24-Hour Availability, On-Call and After-Hours Response
Makes sure that nursing, physician services, drugs and biologicals are available to every patient 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and social work 7 days a week when needed, as the Michigan rules and Medicare require. Sets the on-call system (on-call registered nurse, on-call supervisor, on-call hospice physician and weekend social worker), the Agency's response standards, how calls are handled, logged and handed over, after-hours drugs and equipment, emergencies and emergency transportation (including the Michigan protocol duty and the Medicaid rule that transportation related to the terminal illness is the hospice's responsibility), and backup when scheduled staff cannot come.
- Policy number
- MI-HSP-SVC-01
- Version
- 1.0
- Main rule
- Mich. Admin. Code R 325.45353(7)
- Library
- Michigan hospice · 59 policies
- Category
- Service delivery
- Sections
- 22
In short
- A registered nurse is available at (517) 555-0199 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. A physician is always on call too.
- At admission, put the after-hours number in the home folder and by the phone. Teach the family to call us first for problems with the illness.
- On call: call back within 15 minutes, or within 5 minutes if the patient is in severe distress, dying or has died.
- Visit when a phone call is not enough, and always when a patient has died. Call the on-call supervisor for continuous care, inpatient admissions and safety concerns.
- Write every call on the on-call log and hand over to the case manager by 9:00 a.m. the next business day.
What's inside
22 sections. The full text comes with the One-time Policy Pack.
- Terms of Reference
- 1. Purpose
- 2. Scope
- 3. Definitions
- 4. Policy Statement (Mich. Admin. Code R 325.45353(7))
- 5. Telling Patients and Families How to Reach the Agency
- 6. The On-Call System
- 6.1 Response Standards (Agency Standards)
- 6.2 Handling a Call
- 6.3 When the Patient Appears to Be Dying
- 7. Drugs, Supplies and Equipment Around the Clock
- 8. Other Services Around the Clock
- 9. Backup When Scheduled Staff Are Not Available
- 10. Emergencies and Emergency Transportation
- 11. Testing the System
- 12. Responsibilities
- 13. Records and Compliance Monitoring
- 14. Staff Training
- 15. References
- 16. Related Policies and Forms
- 17. Approval
- 18. Revision History
An inspector may ask
- If I call your after-hours number now, who answers, and how soon does a nurse call me back?
- Show me the on-call log for last weekend. Which calls led to a visit, and how long did the visit take to start?
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