Staffing question

[Thehiprock]

I need some help! We are redoing our policy manual. The people doing it do not work in nor have ever been in a lab.they are trying to tell me that for our 2 bed lab ( 1 tech at night) that I either need a cellphone for patients to reach me in emergency, or nurse practitioner the entire time as the patients can NEVER be unattended. Meaning I cannot go to washroom or 20 ft down hall to get coffee... etc
I have tried in vain to explain that going to the washroom is not a break. And that no one is leaving the patients if they having apneas or desats or arrhythmias
What are your lab policies on this? We do not take breaks here... no relief.
Thanks for opinions insite etc

[MrBig]

LOL

[Thehiprock]

I wish I were kidding!

[Midnight Rider]

It's difficult if not impossible to get places like this to come to their senses. As Ron White says you can't fix stupid. My advice would be to polish up your resume.

[Thehiprock]

No need to polish anything..this will be the last thank god!
The example they gave me was what if when I am in bathroom they light a cigarette and burn down lab?
Well, I have to say that scenario NEVER crossed my mind.
I am in the washroom not a bar down the road!

[RayMeece]

People who don't work nights just have NO idea what we do or what it is like at night.

If the pt desires to smoke in the bed... I say "Let 'em"

No, not really, that is just an example that shows they know nothing about what we do.

[RayMeece]

When re-doing a P&P Manual, the idea should be a re-vamping, not a total re-write. Just tune the current policies to match what you are doing now.

Appeal to your medical director, to HR, or the AASM for help.

[RayMeece]

In a previous lab of mine, I went to the kitchen to microwave my food. I was gone a total of 2 minutes, because my food needed longer, and I had to check on my pts. I got back in the tech room and one of my pts was GONE!!! Nowhere to be found.

Turns out he awoke right after I left the tech room, unhooked himself, and went to the bathroom. He thought he had been calling me for several minutes.

When I reviewed the study, he awoke from REM, so he had been dreaming he was calling me.

I know this doesn't help your situation, but I agree with you - there is no need to actively monitor them 100% of the time.

[dream police]

Unless they're willing to send someone to sit and monitor for the few minutes a tech is away from the desk, there's few options. I'm a big fan of using baby monitors to at least listen while away from the desk. (Stick the base near the speaker in the tech room and the other end goes with the tech.) It works well if the tech is setting up the second pt while first pt is hooked up in bed trying to fall asleep.

[Thehiprock]

Thank you all for the comments and help!
Too true. Absolutely clueless... told them contacted AASM and jcia
That we fall under ambulatory care.. not in patients and that I have not heard of or worked at a single lab that makes someone call for break relief to go to toilet or to get a coffee. They came back with " it does not matter what the standards are for the rest of the world.. we need to meet our own standards!" Yes... because we all know medicine in Middle East is cutting edge!
I have seen some strange strange things in the lab... but no one has ever smoked or started a fire!
Whomever does my break relief for washroom breaks will be busy with all the coffee I consume! I can only hope it is the person insisting on this policy!

[jerzey devil]

In our state, which shall rename nameless, you can not get a license to operate if you only have one employee ON SITE scheduled at night. Presently operating labs are grandfathered I guess. But when we opened a satellite 2 bed lab our solution was to add a clerical position in addition to the sleep tech. Of course, this pertains to "stand-alone" labs. If you are located in a medical facility you are OK.

[somnonaut]

I had once detailed a system I made as proof of concept to allow hearing the patients in two simultaneously thru bluetooth headphones, allowing moving about the lab while still having a smattering of information regarding the happenings in the rooms. Split output of audio from each of two rooms and feed each room into one of the two inputs of a bluetooth amplifier so that now one patient's audio is in your left ear and the other in your right ear, all while still coming out regularly at the desktop. Connect to bluetooth headphones and voila'. (I had used a motorola unit I got at Radioshack that is no longer available.)

[Thehiprock]

I haven't worked in North America for so long I don't know what is standard...But I have been working alone here for 16 years. We don't have anyone on day shift...patients have to leave when I do in the morning as the rooms are used for EEG in day.
I don't think we have blue tooth capability either in the hospital but that is a great idea! I have just decided to let them do what they want...they can go through the ER to be admitted, I will print their bands, do their fall precautions, temperatures, consents, BP etc etc If I have to call someone every time I move then I will call when I need to hook up 2nd patient, use washroom, get coffee, get files, wake one patient up etc. I also will no longer score studies because then I cannot see the real time recording. So then will have to close the lab for a couple days every 2 weeks to do the score the studies.
Sure they will be happy with that!

[somnonaut]

This does not require the host institution to "have bluetooth." The unit I should transmit the signal of the two beds to your bluetooth headphones. NOTE: looking further into this unit, it does not seem to do what I claim. https://www.logitech.com/en-us/product/ ... io-adapter This one receives a bluetooth signal and outputs to a speaker. Again, I used a no-longer available Motorola desktop bluetooth unit, that I am still trying to find a surrogate for.)
AHHH here it is
http://www.electronicsforce.com/motorol ... 55447.html
"Motorola Bluetooth Home Stereo Adapter DC800 can stream music from your home stereo to your Motorola Bluetooth Stereo Headset" So, instead of home stereo inputting its signal, each of the two rooms will be input into each channel.

[Thehiprock]

That great info! Will research on weekend!
Now my medical director is trying to tell me to cover the camera if patient won't sign consent as it is not needed. Hell no!
I had some old guy accuse me of stealing his watch... showed him on video handing it to daughter. Still didn't believe me!or times when I have kicked out patients for doing things that no one should have to see! It gets better every day!