providing pt. privacy in open visitation ****

[ICU_floater]

PLEASE, there is a huge thread upon open visitation is being discussed, if you wish to speak to that in particular click on the thread. What I really need from YOU, my peers....

Is how to provide privacy for the arrest, vented-sedated, non communicative pt. in the setting that states that visitors are allowed unless a safety risk for the pt. occurs.

this means, bad case scenerio that if the Primary contact person (decision maker) is lets say the daughter, we are NOT ALLOWED to ask her to leave in ANY circumstance unless pt. safety is compromised. Please read and allow me my say..... so dad is elderly and unreliable..... mom arrested at home... NEVER GAVE CONSENT for treatment let alone the daughter to be the decider..... and it defaults by law to her....

OPEN VISITATION..... we are now told that we may NOT request or demand family leave through invasive, private or basic wipe the butt care. We're to use "scripting"..... "to allow privacy for mom, you should step out".... Now crazy daughter demands to stay....... Well my PATIENT has not let loose of their rights to privacy, and maybe they don't want the daughter to see a tatoo on their orifice of thier first boyfriends name.

My management states that because this person becomes the primary decision maker we are to allow them FULL access to the patient, which in MHO involves ..... VIOLATING their rights.... which I've been trained 12 years to uphold!

When I discuss this with management, and the legal liabilities post, all I get is that the decision maker has the say.......

What is happening to protecting our patients privacy.... a hippa law???

We now have so many conflicting governmental agencies as welll as policies to upgrade our "scores" for our bonuses...... that

PATIENT ADVOCACY, PRIVACY... have gone wayside.... just make the pelple filling out the forms happy.

What are you ACTIVELY doing to address this with policies, what can we do different? How can we meet family needs while meeting ambiguous scores... which in the end, do not reflect ICU high standards of care?

help a disgruntled person here, who has to SELL this to her peers.... where am I looking at this wrong?

ps. don't give me the situational care giver whom does this at home, PLEASE, it obviously doesn't apply.... they are welcome to wipe orifice with me!