What's your daily routine? i.e., what time do you see the 1st pt., etc.

Timetochange08 · Oct 28, 2010

I usually see my first patient around 9:00am. I get up between 6:30 and 7:00, get my son on the bus, then head out. We use electronic charting, home care home base and it's awesome! I give my patients a 1-2 hour window, depending on if I am doing an admit that might require extra time or I anticipate more time needed at any particular patients home in which case I give 2 hours. Our office is extremely organized, I do very little case managment. I am responsible for case managing my patients but because everything flows so smoothly, I spend little time case managing. Good luck to you!

jdr,bsn,rn · Oct 29, 2010

Timetochange,

How is that your office is so efficient? Basically, who does what tasks? I am always looking for ways to be more efficient.

Sarahtonin · Oct 30, 2010

1. I usually see my first patient at 9am. My agency says we should begin our day at 8, but I've found a lot of patients like later-morning visits as they're just waking up around 8am.

2. I wake up, take a quick shower (most days save the hair washing for nighttime), throw on scrubs, check my work email for any last minute changes, and I'm out the door. So to see a 9am patient, I get up around 8-8:15. I've found a really good time saver is to eat breakfast in the car.

3. I give my patient an hour time frame, like I'll be there between 12-1. But for the first patient, it's a smaller time frame, like 9-9:30, because I know how long it takes me to get from my house to their's. Just have to factor in traffic or construction.

4. My visits are anywhere from 20 minutes for a general assessment, all the way up to 1.5-2 hours, depending on what the treatment is. I usually see 6 patients a day, and charting on them takes about 15-20 minutes each, so my paperwork usually takes about an hour & a half. That's not including if I have to order supplies, call a doctor about a change in condition, clarify a new order, etc. So all of that, and sending out a daily email report to other nurses in my area usually takes 2 hours. I'm always home by 1-2pm, then just do my charting and other things while a load of laundry is going. It's pretty good. :)

Oh and I'm an LPN, not RN, so I don't do much case mgmt.

Nurse4life09 · Nov 14, 2010

I loved reading the posts on the Day in the life of HH nurse, but they seemed to have digressed away from the daily routines aspect of HH. I was wondering what everyone else's daily routine is. For example,
1. What time do you usually schedule your first patient?
2. What time do you usually get up in the morning to start your day?
3. How much time frame do you give your patient, of when you will arrive? My agency says 2 hours, but is that what nurses realistically do? I usually give 1 hr time frames.
4. How much time during the day do you spend on straight case managing, minus the actual visits?

1. Usually between 10 and 1030, it often takes me 30min to drive to my first patient.

2. Ideally 6am so that I can go running before work, but no later than 7am, I usually log in by 8 or 830am.

3. Usually an hour time frame, occasionally after lunch I might give a 2 hour time frame if I know that my AM patients might take a long time and I need to stop for lunch.

4. Not sure, I'm per diem.

waiting4 · Nov 17, 2010

In response to above posting-how are you managing to complete an assessment in 20 minutes and bill for it? My understanding is that Medicare visits must be at least 30 minutes in order to be billable.