Well, Isn't This Special

[nynursey_]

Discuss!

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

OCNRN63 said:

It's only time before nurses strike back with their own app, "Mute My Patient's Call Bell." This revolutionary app silences a patient's call bell from ringing for trivial matters. This app will insure that nurses have time to provide the care your loved one actually needs, rather than being tied up with patients who suffer from FMPBMSS. (Fluff My Pillow Bend My Straw Syndrome.) Every time a patient rings his/her call bell for frivolous/non-urgent reasons, an email will be sent to the hospital's billing department, and a surcharge will be attached to the patient's account.

Now I could get behind an app like that!

[NanikRN]

No way can this be real--please let therebe no way it's real 😱😁

Oh my. Just checked app store and it's there!

[NursesRmofun, ASN, RN]

The hospitals wouldn't allow it, IMO...they could see that nightmare waiting to happen.

[Mavrick, BSN, RN]

So let's follow the phone trail:

Nana presses "Notify Nurse" button,

that's a speed dial to the call center,

call center minion (CCM) answers and looks up Nana's info which states she's in Bestest Medical Center,

CCM calls the main line to BMC, gets the main operator,

operator looks up Nana who is on 4 Blue North,

operator connects to nurses' station of 4 Blue North,

Unit clerk answers (or not),

CCM asks to speak to Nana's nurse,

Unit clerk puts CCM on hold until Nana's Nurse is paged,

Nana's Nurse answers page and is connected to CCM (or not),

CCM reports that Nana is requesting a nurse,

Nana's Nurse states Nana no longer requires tele monitoring so, she has been transferred to 13 Tangerine West

Nana's Nurse transfers call to 13 Tangerine West (or not),

Unit clerk answers (or not),

CCM asks to speak to Nana's New Nurse,

Unit clerk puts CCM on hold until Nana's New Nurse is paged,

Nana's New Nurse answers page and is connected to CCM (or not),

CCM reports that Nana is requesting a nurse,

Nana's New Nurse hangs IV, answers call from Dr. she had paged earlier, reports low potassium, passes pain med, assists CNA with pulling patient up in bed, then enters Nana's room,

Nana looks up from neatly stacked cubes of jello in her lap and proclaims "I need help bending my straw"

Nana's New Nurse gets page for phone call on hold at nurses' station.

[blah_blah_blah]

I just downloaded the app out of curiosity, and a message pops up when you open the app saying "This is not a substitute for your in room Nurse call button. Always press your in room call button first before using this app. Do you understand?" and you have to select yes or no before you can use the app. It looks like they covered all (or at least most) of their legal bases, haha.

[TriciaJ, RN]

icuRNmaggie said:

You do not have to be an RN to answer call lights, in fact, that is not an efficient use of a nurse's time. In many hospitals the CNAs answer all of the call lights and that is how it should be.

LTC is a pit for our seniors where many die of dehydration and neglect; that is what led to development of this app.

If I had a family member trach and vent dependent in an LTACH, I would absolutely buy this service .

I support the concept of any outside monitoring on a secure gateway that incentivizes hospitals and LTC facilities to lower the ratios and hire more CNAs.

I would support it too. But what are the chances that management "gets it"? Just another excuse to throw a nurse under the bus. By the way, if someone has figured out a new way to harass busy nurses, I can see response times getting slower. I don't think this will be the catalyst for management to finally get with the adequate staffing program.

[icuRNmaggie, BSN, RN]

Management would have to support it if slow response times resulted in payment reduction, as it has with HCAPS and hospital acquired conditions.

I have not found a demo of this app for android. The screenshots look rather unsophisticated. I am not convinced that this particular app is the answer.

Answering call lights is a CNA responsibility and the response time should be measured. The app appears to require someone to input a name and #, and the CNA can put her name and #on the whiteboard. Legally, a record of unanswered calls along with a bad outcome would help the family hold the facility accountable. Low HCAPS scores can also cause payment reduction. When management hears enough complaints, and when the understaffing hurts the bottom line, then staffing ratios will improve and so will the quality of care.

[dinah77, ADN]

Can someone link to the app so we can give it poor reviews??? Tried google searching, couldn't find it.

[canigraduate]

Can someone link to the app so we can give it poor reviews??? Tried google searching, couldn't find it.

I did already, go back a page.

[dinah77, ADN]

So, you can submit comments directly to the app's website...here's mine:

Are you kidding me???

wild guess that the developers are not nurses

This app is a terrible idea!

Have any of you ever followed a nurse to see what the average workload is like???

Not to mention that so many things nurses get called to the room for are usually

1. Easily solved with the help of an aide and do NOT require a RN

2. Often are things a family member who is sitting idly by the bed can do for the patient while they sit on their a***s being lazy

Things I have been called to room for while a family member sits by texting

1. Peeling an orange

2. Adjusting pillows

3. Helping the patient put on socks

4. getting lotion out of a bag for a patient

etc.

This is not a good use of a RN's time! Do you have any idea how much education and training we have???

If you want this app to be accurate, you should add how many other pt's the nurse has, and which number the person is in line

It's almost a rule in healthcare that the less sick a person truly is, the more whiny and demanding the patient and their families are

People who are truly sick and generally require more care and attention tend to complain less

So you have essentially given a tool to the aforementioned pt's and their families to further misdirect their anger at a nurse who is likely overburdened, with a too high of a pt ratio, and probably hasn't peed in over 8 hours, not to mention eaten since breakfast

[Red Kryptonite]

icuRNmaggie said:

Answering call lights is a CNA responsibility and the response time should be measured. The app appears to require someone to input a name and #, and the CNA can put her name and #on the whiteboard. Legally, a record of unanswered calls along with a bad outcome would help the family hold the facility accountable. Low HCAPS scores can also cause payment reduction. When management hears enough complaints, and when the understaffing hurts the bottom line, then staffing ratios will improve and so will the quality of care.

WOW!.....this paragraph. First, patients and families can have my phone number when they pry it from my cold, dead hands. I'm sure you feel the same way, but it seems we peons are not to have the same consideration.

You've talked a lot about nurse staffing, now let's talk about CNA staffing. The hospital unit I used to work was 26 patients when full. We were supposed to have three CNAs but always had 2. These were telemetry patients so fairly high acuity, 1/4 to 1/3 on contact precautions, usually for c. diff. So each of us was responsible for 13 patients. We often would get caught in the c. diff. rooms for a while cleaning up blowouts, repeatedly. The longest unanswered call light that I am aware of from my tenure was over 12 minutes, and that patient gave up on waiting for help, got herself up to the commode and nearly fell, because both CNAs were caught in other rooms and the RNs on that unit, we used to joke, wouldn't answer a call light if a patient was on fire.

I don't think that unit was all that unique. So if you want to pin reimbursement, even partly, on a model where CNAs and only CNAs answer call lights.....get ready for the checks to shrink.

[Guest219794]

Can't download it on google apps.

Rats.

Could be worth 7 bucks to spend a week pranking my friends.

Sending messages from Ben Dover or Herb Utsmells in non-existent room.