Wanna know how modern hospitals work?Its a Monday morning. The census is low. Easy to get inpatient beds for our patients, right? Wrong.
Nope, our patient may wait for 2 hours or more because there aren't enough nurses. These days our hospital, and I'm sure others, only staff for the patients they have. So if the census is low, nurses get voluntary LOAs and there are less nurses come Monday, one of the busiest days for ER and surgery, etc.
You may ask yourself, why would the hospital not staff up on a day like Monday, knowing it will be busier? Because they ONLY STAFF FOR THE PATIENTS THEY HAVE. In order to squeeze in the patients who need rooms, they count on discharges. Well, if you have ever worked in a hospital, you know that the discharge process is anything but efficient. So patients stay much longer than they really need to, for various reasons. Then the bed has to be cleaned, etc. etc.
So the patients in ER, in PACU, the direct admits are screwed. This doesn't only happen on Monday, but its the day it is most noticeable.
Welcome to modern healthcare...
I've seen it where the hospital sends floor nurses home because of discharges during the day, only to have ER call us for beds. Of course, now there weren't enough nurses to accept said patients. Just as you say, to try to save one nurses salary for one afternoon. It will only get worse.
ReplyDeleteYeah this happens all the time to us. (in Michigan)
ReplyDeleteIt isn't the floor RNs who make that call- it's admin. Admin says someone is going home. If you volunteer, great. But if no one volunteers, they force someone. Which means a smaller paycheck or use your vaca time. The staffing grid comes from on high, not the floors. Sucks for all
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