Hello Everyone. Our hospital has merged (been aquired) by another this year. The new head radiologist wants to cut Saturday coverage in Vascular Access. He states that most hospitals do NOT have weekend coverage. This has not been my impression. I would really appreciate your input. Thank you.
Geoffrey River RN
Holy Cross Hospital
Chicago, Il.
The smarty pants response - If all your patients arrive by 5pm Friday and have perfectly reliable access in place that will last until Monday morning, you don't need weekend coverage. All others will need a plan.
are his Interventionalists going to come in on the weekends when a patient has no access and needs a PICC or some other line?? AT least have some hours, we cut our weekends down to 5 hour days (mostly because we only can staff one person and its too much work for one) to catch up from the week and get any new admits. Currently have one PICC nurse on the weekends , but really need at least 2 for our 640 bed facility.
Cheryl E. Aldo, RN, BS VA-BC
Vascular Access is unpredictable.. At our facility we have no Interventional Radsology over the weekend, so we (Vascular Access Team with only 1 person on) are inhouse from 7a-1pm then Oncall 1pm-7:30pm Sat and Sunday. Oncall is for emergent PICCs only, mostly Critical Care and Intermediate Care with those patients on specialized drips that can't loose access. Most receently, we had to cut back our oncall hours on Saturday to just being inhouse upto only 1pm, then Oncall 7a-7:30pm on Sunday and overtime on Saturday went up and many doctors were upset that we were not available. We are now going back to Inhouse 7a-1pm and OnCall for emergent PICCs at 1p-7pm on both Sat. and Sunday. BTW we are a 240 bed facility.
Tracy
Tracy W. Ivory, RN, BSN, CRNI, VA-BC
Faxton-St. Lukes Healthcare