Inpatient & Outpatient weekend staffing

[Guest guest]

Hi, Jeanne -

We struggle with the same problem.

Our Inpatient PT staff is not large enough to accommodate 7 days/week, so

we rotate weekends among all staff (inpatient, general outpatient and

sport medicine).

The general outpatient staff have a higher level of inpatient competence

than the sports medicine staff - who don't want to be anywhere near the

acute care hospital!!!

Whenever we hire new staff (and they are informed of the weekend

requirement at interview), we have them spend the entire first 2 to 4

weeks in inpatient only so that they get a full dose of inpatient and we

can help them develop a comfort level. We often have new hires who then

actually request to stay in inpatient for 3 to 6 months before

transitioning to outpatient.

We do clinical competencies with all new hires and then annually with all

staff. We include a competency on Lab Values, Lines & Tubes, Mobilization

(ICU & CVSICU), Rapid Response (when to call), along with regular things

like tilt table, etc.

We staff a minimum of two PTs (or PT/PTA) for each weekend day (or

holiday) and we always try to pair up an outpatient staff with an

inpatient staff (they choose their weekend days, so it does not always

work out, but we really encourage staff to pair up appropriately depending

upon their comfort level in acute care).

We did have one sports medicine PT with an OCS who was adamant that he

would not take the position if he had to do weekends. He offered to work

some evening hours for us instead of weekend time, and that was mutually

agreeable. It gave us an opportunity to expand our sports medicine hours

and that increased our referral source. Other PT/PTA staff were initially

very angry that a new hire came on with no weekend requirement (they all

HATE it), but they have gotten over it and no one seems to care anymore.

When asked if they would prefer to work weekends or do evening hours

instead, they all preferred to keep the weekend hours!

Ideally, we would love to have a fully dedicated inpatient staff that

rotated their weekly schedule to accommodate inpatient 7 days/week, but we

are a small hospital and that is unlikely.

We have also tried to hire relief or per diem staff for weekends and we

occasionally have someone who helps cover weekends, but these staff come

and go and we are not in a large enough area to recruit more than an

occasional relief PT or PTA.

There are no easy solutions, but if anyone has a great system, I would

love to hear about it also!

Effie

Effie Elliott, PT

Manager PT/OT KGH

Bayhealth Medical Center

/6820 Office Number

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