Tele transports from the ER

[Surfnurse]

Who can transport a pt to a tele floor in your ER? We are using anyone who can push a cart, RN, PCA, Secretary and even volunteers, some who are high school students. Just wondering about the liability and what other ER's are doing about transport. If the RN is in charge of transporting the patient, they would be transporting all day, and be off the floor too much.

[mommatrauma, RN]

Our "stable" tele patients go to the floor with a tech who is ACLS certified...HOWEVER, they are not transported on a monitor...If they have to go to Step-down or ICU..with an RN with pt on monitor...our "tele" doesn't take unstable anything...nor do they take any drips...hence my point..why bother having a tele floor...

[shadowflightnurse]

Good thread. Long time sore subject of mine. Many, if not all, of the hospitals I've worked required an RN to transport to tele on a monitor. However, none of the hospitals had any further requirements regarding transporting patients. If they insist on a monitor, it should be a monitor/defibrillator. Why monitor for a lethal rhythm if you can do nothing about it...except run a strip!! What good does an ACLS certified RN do if they don't have BVM, code drugs and protocols to use them??? Without these tools, the hospital might as well use ANYBODY that works at the hospital to do the transport. since all people who work in a hospital are required to have BLS certification.

Sorry for the long post.

[erjulie]

Speaking of being unable to intervene on a coding patient, I loved that when it became "in" to get automatic defibrillators, our management hurriedly bought one and were shocked (no pun) to find that there was no monitoring capability...so we said "why are we here?" the patient, the aed and the transport aid can go...but no, now we go with the aed, the monitor, o2 etc etc I feel like a pack mule!

[nickola]

In my experience any patient going to a monitored floor from ER or PACU must have 2 RN's, or 1 RN & an RT or CRNA or MD, a monitor/defib & we have a drug box & a BVM....O2 tank of course..........plus the IV pumps-- sometimes we need 3 people to transport esp. if pt on vent. (& all RNs at this facility must be ACLS- so sometimes we use med-surg staff or house super- depending on who it is that can be a joke....) :uhoh21: