Patient Belongings

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creek_medic_1034

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Ok, quick question for everyone. We are having trouble with the local hospital. Took a patients top dentures out on a call and gave them to the ER staff upon arrival. Later on patients husband went looking for them, and of course ER told them that we never gave them to them. My question is to avoid this headache in the future we are looking at implementing a patient belonging turnover form for the ER to sign. Has anyone heard of this before, or does your squad have something like this?
 
We dont have anything like that but I wish we did. At the smaller hospitals where we know the staff it isnt so bad cause I can say "Oh I handed that to (insert name)." and thats the end of it, but its harder with the larger ones. Most common misplaced items on my runs are IDs and insurance cards. I always hand them to the intake clerk so I know where they went but getting called on my day off about someones DL sucks.
 
We get that every once in awhile, but if there is a family member that is there we just give it to them, if not then we hope and pray the nurses do not lose it. The idea to have the staff sign the sheet seems to be a pretty good idea though, are they willing to do it is the question.
 
We have a place on our pcr to list pt belongings, then have the recieving nurse sign next to the itemized list.
 
I was always told to document what you turned over and who you turned it over to. When we dropped a patient off at home we would document that the bag was turned over and a witness. If all we had was our partner, than that was it. I put it right in the narrative of a run sheet as one of the last items.
 
MMiz said:
I was always told to document what you turned over and who you turned it over to. When we dropped a patient off at home we would document that the bag was turned over and a witness. If all we had was our partner, than that was it. I put it right in the narrative of a run sheet as one of the last items.
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This. We have a place for nurses to sign but often times their signature is an illegible squiggle. I document in the report what I gave to who by first and last name and title.
 
Well thank you, the unfortunate part is our run reports don't have enoough room in the narrative section for a narrative. And its a county wide EMS report so no changing it really. But I do appreciate all the suggestions.
 
How about you create a simple form.

Call it patient belongings verification form.

have 1-30 lines where you can write what item you're giving to er staff etc and at the bottom have statement i here by ceritify that i received item listed on this form, signature, name, and and id #. That should at least leave some trail.
 
Yeah we had thought about that, I am looking around to see if anyone has an example of one that we could base ours off of. We thought about doing our own,, but are afraid it would look too homemade and not very professional.
 
Gotta wonder if you're really looking for advice. Every option posed to you, you have shut down. Do you not have addendums or continue sheets for when you run out of room on your reports? Are you incapable of getting on word and creating a document?
 
Sorry if I am coming off that way, I am not trying to give that impression. Your advice has been taken to heart and all of your ideas are going to be presented to the EMS chief. I once again thank you for your advice.
 
Cya

creek_medic_1034 said:
Ok, quick question for everyone. We are having trouble with the local hospital. Took a patients top dentures out on a call and gave them to the ER staff upon arrival. Later on patients husband went looking for them, and of course ER told them that we never gave them to them. My question is to avoid this headache in the future we are looking at implementing a patient belonging turnover form for the ER to sign. Has anyone heard of this before, or does your squad have something like this?
Click to expand...

My service has patient belonging bags that can be sealed. It has a serial number and a receipt. When we transferred the patient to the ED, the receiving RN signs the receipt which is attached to the original PCR.

Also, I always make an effort to let the patient or family know where the belongings are. IE: "I moved your husbands watch to his other wrist so I could start the IV on the left".
 
looker said:
How about you create a simple form.

Call it patient belongings verification form.

have 1-30 lines where you can write what item you're giving to er staff etc and at the bottom have statement i here by ceritify that i received item listed on this form, signature, name, and and id #. That should at least leave some trail.
Click to expand...

Do you really think that an ER nurse, or whoever you give patient belongings going to care if the form is "home" made or not?
 
We have patient property bags branded with the service logo and a place to write on we can use. Generally I only use these for lots of belongs, those who are AMS or when I need to do more than "Sire here is your coat, I'll leave it on the table for you." or passing it directly to the family.

In these property bags we place the pt.'s belongings, close the bag and write the Pt.'s name on it. We then document on the ePCR what the belongings were and who they were left with. Doesn't take more than a few taps on the screen and no need for signatures or the like.
 
I quoted my own by accident in my last reply, that was reply to op
 
We don't have anyone to sign for it upon arrival at the ED, but we do have a section on our charts to document what we took with us, what arrived there safely, and why we brought it, etc. Sounds like something that needs to be done, though. Having to call 911 for something is stressful enough, patients shouldn't have to loose their teeth, too!
 
I was a fan of putting most things back in the patient's pocket. Like if I had to take off their watch I'd put it in their pants pocket (or jacket etc) and tell them I was doing it. There was much less of a chance of a big jacket disapearing than something like a watch or ring. And that way I didn't have to keep track of it. When they undressed the patient at the hospital it would all go into the property bag. I also wouldn't take a patient's driver's license. In most situations you can just copy the info down onto your sheet and give them back their DL, and give the hospital a copy of the run form.

I think we should be holding as little of the patient's property as possible to prevent loss or accusations of theft.
 
All of these ideas sound great we have an administrative meeting this week, I will definitley be bringing them to the table thank you so much for all your help.
 
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