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I think it is absolutely standard in that situation to at least take vitals every couple/few hours, no way around it. It's annoying to be woken up so often, but

by culot 8y ago

I think it is absolutely standard in that situation to at least take vitals every couple/few hours, no way around it. It's annoying to be woken up so often, but it's done for good reasons.

Retric 8y ago
First observation every few hours is fine, but their is little coordination between hospital workers so people are often interrupted multiple times an hour which cuts the time for the next interruption. That’s cost effective for the hospital but simply not viable longer term. To be clear waking someone up every 2.5 - 3 hours is very different from waking them up every 2.5 hours and another 2+ random times during the night. As long as somone is only in the ICU for 72 hours it’s not a huge deal, but start talking a week and it’s a significant issue.
jyounker 8y ago
So, my partner had the option of either going home directly after surgery or spending the night in the hospital. The hospital staff wanted her to go home. She wanted to stay. (She has issues with post-surgical pain.) If the hospital staff had sent her home, she would not be woken every two hours. The medical staff were fine with that. It would have been perfectly reasonable for them to let her sleep; it would have been no more risk than they were advocating for. Clearly it was optional.
- pc86 8y ago
  > Clearly it was optional. Unless there was some regulatory, legal, or hospital requirement that she receive a certain standard of care. They may have been fine with her sleeping through the night at home, but if she's in the hospital they need to take care of her. It would not be an easy sell in a courtroom to explain that while you checked everyone except her every 3 hours, you let her sleep through the night and there was an issue that cost her life. Not that the physicians and nurses should have been taking that into account but the folks crafting the regulations or hospital policy very well may have.
  - jyounker 8y ago
    Clearly there was an organizational reason, but those reasons had nothing to do with what she actually needed according to her physicians, which was rest and painkillers. What you've just said supports the article's argument that hospitals are designed to prevent people from sleeping.

by culot 8y ago

I think it is absolutely standard in that situation to at least take vitals every couple/few hours, no way around it. It's annoying to be woken up so often, but it's done for good reasons.

Retric 8y ago

First observation every few hours is fine, but their is little coordination between hospital workers so people are often interrupted multiple times an hour which cuts the time for the next interruption. That’s cost effective for the hospital but simply not viable longer term. To be clear waking someone up every 2.5 - 3 hours is very different from waking them up every 2.5 hours and another 2+ random times during the night. As long as somone is only in the ICU for 72 hours it’s not a huge deal, but start talking a week and it’s a significant issue.

jyounker 8y ago

So, my partner had the option of either going home directly after surgery or spending the night in the hospital. The hospital staff wanted her to go home. She wanted to stay. (She has issues with post-surgical pain.) If the hospital staff had sent her home, she would not be woken every two hours. The medical staff were fine with that. It would have been perfectly reasonable for them to let her sleep; it would have been no more risk than they were advocating for. Clearly it was optional.

pc86 8y ago
> Clearly it was optional. Unless there was some regulatory, legal, or hospital requirement that she receive a certain standard of care. They may have been fine with her sleeping through the night at home, but if she's in the hospital they need to take care of her. It would not be an easy sell in a courtroom to explain that while you checked everyone except her every 3 hours, you let her sleep through the night and there was an issue that cost her life. Not that the physicians and nurses should have been taking that into account but the folks crafting the regulations or hospital policy very well may have.
- jyounker 8y ago
  Clearly there was an organizational reason, but those reasons had nothing to do with what she actually needed according to her physicians, which was rest and painkillers. What you've just said supports the article's argument that hospitals are designed to prevent people from sleeping.