"Hallway admissions" at overcrowded ED, and professional risks of RNs talking to press

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Saw this article in Becker's this morning. As I was reading it, I was quite surprised to read this quote:

Kate Pugh, RN, a Montefiore ER nurse for five years, told the publication that on the busiest days, she typically treats up to 15 patients in the ER at one time.

"These are sick people," Ms. Pugh said. "Basically you're just running around putting out fires instead of giving quality care. This is not an easy fix. We just don't have space."

City Councilman Ritchie Torres sent a letter to the New York City Department of Investigation in August, urging the agency to "probe Montefiore's practice of placing Medicaid recipients in crowded hallways that neglect patient care," the report states. However, the prompt failed to change patient care techniques at the hospital.

Wonder if Miss Kate Pugh still has a job. Why would anyone besides the hospital spokesperson think it would EVER be a good idea to be quoted in the press, particularly about a shortcoming of the facility for which they work?

'Hallway admissions' abound at overcrowded Montefiore ER, nurses say

Correct. A huge portion of patients at Montefiore (and at any other hospital in the Bronx) are on some form of Medicaid. It's a general overcrowding issue, not a private vs. public insurance issue.

My sister called me in a panic when my aunt was boarded in an ER close to Montefiore. She described the place as looking like a "war zone". I got her to take a picture of the monitor and beeping pump. When I saw that the amiodarone was not running, I told her that it would be OK to use the call bell regardless of how busy the nurses are.

When I got down there after she was admitted, I found her NGT hooked to high continuous suction, and a foley in place despite her being mobile for two days. Thank god the family fought the planned discharge- she had a fever and UTI by the next day, and would have probably been uroseptic and back in the war zone ER a couple days later.

If she ends up in that ER again, I would be tempted to load her in a car AMA, and keep driving until the average price of a parked car is over $40,000, then find the closest ER.

It is shocking the difference in care people are subject to based solely on location.

10 miles from Montefiore is Scarsdale, with an average household income of $250,000. Not sure what hospital those folks use, but I doubt they are boarded in the halls with a 15-1 ratio.

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Specializes in Psych, Corrections, Med-Surg, Ambulatory.
I think there are definitely less risky ways to go about whistleblowing or effecting change that would protect one's job. Unless of course that particular nurse didn't care about the repercussions of being quoted by name in the press, and had reached her personal "**** it" point, which I totally get.

Yes. 15 patients per nurse; some in the hallway. I'd probably sing like a canary on my way out and look for a nice job selling shoes someplace.

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Specializes in CICU, Telemetry.

Both hospitals I've worked at have had us sign papers on hire saying we won't ever speak to the press about our jobs/speak as an employee of the hospital without consulting the hospital's PR department. I'm pretty sure I could be fired for doing this. I probably wouldn't, but the hospital would have the right to fire me, given my understanding of the terms of the documents I've signed.

Do all hospitals not have these forms? Seemed pretty standard but I guess I've only worked in 2 hospitals.

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Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.

I've never signed anything, but the one time the local newspaper interviewed me for an initiative our department was doing, I had to get it cleared and our PR person had to be there for the interview.

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Specializes in ER.
Both hospitals I've worked at have had us sign papers on hire saying we won't ever speak to the press about our jobs/speak as an employee of the hospital without consulting the hospital's PR department. I'm pretty sure I could be fired for doing this. I probably wouldn't, but the hospital would have the right to fire me, given my understanding of the terms of the documents I've signed.

Do all hospitals not have these forms? Seemed pretty standard but I guess I've only worked in 2 hospitals.

We don't have those forms but we would still be fired for speaking out based on the hospital's social media and confidentiality policies.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

It's not in the best part of the bronx, but if they think they have bad staffing problems, someone should take a look at the HHC hospitals......

As an aside, isn't it nice that that website has two different "channels" for hospital executives, but none for nursing?

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Many years ago I worked at the only hospital in our county. A few times our occupancy would get so high that patients were admitted to what were normally waiting rooms, hospital floor hall areas (screened off), large storage areas, etc. To their credit, they did not leave these patients in the ED any longer than necessary to find a corner for them somewhere on one of the in-patient floors.

That was long ago, and I later changed careers. I'm not even sure that would be allowed now, but we did it several times while I was there although it was very rare. Even with patients seemingly hanging from the walls, we never reached our "official" patient capacity max. I can't imagine where we'd have put patients if we'd ever reached that number.

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Specializes in Adult MICU/SICU.

Love your avatar pic! That seems to be 99.9% of the people I personally know.

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