rehabs, why invest in that, they are around short term anyway, I would have a larger room where I put all my short term rehabs if you have enuf of them.

I know one facility that just keeps it available and doesn't fill it unless it needs to, but thats silly.

We once put a really loud snorer there till we found her a deaf partner, as she really bothered her neighbors.

Unfortunately when we put a private pay client who is paying more for the single room, it does invite questions from the others who also want a private room, and we have to explain that the adm decided on it and they can take it up with him...

You have to sit with your adm and decide on a policy that will be beneficial to the staff, recipient and facility.

[noc4senuf]

All of our rooms are private, it is just that some have shared bathrooms and others are humungous in size comapred to others. We have a list for those that wish to have a larger room. When one becomes available, we go down the list until we find someone that wants to move.

[achot chavi]

All our rooms are private too- if you ignore the other lady or man in the room :-) and since many of our pts have some sort of dementia, that isn;t hard to do!!

The only problem with all private rooms is that the nurse must have to walk miles every day to get through the unit and care for everyone!!

May these be our biggest problems.

[vashtee, RN]

How I WISH our patients all had private rooms! In our facility, only the isolation patients get them (unless another isolation patient comes in).

[achot chavi]

The problem with first come first serve is that certain situations usurp that and we shouldn't make promises that will make the pts (not so secretly) wish others will die so they can get their rooms.

Benevolent Dictatorship with the SW, DON, Adm., deciding on who gets which room, works for us. U cant please everyone and sometimes noone!!

[southernbeegirl, BSN, RN]

We have a list. Special cases like hospice or isolation automatically get them first but after that, we go by the list.

[Havin' A Party!, ASN, RN]

Likely the collaborative decision of the NHA, DON, and ADON, with final input from the resident / family should work well. Consideration should be given to all relevant factors surrounding the request -- including items raised in prior posts.