BETTER COMMUNICATIONS/ A CENTRAL TOWER
Posted By: james christeck 
Date Posted: October 17th, 2009 Category: Cost & Quality
Nurses spend many hours a day answering Telephone calls from Relatives who want to knowe how a loved one is doing. For the most part this is wated time as one relative could tell another relative and they could talk among themselves rather than chew up valuable time from a Nurse.
I would recommend establishing a 1) Central Tower somewhere in the County 2) Issueing a message Code Number to one and only one relative who had is voice print taken at the time the patient was admitted. and 3) Updating the patient information every two hours by simply typing in whatever news you want to share with the person mentioned in item 2 above. All appropriate information would be available on the tower via cell phone or text message. The technology is out there to do this.
Lastly I would limit visiting hours from 1P.M to 6P.M. We are here to provide great patient care, we’re not a Social Club. Thank you.
Comment By: Patt Christie
Date & Time: October 21, 2009 at 2:15 pm
There are internet services that offer patient updates (by the patient/patient family), so loved ones and family can keep up with the patient's situation. A password is shared with those the patient identifies, so it's a comfy, closed community. People can start blogs just about anywhere online or, of course, have a Facebook or Twitter account for updates. Benefit of Facebook: you can restrict who can see your detailed information.
Comment By: Rebekah
Date & Time: October 22, 2009 at 2:02 pm
As a former unit secretary on a division where most of the patients were unable to speak, I can definitely attest to the fact that nurses do get a lot of phone calls! The changes brought by HIPAA definitely makes them shorter calls now. We always encouraged families to choose one person as "spokesman" for the patient (approved by the patient, of course) and requested that that person be the one to give updates. It usually worked out pretty well, and it gave people the comfort of talking to a person who they knew cared.
Technology does offer a lot of opportunities to improve this system, of course. Patt's ideas about Twitter and Facebook and blogs really have potentials. A lot of families start update pages like that for patients who are in long-term care.