On Call

[FKF17]

Hello- I am new to this board - so thank you in advance- I have been in home care for many years I am  just now "officially" getting into hospice. Though I have had many collaborations with hospice- I am very new to the actual workings behind the scenes in hospice. My first question is about on -call - when the call is triaged what type of situations can be handled over the phone and which require a visit? there seems to be a difference opinion in the agency where I am now so I would like to get other opinions.

[vampiregirl, BSN, RN]

From others I've talked to some of these decisions are dictated by agency policy. One nurse I know worked for an agency that required a visit for every call. 

I work for an agency that leaves this to the nurse discretion. Deaths automatically get a visit. Otherwise, I don't know that I can clearly differentiate between what constitutes as a visit or just a call (or calls). So many factors play into this. I offer a visit with almost every call. If I get multiple calls on a patient I tend to encourage a visit. If we are managing a symptom, I will typically do a phone check in an hour or so after new orders are implemented to assess effectiveness. Also, sometimes visits are for patient/ caregiver support and those visits are just as important.