Questions for an acute care nurse.

[dudette10]

I and my coworkers get a lot of questions/requests from LTC nurses that I don't understand why it's necessary or needed at that exact moment when it's going to be in the packet sent with the patient. Just a few questions...

Why do I get asked to fax the discharge papers when the patient will be there with the papers within a couple of hours?

Why do we get calls a day or two after admission asking for the admission diagnosis?

Is an end date for an antibiotic a separate documentation requirement or something? I almost got into a shouting match with a nurse who insisted on getting an end date for the abx when it was clear by the infectious disease doc's note (which I read to her) that this was an indefinite abx due to chronic implanted device-related infection.

Why do some want me to give all wound information in explicit detail, even if I've reassured the receiving nurse that all wound care orders will be sent in the packet?

Thanks for your help!

[littlespitfire]

I feel fortunate we have nurse liaisons that go to our local hospitals to review if patients are rehab material and to go over their admission packets... Some of our admissions from other states are scary. Missing orders, no dictations, no surgical or consult notes, no last labs, and when we call, no one knows who to transfer us to. Like the previous posts, the pharmacy issue is dead right. We have an Omnicell in house with hundreds of meds, but there's many we don't have or if they've already been taken out then that's it. With wounds, all patients get a detailed skin assessment on admission. The facility does not want to get stuck with a wound that isn't an in facility wound. We were told it has to do with Medicare payment as well as state requirements.

[Adele_Michal7, ASN, RN]

Probably because SO MANY TIMES I've been told something would arrive "with the packet" and then... Nope. And then we get flack from our unit managers. Preemptive excessive questioning saves us SO much work later.