VIP Triage

Specialties Emergency

Published

A state senator walks into our ED. Management rushes in to ensure the pt gets in ahead of all others. all the beds are full to hall 8. Our charge nurse says no, I am in charge during her lunch and say no. Management takes the patient to cath lab to be seen and we go on about our bussiness. The next day they charge the Charge RN with insubordination. Does any one have any experience with the legalities of this situation?

Maybe an "anonymous" tip to the news paper is in order? "Senator expects special treatment in ED" Be sure to elaborate on the charge nurse being written up because she tried to ensure the patients were seen according to normal protocol.

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One of my pet peeves is the call that so and so's mother, brother, aunt, 2nd cousins daughter is coming in, and could we make sure that they don't wait. Lets see, I have 20 in the waiting room, 5 who should have been seen hours ago and you want me to take the cardioligists daughter back with a toe injury???

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worked at the same place as edvalerie...

an express pass of which she speaks was thrown (by a VIP) at the triage nurse once... WAY out of line...not sure what happened...If I had been there that night, who knows?

anyway,

Do you want a VIP sitting in the waiting room with pts coming up every 10 seconds bothering him? I've seen it...Not a pretty sight, and it only adds chaos to your already busy night from he!! in triage...

And haven't some of us scooted family members and our own staff ahead of the masses from time to time?

just a thought :cool:

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Maybe an "anonymous" tip to the news paper is in order? "Senator expects special treatment in ED" Be sure to elaborate on the charge nurse being written up because she tried to ensure the patients were seen according to normal protocol.

Our local papers will not print anonymous information in the viewpoints, but this is an excellent idea if you can get a "young" reporter willing to stick their neck out and they have an editor who's willing to catch the "axe" from chopping it off. it's a great idea, tough sell. Perhaps a political grass roots movement in community meetings....but there is ...... HIPPA. Only set up to back those breaking the rules that have the most power... another thread

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Last year, we had a famous athlete come in to the hospital...

The WR filled up w/ old teammates and friends...

CNN called us, the local media was there...

Do you want them waiting in triage???

They don't bump the MI, or (insert diagnosis), BUT, ridding the WR of that distraction, is, effective triage...

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Specializes in ICU-Stepdown.

Hogan has some valid points -things can be worse if the vip DOESN'T get the rush to the front of the line -that would entirely depend on who the VIP was, though. Not all of them are public figures and so wouldn't be bothered by johnQpublic looking for an autograph or piece of limelight to share.

VIPs will always be with us, just as they always have been. Not much you can really do about them -just grin and bear it. Sure, it grinds my gut when they give one of our rooms to a vip who doesn't have the acuity level to be on our floor (our rooms are pretty nice, single rooms with plenty of space in them (well, providing you don't have any life-support machinery in there) but again, no point in being sore about it. When I have 'em as patients, I just do what I have to do, and leave them alone as much as I can.

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Specializes in Day Surgery/Infusion/ED.

I was thinking that maybe this was done for security reasons, though firing the charge nurse was over the top.

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Specializes in Trauma, Teaching.

I had one sweet little old man who was worried about his wife, and it was one of those nights where it was taking hours to get room assignments. I explained the process to him (wait for the admit orders, call for a bed, wait for the assignment,) and what we don't say: wait for the floor to be ready, wait for the nurse to accept report, etc. He finally asked if it would have made a difference if he had told us he was on the hospital board of directors, I said no honey, when I don't have beds I just don't have beds. Poor thing was determined not to throw his weight around.

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Specializes in 6 years of ER fun, med/surg, blah, blah.
worked at the same place as edvalerie...

an express pass of which she speaks was thrown (by a VIP) at the triage nurse once... WAY out of line...not sure what happened...If I had been there that night, who knows?

anyway,

Do you want a VIP sitting in the waiting room with pts coming up every 10 seconds bothering him? I've seen it...Not a pretty sight, and it only adds chaos to your already busy night from he!! in triage...

And haven't some of us scooted family members and our own staff ahead of the masses from time to time?

Yeah, well, but then those people are our own. That's OK isn't it?;)

:uhoh3:

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Specializes in Emergency Room.

I ran into this last week. A (very famous) baseball player's spouse called ahead to say she was bringing their child in. We held a room for over 90 minutes waiting for them. How irritating! The woman ended up being incredibly nice and thankful, and I'm sure went on to tell lots of people about the great job we did with her daughter, but still.......I just felt we were providing special treatment for them.

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F the special treatment. I hate peolple that use the system this way. Who could have used that bed you held?

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I once saw a doctor sew up his own child's laceration in the ER. The advantage to him was that he didn't have to register and pay for the ER and supplies, and didn't have to wait.

He was awfully nervous but agreed to do it. Right? Wrong? Whatever.

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