Ventilated Patients from Avalon Gardens

1.  The LTV ventilator that the patient comes with (escorted by the CA from Avalon) should NOT be sent back with the CA to Avalon. Even if they are on a hospital ventilator, the LTV should accompany the patient to the PICU. It is suboptimal to reject the ventilator only to have our staff calling Avalon to bring it back a few days later. In addition, waiting for the ventilator and running a 24 hr safety trial on it thereafter adds extra unnecessary PICU days to their admission, adding risks for nosocomial infection and financial costs.

2.  The circuit bag that accompanies the patient and ventilator should NOT be thrown out. Again, this bag is unused, clean and applicable to the individual patient's ventilator setup. This should accompany the ventilator to the PICU for future use.

3.  The pediatric pulmonary team has a printed sheet now in the information packet that comes with the patient (see below). This sheet has information on the ventilator settings, tracheostomy specifications and latest labs. Please have your team and the Respiratory staff refer to this on your initial evaluation.

4.  Finally, all patients are sent out from Avalon Gardens with two packets of duplicated information from the chart. One packet will be for EMS/St. Catherine's (if they are transported there first) and one will be for Stony Brook. There will be a bright cover sheet on the packet, giving names of the Hospitalist on-call for Avalon Gardens (which is NOT necessarily the PMD) who should be called FIRST. Additionally, if it is a ventilated patient, there will be an on-call number for the Pediatric Pulmonologist who should be contacted as well. Finally, there is a direct contact number for the Avalon Gardens house staff.

THIS PACKET MUST ACCOMPANY THE PATIENT TO THE PICU. These measures are now in place to further encourage means of better communication in patient information, particularly those with complicated histories.