What is the liability of faxing report

Tweety, BSN, RN · Jul 5, 2006

The faxed report is the documentation of the patient condition at the time of transfer and you should be covered by that should there be a change after the patient arrives to the floor.

I think once you have the patient over, then your responsibility for the patient is over. Our PACU has to actually find the nurse and the nurse has to sign that they received the patient.

Good question. I'm not sure of the liability if you haven't passed them on to a licensed nurse, and even if you did where's the documentation that they accepted the patient.

zacarias, ASN, RN · Jul 7, 2006

This is how it should work: The ER faxes report and then calls to make sure fax received. At this point, the ER and nurse agree on what time the patient will come up to the floor (10, 15, 20 min etc). The person who brings the patient must notify the tech, nurse, sec, and/or charge that the patient is here. The nurse is usually expecting the patient anyway.

Places that drop patients off and notify no one are substandard and no nurse should allow this. Report it and get it changed. If it doesn't change, get out; there are places that do it the right way.

banditrn · Jul 7, 2006

When I worked in the surgery area, we would call report to the floor before we took the patient over, stop at the desk and tell them the patient was there, and I would put the call lite on and wait for staff to come before I left the patient if no one came in when we arrived - they usually did.

**canoehead, BSN, RN** · Jul 7, 2006

When I did faxed report we also had to wait for an RN to be physically in the room before we left.

JessicRN · Jul 8, 2006

We just started faxing nursing reports to the floor and now we do not have any contact with the nurse, we do call to the floor to see if they recieved the faxed report though. Can I be held legally liable if the pt codes or falls out of bed and no nurse has gone in to see the pt yet. I drop a patient to the telemetry floor yet no nurse is around to put a monitor on him and there is none around on the rare occassion a CNA does it. On arrival I let someone at the desk know I brought the PT and I hand the chart to someone at the desk. Is that enough of a handoff to take the liability off? Anyone dealing with this now?

We use to have a nurse to nurse report in Telemetry but now we call ahead and bring the pt up. We give the chart to a nurse at the desk then bring the pt to the bed. No one comes the RN and CNA are expected to put the pt in bed. Sometimes a floor CNA comes when we have a heavy lift but I no longer see the nurse. THe pt is not even hooked to a monitor when we leave. I have been leaving the chart in the room instead of at the desk and telling the desk person where it is. They are upset that I do not hand it to them but at least then someone has to go in and see the pt.