Transporting Telemetry Patients

[mercyrn02, RN]

Greetings everyone,

I need to know how patients are transported off of telemetry in other hospitals. At our facility we need a doctor's order(most do not want to make that call). This means that patients must be accompanied by an RN with portable monitor. We have 36 beds and on any one day at least half of the unit must leave the unit for testing or hemodialysis. HELP! :nurse:

[jmgrn65, RN]

our patients just go, to where ever they need. Nursing judgement of course if the patient is having a lot of VT or Brady. it patient is not stable then they either don't go or a nurse needs to go with them. ALL ICU patients go with a nurse well that probably didn't need saying :)

[madwife2002, BSN, RN]

We have RN's who work with the transporters and they take the pt to what ever test they have. All pt's go monitored. The only exception is haemodialysis, where we take our own pts.

[RN ColbyJack]

Patients at my hospital need an order to be transported w/o telemetry monitoring. Most MDs are willing to put in the order, but it does take the nurse the extra step of contacted the doctor to get the order.

[LanaBanana]

Wow. I'm on a telemetry floor and our patients go off monitoring all the time for tests. EKGs, ultrasound, portable CXrays happen in the room, but most everything else the transporters just come and take them off the monitor and we know when we sign them out that they will be off telemetry. However, our dialysis unit is on the same floor, so our monitors still pick that up. As someone else said, all ICU pts go with a nurse. We occassionally have an unstable pt that goes down with a nurse.

[madwife2002, BSN, RN]

None of our tele patients can go off the floor unmonitored

[Spatialized]

It depends on the patient and the doc. Most of the time, the MD writes that it is ok to come of for "x..." usually showers and tests off unit. Every now and then they don't. I recently had a patient whose ICD had been turned off due to malfunction and everywhere he went it was on monitor with and ACLS nurse (which we all are, but that's besides the point). The only time we really see that is the unstable folks, which we try not to move all that much anyways.

Cheers,

Tom

[vamedic4, EMT-P]

Our facility allows some patients (depending on their problem and clinical condition) to be off monitors while off the unit in XRAY, CT, et cetera. But most of the time, when they have to be down having a test - they are monitored and they have to have someone with them who reads telemetry...either a nurse or a tech. An RN is required when the patient goes off the floor to ICU (of course), or if the patient has to be transported on oxygen.

vamedic4

Is it Friday yet?

[phillyfly4280]

It depends. If you work during the day, and the patient has to go to a test or to another regular floor, transportation comes. At night the nurse and the pca/clerk take the patient to wherever they have to go.

[anonymurse]

Greetings everyone,

I need to know how patients are transported off of telemetry in other hospitals. At our facility we need a doctor's order(most do not want to make that call). This means that patients must be accompanied by an RN with portable monitor. We have 36 beds and on any one day at least half of the unit must leave the unit for testing or hemodialysis.

If there isn't a clear need according to available data, our doctors write "off floor off telemetry" and trust us to do the right thing if things change. They trust us because we talk to our doctors all the time. No one is afraid to call a doctor or collar him in the hall or charting room. So if the patient needs telemetry going off the floor, the nurses and doctors have already been talking about his stability. There is a lot of trust here. We need it to combat the fear. The patients are scared, the families are scared. We can deal with that. But if doctors scared that patients and families will sue over nothing, and if nurses are scared to talk to doctors, then everyone's hosed.

[meandragonbrett]

Some facilities have an in house RN transport team (composed of ICU RNs) that can transport if floor staff are unable (typically during the day). Requires NP/PA/MD order to go off monitor.

[All_Smiles_RN]

Our pts can go without tele for testing. Unless of course they are on a cardiac gtt or unstable.