Pt beds in the hallway

[Nurse1966]

Not to start an ER vs. Med/Surg/ICU battle, but I attended a class at work that turned ugly. What it boils down to is: ER nurses wanting to add patient beds to the (med/surg/tele/ICU) floors in the hallway, to facilitate moving patients out of the ER quicker. And the hospital is considering it. Has anyone ever heard of this? We're talking about putting sick patients in hospital beds in the hallway and providing patient care there. I see so many things wrong with that picture, but they all thought it was a perfectly acceptable solution to fixing "flow" problems in the ED. Any thoughts on the matter, without starting World War III?

[bigsyis]

Yes, I was part of a disaster like this back in the 80's. We had Dividing screens, port-a-potties, and manual call bells for pts. They even had bedside and over-bed tables in the halls! One afternoon I came into work, and the halls had been totally cleared out, from just the night before! When I asked, they said they said that someone had reported the situation to the Fire Marshall. That should handle the situation for you!

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

Where I work in the UK we have something called an escalation policy, in this if the emergency unit is exceeding capacity both in trolleys and in the corridor then the wards accept patients on trolleys in the corridors. THey are only put there if there is a definate discharge on the ward that can take place within the next hour.

Yes it poses health and safety risks and patient safety risks but these risks are there if they are nursed in a trolley on a ward or in the corridor in the emergency unit.[/quote

not seen this yet in the UK, we do have a discharge lounge to free up beds while awauting TTO etc, trained nurse present and transport is booked to pick them up there

We have a discharge lounge too but as with everywhere else it is over capacity. It doesnt happen often but it does happen

[Miss Mab]

I wonder if the patient satisfaction scores would apply to the hallway patients? I don't see how we could get a five from a patient in the hallway no matter how hard we tried.

And that pretty well explains one of the major reasons why most ER's have notorious low scores. It's an everyday thing here.

I say send 'em up. Perhaps that will encourage that "bed cleaning" and "equipment gathering" that always needs to be done.

I don't really have any big floor/er issue. I'm just sick of having to argue/play games just to do my job. It's ridiculous. If I can do all of the admit orders for someone in the hallway down here while I'm waiting on the floor--why can't you do the same upstairs?

[reesern63, RN]

ER is different. I can see it in an ER and even wish that my current ER was set up that way, but for in-pts????

Do ED pts not deserve the same privacy and dignity as other pts?