Post-mortem care

[ProfesseureTournesol]

Hello everyone!

We have a two-hour policy about not moving a body after death (no moving to another room or to the morgue or to anywere else) and I was wondering from where does this come from. I can't find anything on it except the general acceptation that it is more respectful for the deceased... OK, but why two hours, not one or three? Is this a tradition or is it based on something more "solid"?

Thanks!

[jmgrn65, RN]

I have no idea. We began morgue care as soon as everyone including family is done viewing the patient. The funeral home would be picking the patient up by then if we waiting 2 hours before doing care.

[leslie :-D]

it 'sounds' like your particular facility's policy.

that, 2 hrs would be a reasonable time for viewing, goodbyes before removing.

i know of many places that have a 4+ hr limit.

it's going to vary from place to place.

leslie

[clemmm78, RN]

That's interesting. I've never heard of a time limit that you can't move a body, although we've had time limits within which we must move a body.

[mpccrn, BSN, RN]

hmmm what do you do if you need the bed for a live person???

[nightmare, RN]

There used to be an old superstition that the soul did not leave the body for 2 hours and that the window was therefore left open to allow it to leave.Whether this has any bearing on it ,I don't know!

[CHATSDALE]

i have worked in a facility that had any time limit

always encouraged family to make a funeral home decision as soon as possible but did not really put pressure on them..sometimes they need to talk to other family members to make decision

as for needing the bed for another patient we once had a code on a man who died because a bed in icu was being occupied by a dead patient and the pickup was coming from a town 35 miles away

no one told the doctor the truth but later he found out about it

[ProfesseureTournesol]

hmmm what do you do if you need the bed for a live person???

Well... the alive patient waits...

That's one of the reason why it seemed to me to be a policy that doesn't really serves anyone and is based on some kind of a superstitious belief. I've seen times when a body was transferred to, say, a "closed" room (because of staff shortage, we always have closed rooms on the unit). But my thoughts were, if you can move the body to another room, then why not to the morgue?

Thanks for your replies!

[kmoonshine, RN]

I have no clue.

Could it have something to do about keeping everything in one place (belongings, jewelry, body, etc)? Should there be mysterious circumstances surrounding the pts death, one room is better than 2, or 3.

Also, perhaps the policy is to protect the family and provide them with adequate time to be with the body instead of being rushed away. While it is a nice gesture, it won't save their life; meanwhile, the waiting room is full of patients with no where to go.

[XB9S, BSN, MSN, EdD, RN, APN]

I verify death as a NP and I have to be honest I like to leave it at least 1 hour (just to make sure) :uhoh21: Not heard of any rationale for it though

[madwife2002, BSN, RN]

We always let the pt lie for an hour as a mark of respect.

[blinks14]

We have a bunch of people who must be contacted in the case of a death and it takes almost an hour for them to come to the floor to see the pt. But we start post-mortem care as soon as those various people have seen the pt. And we take the body down to the morgue as soon as possible. We do allow family as much or as little time to say their goodbyes as they need. I've never seen them take that long though at that time either.