PRIVATE ROOMS USA vs UK

[cybernurse81]

just wondering how it works in the US, i have been talking to lots of american nurses on here and the thing that amazes me is the number of private rooms ur guys seem to have, in the hospital i work each ward has 36 beds, 4 f them being private rooms, the private rooms have one bed and a sink, thats it! i know it sounds pre historic! its one of the things i want to change about the NHS over here. Our private rooms are not always used well either, but because they are limited they are filled with patients with MRSA or the big one at the moment over here in england is C-diff! any views about this?

[MedSurgeMess]

the hospital that I work at is going to all private rooms by 2009. There will be a bed, shower, cots for family, small fridge, etc. From what I understand, it will be better than a hotel room. For HIPAA, I think it's great, but from the customer service standpoint, it just sets up some pts and their families for expecting even more. So I guess it's fair to say that I have very mixed feelings about this!

[cheshirecat]

Private hospitals in the UK all have en-suite, carpets??? - which I personally think should be a no no in a hospital, TV often with sky. The rooms are not unlike a hotel room except the beds are hospital beds, and there is suction and Oxygen attachments on the walls.

When I worked in a private hospital, the patients would often treat the nurses like servants, you know, drop their newspapers on the floor, then ring the bell for a nurse and tell them to pick up newspapers!! I once had a patient who felt her toast was not cooked enough, so instead of ringing the waitresses bell, rang for a nurse because we answered our bells a lot quicker then the waitress.

All I can say is thank god I am back working for the NHS.

[Kelky]

I work in a brand new hospital here in the US, and yes all rooms are private, own bathroom, TV's etc, it's like a hotel. I just worry because you can't just quickly scan your eyes over the floor and see all your patients, they're all behind walls and you have to physically go in to see them to make sure they're ok. The many bedded wards i worked on in the UK had lots of drawbacks but it was easy to see when someone needed help.

[RNperdiem, RN]

In older hospitals there are semi-private rooms- 1 room for 2 patients. I have never seen wards. All new construction and newer hospitals that I see have private rooms.

[Reno1978, BSN, RN]

I've worked at 3 hospitals here for clinicals at school, and the only semi-private rooms that I've seen so far are in pediatrics, and they're only used for more stable patients of similar age.

[BabyRN2Be]

The only time I've seen "wards" or multi-bedded rooms was a hospital in southern California - and that was several years ago. Peds had a ward (6 beds in one room), and the rooms that were on the hospital's corners had 3 or 4 persons to a room. One of the corners had a deluxe suite for patients who could pay for it, and those rooms were huge! They had a full table and bed in the room, a fridge, and the uppermost floors had views of the ocean.

I was in the hospital for a head injury in January 06 and I got stuck in a semi-private room. I had a LOL next to me who wanted to hear all about my problems on the intake history the RN was doing. She even asked the RN to speak up when interviewing me. I asked the RN nicely, "How are these semiprivate rooms HIPAA compliant?" She said, "Well, they aren't" and said the best she could do was pull the curtain. She also spoke in a lower voice while doing the interview so the LOL couldn't hear anything. I really, really appreciated that.

[katfishLPN]

I was also a patient in a large urban hospital in 2000. I was in a semi-private room also with a LOL (little old lady) next to me. She was very sweet but one morning the doctor came in, it was about 5:00am and I overheard (not trying to listen) the doctor tell the LOL she had cancer and needed to stay for more surgery. That was awful. I really wasn't trying to listen but when the doc is speaking a little louder than normal (d/t the LOL was hard of hearing) and it was quiet I couldn't help but hearing. I did find it a little useful for her anyway to be in a room with someone else because the poor lady had asked for Tylenol at about 11pm someone came in turned off the light and said she would tell a nurse. Well at about 1:30am no one had come in yet and so she put the light back on and a different person came in turned off the light and said she would tell the nurse. Still no one had come in by about 3:00am so she put the light back on and you guessed it a different person came in and turned the light off and said she would tell the nurse! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHhh still no one came!!!! So around 5:30am the nurse came to check on me and I said to her that the woman next to me had been asking for Tylenol ALL night and different people kept saying they would tell the nurse but no one had come!!!!! So the nurse went and spoke to the woman and got her some Tylenol!!!!!!! I know being a nurse how busy the nurses are but I was really upset that she was basically ignored all night. I could see once forgeting or whatever but again and again. So that I think was one of the only good things about being in a semi-private room. Other than that I really did feel I had no privacy either personally or medically (labs, info,) etc...

[not now, RN]

The hospital where my I do clinic has three "sections" to it. The old section of the hospital is either one, two or three beds to a room. This is now strictly the Sub-acute unit. The new-old tower of the hospital has two beds to a room and is known as the geriatric portion of med/surg, basically the not that sick patients from a nursing home or who are going to a nursing home. Peds is also in that tower but those rooms were converted to large single patient rooms years ago. Finally, the new tower is all private rooms

[General E. Speaking, RN, RN]

Med-Surg unit. all private rooms with flat screen tv's and pull out sofa beds for family Hospital Hotel for sure.

[SoontobeAdrienneRN]

The hospital that I work at has 2 private rooms on all med/surg floors. The ICU and maternity floors has all private rooms as well. I just think that not having private rooms a lot of times HIPAA regulations are comprimised. Not to mention space is close to non-exisistant when you have two nurses and two PCA trying to provide care for their patients.

[santhony44, MSN, RN, NP]

Back in the early 80's I did clinicals in a VA hospital. They had some rooms that had 6 beds. No other hospitals I have been familiar with had more than 2 beds to a room, and I think the trend is to all private rooms.

At least here in the US, we'll eventually see nothing but private rooms, for privacy reasons if nothing else. I think they're great for the patients and families although having everybody in one room would be easier for staff.