OR techs being used as OB techs. How can I stop this?

[spanishfly110]

I work for a small hospital. OR dept. of 4 rooms. I have 1 tech on call daily, for OR. The OB dept. at times, due to short staffing, does not put a tech on call, and in turn they have to use my OR tech. I have had complaints from the OR techs. that "hey, i am not on call for OB, why am I being called to do a c-section". I have attempted, numerous times, to sit and talk to the OB director, but she states that she is too busy. It's expected of me to always have an OR tech on call, why not her?

There has also been situations where OB does have a tech on call, but for whatever reason the house supervisor cannot reach that person and ends up calling the OR tech.

Please advise. Thank you.

[kayern]

I have a questions.......Does the OR need the tech or is the tech just waiting for a case. If the later is the case, then I see no problem with OB using the OR tech. Do the techs work for the hospital? Then they should work where ever they are needed. Now for the MIA OB tech.....either she (he) get it together, get counseled or get fired!

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

I have a questions.......Does the OR need the tech or is the tech just waiting for a case. If the later is the case, then I see no problem with OB using the OR tech. Do the techs work for the hospital? Then they should work where ever they are needed. Now for the MIA OB tech.....either she (he) get it together, get counseled or get fired!

The way it sounded to me is that there is someone at home, but available if there is a case for the OR, not that there is someone just sitting around in the OR but that the OB unit is using this person who should be available if needed in the OR.

Do the techs routinely float between the two areas while working, or is this something new? What does the policy say? How does it work if the on-call OR tech is called by OB for a c-section and then there is an emergent OR case? If the OB manager is not responding to your requests for a meeting, it may be time to take it a level higher. (I'm assuming you're the manager of the OR; if that's not the case then this is the responsibility of the OR manager.)

[spanishfly110]

During normal business hours, ocassionally the OR tech will go and help out the OB dept.,(very rare),However, the OB dept. tech's are not able to assist in OR because they are not crossed trained. I agree that we all work for the hospital, but I don't see the fairness in helping the OB department just because the OB tech on call does not respond to the call, or because the OB manager did no put anyone on call. Now OB dept. always has 1 tech in house, but at times the influx of c-sections is too much and thats when a second tech. is needed.

I have pondered over this issue all week. My next step is to take it higher, and review the policies.

I work for a small hospital. OR dept. of 4 rooms. I have 1 tech on call daily, for OR. The OB dept. at times, due to short staffing, does not put a tech on call, and in turn they have to use my OR tech. I have had complaints from the OR techs. that "hey, i am not on call for OB, why am I being called to do a c-section". I have attempted, numerous times, to sit and talk to the OB director, but she states that she is too busy. It's expected of me to always have an OR tech on call, why not her?

There has also been situations where OB does have a tech on call, but for whatever reason the house supervisor cannot reach that person and ends up calling the OR tech.

Please advise. Thank you.

[spanishfly110]

the OR tech is on call and whenever a case comes up then they get called. Now, it has not happend yet, but what if the OR tech is busy assisting in a c-section, and an emergency pops in the door? these are questions that i need addressed. The OB manager and I need to sit down this week.

[spanishfly110]

No, the techs don't float between the two areas, only the OR techs float to OB. I will be adressing this to a higher level this week, and reviewing the policies.