Rebecca,
We have had similar incidents. We have in the past, sent patients to our
sister facility for CT scans when ours in down - and they do the same. We
are both Level III verified facilities.
It is our policy that any trauma patient being transferred anywhere (in the
hospital or to another hospital for any reason) must have an RN accompany
them. Our transport service is only BLS also so transferring without a
nurse can turn into a nightmare. The nurse takes necessary paperwork with
her/him and if any additional paperwork is necessary we fax it to the other
facility.
Our radiology staffing is similar to yours with studies read via
teleradiology after 5 p.m.
The patient usually returns to our facility for further workup. If a higher
level of care is deemed necessary based on CT results they can make the
arrangements via phone at our facility and send the nurse and patient from
our sister facility to a higher level of care from the CT suite with film
copies and paperwork.
Not the ideal situation and fortunately not one we deal with daily.
Judi
Judi Muir, R.N.
Trauma Program Coordinator
Bayhealth Medical Center - MMH
21 W. Clarke Street
Milford, Delaware 19963
302-430-5687 (office)
302-430-5439 (fax)
302-677-9097 (pager)
"Clements, Rebecca K."
<Clements.Rebecca@mayo.edu> To:
traumanurses@mailman.listserve.com
Sent by: cc:
traumanurses-bounce@mailman.lis Subject:
[traumanurses] Transfers in for Diagnostic Studies
tserve.com
05/27/2003 01:05 PM
Please respond to traumanurses
Hi all, (I apologize for this being so lengthy)
We are a non verified level II and we are looking at our policy regarding
acute ED transfer of trauma patients to our facility for diagnostic studies
such as a CT scan. Currently any facility can send a patient from their ED
directly to our radiology department for diagnostic studies anytime of the
day or night. The scans are completed and the patient awaits the results
in our radiology suite, the results are called to the sending facilities
physician. If the results are negative the patient returns to the sending
facility usually via BLS ambulance, if the results are positive the sending
physician then telephones our ED and asks our ED physicians to see the
patient. The patient is then brought to the ED. Sometimes the patient may
have transfer papers sometimes no paperwork is ever sent from the sending
hospital (was it even a transfer?) The patient is usual only monitored by
our radiology staff that is performing the scan, the transport crew assumes
little if any responsibility for the patient while in our facility and is
usually a BLS crew. At our facility we do not have 24/7 Radiologist
coverage so after 5pm all interpretation is done by teleradiography. If
our technologist picks up on a significant injury before the report is back
from teleradiology they will notify our ED physician and the needs of the
patient will be meet by our ED without further to-do.
After this lengthy description. My questions are: Do your facilities have
similar processes? Do you have policies that you'd be willing to share? If
not, do you have alternative processes that you'd be willing to share along
with policies? Do you have the support of your ED physicians on the
process you have in place? What level trauma center are you? Are you
verified? One last question does this only apply to trauma patients or
does this process apply to all ED patients?
Becca
Rebecca Clements, RN BSN
Immanuel St. Joseph's-Mayo Health System
Trauma Services
1025 Marsh St
Mankato, MN 56002-8673
Office: 507-389-4822
Fax: 507-389-4873
clements.rebecca@mayo.edu
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