Sick Calls

Sick calls can be a killer on a unit.

I work in the kind of environment that is greatly affected by somebody being absent in the immediate time frame. If somebody isn't there when scheduled, it means that those who are there need to take on extra patients and responsibilities. If there is more than one sick call it can lead to the need to close beds on the unit as we don't have the nursing staff to take care of them, which will then affect the whole hospital and most importantly the OR and ED. One of the worst days I've had at work was when we had sick calls. I was in charge, and I had to tell admitting and the OR we didn't have the beds they desperately needed. This prompted one phone call from an occupied OR, "You mean to tell me that you honestly don't have a bed available? I have the patient on the table prepped and shaved! What am I supposed to do now! Send him home?" I told them I had no idea what to do. All I could tell them was that there was no room at the inn.

So how do you manage sick calls? People become ill, it's part of nature. How do you tell people that being ill too often is unacceptable? It's a tricky situation as people can't manage when their body becomes ill. But what do you do about the people who take advantage of calling in sick when they aren't? Or when they just don't want to put in the effort of finding alternate child care when the regular sitter falls through? Suggest using Parents In A Pinch for emergency childcare. Put out unit expectations for sick calls.

There has been some complaints about sick calls on my unit, and it has recently prompted a posting of unit expectations on sick calls with actual numbers as to how many times in a time period it is allowed. Now, they are not saying come to work when sick. They are just saying they are going to talk to you if it is looking suspicious or if you are excessively calling out. We'll see if it helps.