Transporting Patients from ER to Floor. Your Process?

Specialties Emergency

Published

My hospital's current ER to floor admissions process involves the emergency department nurse taking the patient to their assigned room in PCU, ICU, medical-surgical or where ever the patient is admitted. This takes an emergency department off the floor in an already short staffed and busy ED. We have researched other facilities and are finding that other hospitals have individuals who come to the ED and take patients to their assigned room once a room has been assigned.

Does your hospital have staff members who take admitted patients from the emergency department to their assigned rooms/departments? Is there a specific name for this process? Also if you have any research articles you would like to share regarding this (especially ones concerning patient safety).

We are trying to collect research and sharing your experiences would be greatly appreciated.

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Specializes in Emergency; med-surg; mat-child.

Transport teams for non-critical pts. Anyone monitored or going to a unit gets RN transport. Behavioral gets transport team or aide and security.

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Specializes in ED, Cardiac-step down, tele, med surg.

The floor nurse comes and get's their patient. We transport to the ICU, NICU, or peds.

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Specializes in Emergency Department.

We have employees who job is solely to work as transporters. RNs take any patients to the unit. RNs also take patients who are on any iv drip that can affect BP or heart rate or has blood infusing. Security accompanies the transporter to BHU. This process seems to work well!!

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ICU/IMU patients are transported by a nurse, most all others are done by the ER techs (although when short techs, nurses will do the transport).

Our smaller hospital (24 ER beds, 140 floor beds includng ICU/IMU) has been looking at hiring a transport tech for peak admit hours (2p-10p or so) to help with the issue. A huge part of it is how bedding is assigned in batches. We may have 3-5 patients waiting for beds for an hour or two, then within 5 minutes, they all get beds and need to be transported at the same time.

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I worked at a community hospital where the E.R. Techs would bring a patient up. If a patient was really acute, the nurse would escort them. Can't speak from the E.R. Perspective but it seemed to work pretty well.

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RN transports on monitor if patient is going to ICU or stepdown. Otherwise, we call transport. BH is escorted by Security

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Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.

We transport patients going to ICU and stepdown units. We transport patients on drips such as heparin even if the patient is going to med-surg. We have a patient transport team to take care of other patients. Inpatient psych patients go with a security officer. During peak times or overnights, ED techs will transport.

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ICU nurses at my hospital go down and get bedside report in the ER. Then the ICU RN and tech bring them up to intensive care.

Non-critical ICU patient, ER tech delivers. Medical floors, transport delivers.

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How does the process of nurses from other floors coming down to get pts from ED work? Is there a timeframe that receiving nurse must come get the patient from ED? Any information you can give on this is appreciated.

I am so grateful for all your replies. One thing we are looking at is the benefits of the ER nurse not leaving the ED. Do any of you have information on this?

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ER techs transport. If they are busy or short of techs a tech from the receiving unit is sent. The only time I saw an ER nurse bring a patient up all of the techs were tied up and the patient was a problem. I think the ER nurse REALY wanted her out of the ER.

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The patient is always greeted at the receiving unit. Usually by their tech and nurse, but often of the nurse is going to be tied up for a few minutes the tech will go in and get them settled, hooked up to tele, initial vitals, scd's ect.

If the nurse can't make it within 15 min the charge will come in. The charge will also accept initial transfer if tech and nurse are tied up.

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