Transfer Center

[antares]

Is anyone familiar with, or work in, a hospital transfer center? I am thinking about taking a position in my hospital's new transfer center, but I am still unsure of all the responsibilities. If anyone can tell me about what a typical day is like, that would be great.

[newSN]

This post is 3 years old, but I have the same question. I'm thinking of transferring to our hospital's transfer center. I need a break from the hectic environment of ER until my health improves, but I'm not sure what the job will be like. Anyone have experience in a transfer center?

[KrysyRN, BSN]

Is "transfer center" another term for telephone triage? This is the first I've heard I've heard that term.

[HHLinda]

Never heard of transfer center except linkage with recruitment in HR. is this telephone triage?

[antares]

I suppose that I'll answer my own question so that it's available for others in the future. The transfer center facilitates patient transfers between two facilities, typically hospitals. Everywhere does thing differently, but this is how we do it where I work.

When a patient needs a higher level of care, the attending from the sending facility calls the transfer center. The transfer center nurse then contacts doctor on call for the appropriate service, (i.e. trauma, neurosurgery, etc.), and conferences the doctors together. If the patient is accepted to an ED or ICU, the sending attending must then give report to the receiving attending. In complex cases the TCRN may need to contact additional specialties. We listen in on call calls, activate EMS, and get nursing report.

The volume of transfers is unpredictable. You could only do 2 during a shift or 3 at once. Where I work, the transfer center is within another department, so we are always pretty busy. It's a nice job.

[hrb25]

I worked at a transfer center (just like what you described) for 2 years and loved it! Definitely need to like costumer service because the sending facility is basically your hospital's costumer and you want them to be happy with the way your take care of and transfer their patients to a higher level fo care. A nice break from direct patient care if you are burned out but you are still helping patients. If you thrive on adrenaline this might not be exciting enough for you, however, it can still be very busy. As noted by someone else, the volume is very unpredictable. Sometimes I would have a phone up to each ear and be working in multiple computer programs all at the same time but that was the part I thought was fun. I also found that there was often a conflict resolution to be done at my organization-usually between physicians- so you have to like dealing with doctors. A moderate amount of data enry required. I also did follow-up calls with patients which was nice to have that direct contact with patients still. Not a great job for maintaining your clinical skills but you could always work PRN somewhere to keep up that aspect of nursing.

[kaewing2003]

Thank you so much! I am thinking of going to a transfer center and just wanted to see how other nurses liked it. I love patient care but, want to do something different and still help patients. Thanks again!

[kaewing2003]

Thanks so much for the feedback!