Report?

Wow. I wouldn't know where to start, but for the safety of the patients I hope you and the other nurses at your facility look into getting that policy changed. You have every right to be concerned about this, and I'd imagine it is a major liability for the hospital if a patient decided to sue and this was brought against someone in court :stone In other words, there is no reason why ER nurses should not be reporting to floor nurses, for the safety of the patients.

this is a dangerous situation that needs to be addressed quickly. your facility needs to develop a process to ensure that the units get report on all patients being admitted and are aware of their arrival. i work in a very busy level ii trauma center and we never send patients anywhere without having sent report first.

at my facility we give a verbal report to the receiving nurse for all icu, step-down, and pediatric admission. for admissions to the remaining units we have a standardized report form that we fax, which was developed by representatives of all affected units. prior to sending the patient we call the unit to confirm receipt. in addition to the report form, i usually print copies of the nurse's notes and labs and send these as well.

this issue was addressed in jcaho's 2008 national patient safety goals. the purpose of goal 2 is "improve the effectiveness of communication among caregivers." requirement 2e further states "implement a standardized approach to "hand off" communications, including an opportunity to ask and respond to questions." the 2008 national patient safety goals manual chapter at the top of the page provides additional information regarding the rationale behind these goals.

We always receive a verbal report from the ER on pts being admitted; also from transfers from other floors.

What if something bad had happened to that patient during the 1-2 hours you were unaware he was on your floor? I would think ER could be held accountable because they dumped the patient without a report. JHACO's standards state that you need to have a hand-off communication which includes time for questions. If someone is giving you a pile of paperwork and no report that is not correct hand-off. I would have filled out an incident report on this issue.

Working in the ED I have never sent a pt to the floor without report,

I hope the pt was okay. I agree this needs to be looked into and a policy set in place. That is SCARY...................................