patient assignments and continuity of care

[gamegirlkimmy]

How does your ED assign patients? We have recently went from room assignments to assigning patients by acuity. The idea was so you keep your patient throughout thier stay and avoid hand offs. Sounds great but the charge nurses are having a hard time keeping up with the current acuity of the patient and having trouble deciding who to give the next patient to.

[canoehead, BSN, RN]

We sign up on the board for a new patient as we are able to handle another one. Peer pressure keeps it more or less equal. Emergent pateints, or those coming in by ambulance are assigned by the charge.

[TazziRN, RN]

We have six beds, divided between two RNs. Triage is done by whoever is free at the moment. If one has pts and the other doesn't, the pts are divided between the two.

[bill4745, RN]

We do both. We each have 4 rooms, and the charge nurse looks at the acuity of each assignment and how recently we might have received a patient before assigning the next one. If everyone is overloaded, the charge or float nurse take the patient and lines & lab, ecg, etc. before turning the patient over to the staff nurse.