One weekend morning my first three ER patients were there only because "the doctor told me to meet him here." They know not why or what for, just to be there at 0800h. Now, weekends are staffed more lightly than during the week, making the inpatient load heavier. Because of this the ER nurse helps on the floor until patients (real patients hopefully) show up. So when I get three people in, not knowing why, it really gets me. I sent an email complaint to my two supervisors, voicing my concern, along with my rationale as to why this is inappropriate: wasting health care dollars by paying ER wages to Dr's for clinic visits, wasting nursing time with clinic visits, delaying treatment of real ER patients due to backlog created by clinic visits in the ER. One response I got was, thank you for bringing this to my attention, it has been an ongoing issue we would like to resolve, thank you for having the courage to standup for what is right. The other response I got was, I don't see an issue with this, you should try to be more of a team player. Yup, by calling out an abuse of the system I am not being a team player. Apparently I need to show up and shut up, and let the docs carry on anyway they please.
No comments:
Post a Comment