Phone Home
Shortly after working on MS PCU for about a year, I noticed that the Cisco mobile phones the staff use were missing occasionally. When found, batteries were dead or couldn't be found because staff accidentally took them home. I decided to try a "hand-off" with the phones at the end and beginning of every shift in hopes of decreasing the amount of missing phones we were having.
I began this trial in November 2013 by informing staff at the unit staff meeting of the new phone hand-off process. After giving shift report, the off-going nurse would sanitize and return the phone back to the docking/charging station and initial that they have returned the phone in a binder that was placed next to the station. The oncoming nurse would then pick up their assigned phone for the shift from the docking/charging station at completion of shift report. They would initial in the binder that they picked up their assigned phone and change out the battery if needed.
I have seen this process work at other facilities I have been at previously. This was unsuccessful on the MS PCU not because of staff non-compliance, but because of the nurse call system and fall alarms that are linked to the phone system. It was not safe to have all of the phones docked for even a short period of time. This was not something I anticipated until witnessing it in action.
After this issue was brought to life to the charge staff, they became more aware of phone assignments between off-going and oncoming nurses. As a charge team we are much more aware of assigning a phone to a person that is receiving report from the person already holding that phone. This has reduced the issue of dead batteries and lost phones.
I began this trial in November 2013 by informing staff at the unit staff meeting of the new phone hand-off process. After giving shift report, the off-going nurse would sanitize and return the phone back to the docking/charging station and initial that they have returned the phone in a binder that was placed next to the station. The oncoming nurse would then pick up their assigned phone for the shift from the docking/charging station at completion of shift report. They would initial in the binder that they picked up their assigned phone and change out the battery if needed.
I have seen this process work at other facilities I have been at previously. This was unsuccessful on the MS PCU not because of staff non-compliance, but because of the nurse call system and fall alarms that are linked to the phone system. It was not safe to have all of the phones docked for even a short period of time. This was not something I anticipated until witnessing it in action.
After this issue was brought to life to the charge staff, they became more aware of phone assignments between off-going and oncoming nurses. As a charge team we are much more aware of assigning a phone to a person that is receiving report from the person already holding that phone. This has reduced the issue of dead batteries and lost phones.
Below is the MS PCU unit staff meeting for November 2013 in which I presented the information regarding the new Phone Home process for phone hand-off at shift change.
november_2013_mspcu_staff_meeting_phone.doc | |
File Size: | 104 kb |
File Type: | doc |
The following are emails that I communicated to the staff regarding the Phone Home process.