Trauma Observation Unit?

[AvaRN22, MSN, RN]

Hi there!

Hopefully this is the right forum to post in regarding trauma obs. I couldn't find much on Trauma Observation Units online and was wondering if anyone can tell me more about it?

If you currently or have worked on a Trauma Observation Unit can you tell me what your basic responsibilities are, what kind of patients/diagnoses are common, qualifications for the job, what an average day is like, and the patient-nurse ratio is?

Thanks so much!:)

[silentRN]

Never heard of such a thing

[alabamaparamedic]

Are ya thinking of a TSICU or TICU (trauma-surgical ICU or trauma ICU)?

[GreyGull]

They, or this practice, have been around for a long time but some hospitals didn't have a "name" for it. Now this "inbetween" area where the patient doesn't immediately qualify for admission but is worth a little wait and see is being named with additional beds sought. We used to park the patients out of the immediate ED or trauma area in a back part of the ED with a couple of nurse and a tech so more tests could be run like for a chest pain that "appears" to be negative for a serious event or the patient may just need to wake up after procedures there shouldn't prevent a patient from being discharged later. In the trauma center these patients may also have been trauma alerts that are relatively stable and placement, treatment or discharge will be determined after more tests or a wait and see period.

The only other alternative to getting these patients out of the ED was to admit them to the floors on a 23 hour admission and chances are they would be discharged within 12 hours. But, they would still have tied up a med floor or tele bed. Besides Trauma Observation Unit, Medical Observation Unit and Clinical Decision Unit are other names used.

Generally you will need ED/tele knowledge and the ratio is generally 1:4.

[AvaRN22, MSN, RN]

I had never heard of such a thing either, until I saw a job posting for an opening in this unit.

Greygull~ Thanks for explaining! I guess it's exactly what it sounds like. Sort of like a DOU, just trauma-focused.

[steelydanfan]

As far as I know, there has never been a break-down of trauma/non trauma in an 24 -hour observation ward. This would seem to be very specialized and revenue negative, if you get my drift.

[GreyGull]

There are studies done for cost analysis in AZ, Utah and Boston which can easily be found on a decent med search engine. These units are becoming increasingly popular to keep hospitals beds open for admissions and to free up ED beds.