Telemetry, Step Down?

[Epona]

Hello. Can someone tell me what exactly is a Telemetry, Step Down unit?? Is it mostly Cardiac, or is there a lot of Med, Surg. involved??

Thanks! Epona

[RNKPCE]

varies. Primary focus is cardiac but we can get hip fractures related to a fall from syncope, stroke related to atrial fib, a cancer patient who goes into CHF, post op open heart surgeries, coronary interventions such as stents, ep studies, ablations, overdoses, post partum mom's with dysrrhythmmias, r/o MI's, new onset Atrial fib, plain med-surg over flow non monitored when med-surg is full. Nearly anything that walks in the door can end up on our floor. This is tele.

Step down usually heavier, multisystem problems, less stable but not requiring ICU

[dskrninpa]

As the previous poster said, step-downs vary. My floor is a step-down for the ICUs in a trauma center. Generally the patient's are not stable enough to be on a regular floor, or may be stable enough, but the docs want closer monitoring. We get them after they've been to the ICU and to prevent them from going there. We are also the only floor outside the units to handle vents. A step-down in a trauma center/teaching hospital will (generally) have a higher acuity than in other hospital settings, many of our patient's would be ICU elsewhere.

[Epona]

Thank you!! :)