Not receiving discharge paperwork

[MJJnurse]

I work for a small home health company. I'm concerned because before when we would get a soc we would have discharge paperwork from the hospital uploaded the night before. Now however we don't have anything but the h&p uploaded and the first time we see any discharge paperwork is when we enter the home for the first visit. This includes discharge meds, labs, wounds, iv picc meds, etc. I have only worked for one company and an wondering is this normal?

[KelRN215, BSN, RN]

Why don't you have it? Because the hospital isn't faxing it or because your company isn't getting it to you?

[blockhouseclaudia]

Ikes. Someone is not doing what they need to do. If I don't see enough information, I call the HH office and request more.

[MJJnurse]

I usually do weekends and the office closes 5pm friday. So if the hospital hasn't faxed over paperwork by then I don't get it and its like there's no follow up. Ive had patients where the hospital dc paperwork wasn't uploaded for the entire episode. I didn't know if any other nurses have ever had this problem.

[blockhouseclaudia]

Our manager and/or supervisor makes sure that they receive as much as possible on Friday and then speak to the appropriate hospital personnel. Sometimes the rest of the paperwork from the hospital is not retrieved until Monday or Tuesday on the following week. Coordinating care is very important! More complex patients have specific needs that need to be conveyed.

[TessLJ]

Sounds like there is definitely a breakdown in the process for the weekend. Do you think the hospital admin and the management at your agency would be willing to meet with each other and discuss a Friday afternoon process so that the DC orders can be made available to the weekend home health nurses can be more effective? They might consider it a small nuisance and not worth worrying about, but if you can show them some examples of how this issue has delayed care they may be willing to do something about it.