Patients demanding a singleroom.

Hoosier_RN, MSN · May 19, 2023

RMHRehab said:

Need ideas please

Ever since the pandemic patients are demanding a singleroom. Or they refuse to move to a shared room. This always results in aggression

Does anyone know of a strategy that works

Let them know that they will pay for the whole room, insurance will not pay the excess, and let them know that rate. This should be a conversation by your unit manager or MSW or Care Coordinator, not a floor nurse

KathyDay · Sep 15, 2023

Wanting a private room is one thing, but wanting a decent roommate is another. My husband spent 11 days and nights roomed with a homeless addict, who stole one of his things, was loud, demanding, setting off his bed alarm often, watching tV at full volume, and interrupting our visits. The final straw was that he lit up and smoked in the room, and the nurses caught him and took away his private possessions. My husband said that was only one time..that they caught him. He had done it before the day they caught him. That evening I demanded that my husband be moved in with a better matched roommate. Instead, THEY put him in a private room..it was not what I requested, but it was MUCH better. His demeanor changed and he opened up more after that move. Moving to a private room was actually therapeutic for my husband.

Glycerine82, LPN · Oct 10, 2023

I've solved this problem by really considering where I place people and making changes when/if needed. We don't have a single except for one isolation room and I explain. Then I usually crack a joke or two and promise to win them over. Usually I do.

WhirlyGirlNurse · Nov 2, 2023

I recently spent two nights as an inpatient after surgery. I was assigned a semi-private room. My roommate had claimed our room's one chair and pushed it next to her bed, making it necessary to push her bed closer to mine. Our beds were about 18 inches apart. Because of the practice of bedside report, my roommate and her family learned my whole name, DOB, past medical history, meds, and current issues. Every conversation between my surgeon, caregivers, and me was overheard. My roommate would not flush "our" toilet so when I discovered poop and pee in it, I started using the public bathroom in the hall. The first night she snored, farted, cried, played games on her phone, called the nurse every 20 minutes, and made it completely impossible for me to sleep. I spent my first post-op night walking the hallways and sitting in the recliner in the "family lounge." When my surgeon told me I needed to stay another night I told him if I had yet another sleepless night I would be suicidal (or...possibly homicidal...) in the morning. He managed to find me a private room. This was a learning experience for me. I'm a very private person and the thought of strangers seeing me in a hospital gown and overhearing every conversation between my caregivers and me, including hand-off report, is intolerable. If I ever have to admitted again to this aging hospital that has many semi-private rooms it will be because I arrived by helicopter and was unresponsive. Never again. Never.