No Pass Zone

No Pass Zone

From the "Hot New Idea" Department:

For our valuable patients and attentive, loving visitors, we bring you the "No Pass Zone". We are telling each and everyone of our esteemed employees, that they may not pass by a room, if they see a call-light triggered. The only exception, is if they are currently transporting a patient somewhere else in the facility.

You will love being our patient, because when you need help and put on your call-light, Anyone can help you. Yes, we mean everyone and anyone. (We even told that scary guy who looks like Rasputin, that he should respond to your plea for help, too.) All he needs to do, is to tell you his name and what department he is from and he will help you. Heck, nobody is a stranger at Sister Euphemia's joint; when you become our patient, you join a family of thousands of unknowns.

Now, since Anyone can help you, that includes the freak who delivers the Pepsi-cola to the hospital, because he is wearing a uniform that looks just like the outfits worn by our own, helpful Engineers. Of course, you won't know that, nor the fact that he hasn't undergone a background check. He isn't even an employee here, but he does love helping vulnerable women who are in hospital gowns.

Yes, that is the homey atmosphere that we are trying to create.

The "No Pass Zone".

Yes, this is a dandy new policy, that's for sure. You will have all of your needs attended to, lickety-split, by someone you have never seen before and the odds are, you'll never see them again. And then, maybe you will remember the good old days when you really got to know your Nurse, even though sometimes she couldn't come immediately to your bedside. When she came, you recognized her and it was comforting and you felt safe....well, those simple carefree days are long gone.

Yep, now we are applying the modern concept of crowd-sourcing, to patient-care.

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Now team, how about some communication scripting, to help you get off to a good start with our new policy?

"Call-Light" on:

Joe Janitor just finished his "No Pass Zone" training and he is ready to put it to work. He has just finished unplugging a toilet, when he notices the light on, in room 434-B. He understands he must stop and offer some help.

JJ: "Hello ma’am, I am Joe the Janitor. I saw your light on, how can I assist you?"

At this point, the patient wonders too, because she needs a stool-softener and this guy said he was a janitor and she is so embarrassed, that she mumbles something about making a mistake that she bumped her call-light.

Lady: "Who are you? You don't look like my Nurse and I think you ought to leave."

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Come on now, where the heck is Risk Management when these crazy policy ideas are being formulated? What is the review process that allows nonsense like this to be turned into a, "You must do it" policy demand?

This policy creates an open door invitation for any deviant, predatory nut in a uniform or professional attire, to walk into a patient-care area, in the ruse of answering a call-light. How soon will this propagate a "Sentinel" event?

"No Pass Zone"!.................= ............."Insanity!"

If my wife or child was in the hospital, and any Tom, Dick or Scary-Mary could walk into their room without invitation, or appropriate purposeful cause, merely because a call-light is on, I would be very suspicious of their stated intent. An RN, CNA, Monitor tech, MD, Physical Therapist, Dietician etc., these are appropriate. They comprise a group of typical caregivers, and are easy to keep track of. But to have a hospital-wide policy that invites and authorizes Anyone, to respond to a call-light, is absolutely ludicrous, irresponsible and potentially negligent!

We have left in the dust, the bygone days of good, personalized Nursing care. In exchange our employers offer the present day version of an outsourced, fragmented, "who was that guy in my room" open-invitation, free-for-all, toss the chainsaws in the air and let them drop, kind of corporate attitude.

And for that:

I give it a "NO PASS"!