patient condition phone calls

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Here is my biggest pet peeve as a nurse: patient condition phone calls. Not referring to me contacting a family to let them know their loved one's condition has changed, I am referring to the daily onslaught of calls from family members, sometimes 3 people in one family calling separately, asking about the condition of a patient and asking me to look into my crystal globe and let them know when discharge will be. I get called out of patient rooms repeatedly to update someone on the phone. If it is the third call on the same patient, sometimes I ask the person to call one of the other two people I've already spoken to. That usually isn't helpful because then I get dragged into "well, I'm not speaking to so and so and my sister is stupid and blah blah blah". Often times, these calls come in during or immediately after shift change time and I haven't gotten a fresh set of vitals, haven't been in the room, nothing! I have even thought about pointing out this problem to management but I'm not sure they will make any policies that will protect the nurses. Any thoughts?

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Specializes in Critical Care, Surgical ICU.

I know exactly what your talking about, I am a unit sec and I am usually the person who transfers these calls to the nurses. Our floor has now instated a rule to all families that only one person can call, and this person needs to relate the info to the rest of the family. If its a situation where so and so is not speaking to this person, the CN tells the family to pick a member that is neutral, the families usually follow directions after that.

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Here is my biggest pet peeve as a nurse: patient condition phone calls. Not referring to me contacting a family to let them know their loved one's condition has changed, I am referring to the daily onslaught of calls from family members, sometimes 3 people in one family calling separately, asking about the condition of a patient and asking me to look into my crystal globe and let them know when discharge will be. I get called out of patient rooms repeatedly to update someone on the phone. If it is the third call on the same patient, sometimes I ask the person to call one of the other two people I've already spoken to. That usually isn't helpful because then I get dragged into "well, I'm not speaking to so and so and my sister is stupid and blah blah blah". Often times, these calls come in during or immediately after shift change time and I haven't gotten a fresh set of vitals, haven't been in the room, nothing! I have even thought about pointing out this problem to management but I'm not sure they will make any policies that will protect the nurses. Any thoughts?

Doesn't HIPPA prohibit you from releasing any detailed info. about the condition of a patient over the phone (i.e., give you an excuse to release no info.)? Or do y'all use special codes that allow the relay of such info?

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re: HIPPA, all of the local hospitals in this area assign the patient a PIN# and if the person has the PIN, they can get the information. I wish our hospital had a couple of extra policies. The one where only one person can call would be ideal, the other would be if the calls could NOT be made at certain known busy times. The beginning of a shift is always a nightmare because the docs round before going to their offices, so I could see saying no calls between 8-10 a.m and 8-10 p.m. since shifts at our hospital run 7-7. I am going to talk to my manager about whether I can refuse to take the call and ask the secretary to take a message.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Surgical ICU.

Mary I have taken it upon myself to tell a family member who calls between 7-8 that the nurse is getting the assessment done, if you could call back later they will be able to give you a more accurate report. Works like a charm everytime!!

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I haven't had to deal with this since the new HIPAA rules have been strengthened. Our training booklet came right out and stated that we were not allowed to give out info. So, I would invoke HIPAA to get out of it. But, if working in an institution with rules in place, then follow those rules. Personally, I would not allow myself to be distracted around shift change time and, if called to the phone, I would instruct the person telling me about the call, that I can't come to the phone, take a message with their number, and I will call back when I am able. This makes me remember about coming off night shift and having to call for people to come to work at the same time I was supposed to be doing a med pass and finishing my shift. You can only do so much at one time, no matter what it is that you are trying to accomplish.

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Specializes in ICU, Trauma.

Our policy is that we have the family give a password and we appoint one of them family spokesman. If it gets too ridiculous I tell them to call the family spokesman for an update and that the constant calling pulls me away from the bedside care of their loved one... that usually gets their attention and they quit calling so much.

Also, if they call at shift change between 7-9 pm and am I tell them to call back at 9 because I am busy assessing their loved one that I have just gotten there and I have no new information to tell them at that time.

We have guidelines that we give our patients families when they get admitted to our unit and we stick by them. Our unit secretary even asks the password before she transfers the phone to us and before she lets them on the unit.

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It's frustrating, isn't it? Sometimes I think it is worse in LTC. There are days that it seems like everyone who comes to visit a resident thinks they are entitled to know what is going on with the residents!

One of the worst ones I got was when I worked in ER. We had a lady come in with a fractured radius and ulna. We has medicated her for pain and gave her a muscle realxer so the doctor could split it. She was off in la la land when a friend of hers called. I told the friend that I would be happy to take her name and number and have the patient call since the doctor was in her room and she just threw a fit. She ranted and raved about how she was the patient's best friend and the patent would want her to know and how she was wasting a lot of money on a long distance call. Before she hung up, she called me a name and thanked me for wasting her time and money. :) The patient told me that the caller was really a cousin and was a big pain in the neck. I asked the patient how her cousin knew she was at the hospital and she admitted that she had called her cousin, parents, sister, and neighbor before she called 911.

:uhoh3::lol2::nono:

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Specializes in ICU, M/S,Nurse Supervisor, CNS.

This can be very annoying and time consuming. In my ICU we also only speak with one family spokesperson. Of course this doesn't always work and not all nurses stick to that plan as they should, but generally it suits me and my coworkers. On a few occasions though when caring for the same gentleman two days in a row, his daughter called to get information on his status. Problem was that she lived out of town and her uncle (pt's brother) was listed as spokesperson. The first day she called I reminded her that we only speak to the person listed as the spokesperson and to give him a call. She was very nice, but claimed she was not aware of this policy. I asked if she and her uncle would like to change it so that she would be the spokesperson and she declined, stating that since he is in the area, he'd be the better choice. Fine, so I told her the basic response of he's stable but I can't give you any more information. Lo and behold, next day she calls again, same questions. I reminded her AGAIN of what I had told her the day before. She was always nice, but just didn't follow directions well. The problem wasn't that she had issues with her uncle either, she just insisted on calling the unit first and did so several times both days. That was just irritating and I'm sure she got tired of me telling her to call her uncle...unfortunately not tired enough to just do that and stop calling the unit.

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Specializes in ED, ICU, Heme/Onc.
Here is my biggest pet peeve as a nurse: patient condition phone calls. Not referring to me contacting a family to let them know their loved one's condition has changed, I am referring to the daily onslaught of calls from family members, sometimes 3 people in one family calling separately, asking about the condition of a patient and asking me to look into my crystal globe and let them know when discharge will be. I get called out of patient rooms repeatedly to update someone on the phone. If it is the third call on the same patient, sometimes I ask the person to call one of the other two people I've already spoken to. That usually isn't helpful because then I get dragged into "well, I'm not speaking to so and so and my sister is stupid and blah blah blah". Often times, these calls come in during or immediately after shift change time and I haven't gotten a fresh set of vitals, haven't been in the room, nothing! I have even thought about pointing out this problem to management but I'm not sure they will make any policies that will protect the nurses. Any thoughts?

We use "confidentiality codes" at our facility. If the caller doesn't have one, I just tell them that I can confirm that they are a patient in the facility, and explain why I can't give the info. Then if they have the number, I will tell them that "all vital signs are stable and the pt. is resting comfortably, I see that you are not the primary contact for the patient, so anything futher will need to be discussed with the POA". And if the patient could speak, I encourage the caller to speak to the patient. If they get into the whole family drama, I politely stop the tirade and reinforce that we can't give all 20 family members the same report and that they need to coordinate. (No one ever complained about it either - at least not that I had ever heard about!)

Blee

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