Here in New York, Gov. Cuomo is ordering hospitals to increase “managed bed capacity” by 25-50%. I’m wondering how exactly.
Some guesses:
Cancel elective surgery and turn all those recovery room beds into “managed beds”.
Assign nurses to ER beds and make people stay in the ER.
***edit: I was trying to make a joke with this one. Come to find out I’m not funny***
Tell women to stop having babies (not so sure about this one)
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Build actual new capacity in a tent outside in the parking lot.
We are creeping up in some critical capacity thresholds and it seems like a simple solution to just say “increase capacity”. How can we do it in on such short notice?
Thanks!
In: Other
We open units, call in staff, and get traveler employees. We have the ability to line the halls with beds, the research towers, the OR pre op and post op areas, anything really.
Or even open tent hospitals in parking garages and sports stadiums.
We also cancel unnecessary admissions and surgeries, then float that staff to take patients. Nurse managers, charge nurses, nursing supervisors, physician chiefs, anyone, can be floated from administration to do bedside care.
We are often not actually limited by physical beds, but staffed beds. When people say hospitals are out of beds, a lot of the time they are actually out of staff.
My hospital has three “emergency” units. So we can technically go to 130% capacity if we open and staff these units. Most of the time, they would be a huge waste of money and resources. This is why they are not always open.
We almost always open one by this time of year for respiratory season. So in November or December, “travelers” are sent to hospitals. These are contracted employees that only work there for times of increases census.
This is how we increase our capacity
Edit: I forgot like the hugest part. We get critical staffing pay to sign up to work extra. So I make I think an extra $25-30 *an hour*
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