Call Secrets of the OR- When on call you have 30 minutes to get to the hospital

When you are on call, it is the expectation of the department that you arrive to the hospital, ready to work, within 30 minutes.

Not 45.

Not 35.

Thirty.

I know that it is part of the onboarding at my current hospital and also at past hospitals.

But the recovery room in particular has been pushing it and pushing it.

That is not a Salt-N-Pepa reference.

They leave messages to give them 45 minutes in when calling them in at the end of a case.

I have to keep all surgeons and their preferences for all cases in my head. At all times. For all cases.

And you are telling me that I now have to keep a mental map of all the locations of the recovery room nurses on call? And do the mental gymnastics of making sure I call them at the exact right time during the surgery that I am actively participating in? Because if they are called too early, they complain to management. If they come in after the surgery is completed, the CRNA and I have been functioning effectively as the PACU team.

Wow, this is a much angrier post than I intended.

I do my utmost to honor the requests for a little extra time for call back.

But that is not always possible.

I will end up cooling my heels in PACU until they come in. But when is it too much and merits a talk with management?

Age old question I guess.