Quiet and secure designated work area

redoncue

Do you have a quiet and secure designated workplace?  A place where your computer can live, a bottle of water and your purse/personal belongings or do you work in whatever space is available?

Thanks! 

Sharme.Brodie@hcpro.com

are you asking about remote or onsite employees?

jmccorkl@stanfordhealthcare.org

For years our CDIs were 'homeless' - carrying our laptop and references with us daily to the nursing units.  Then we got an office but still carried our equipment everywhere.  (We were paper-based, so we had to be on the units to do reviews.)  
Now that we are fully electronic, we work in an off-site office and each CDI has a cubicle.  When we do go to the nursing units, we do not have a designated place.  I typically stand at a space of counter top out of the way of traffic.

redoncue

Specifically onsite.

redoncue

We works on the units, with no assigned work space. M-F.  We have an office but it's only for leadership, there aren't enough cubicles for all of us, that office is on campus across from the hospital(about a 20 minute walk or so). 

I agree with you jmccorkl, being on the unit serves a vital purpose in furthering opportunities to engage with physician weather it be through a verbal query, providing education or merely just being a touch point for all things CDI. 

The biggest draw back is the level of noise, interruptions(however unintended) and the nomadic-ness(sorry made up word but you get the idea). Having to pack up and un pack mutiple times a day, I'm often surprised with how much time the commute to the floor or merely finding an open terminal can take up. 

Due to the ongoing hospital expansion, we shuttle in and I take no less than 4 elevators to get to my floors.  We obviously can't snack on the floors, so you must pack up and unpack for lunches, meetings or a mix of on site and off site.

And I'm just curious how unreasonable the expectation is to ask for dedicated quiet work space. It's be nice to be able to have periods where I can be focused on the chart and periods were I can actively engage physicians as needs versus. not having a home, so to speak.

Snuggs105

While I have a small desk in the CDI department, my manager wants us to go on to the floor to engage physicians. Some physicians will stop into the room to dictate a report and then leave. Usually these physicians are not the ones I might need to speak to. I've found our doctors round and get out of dodge   They don't even stop into the work room I am sitting at. We had a meet and great the other day with some of the hospitalists and the other CDI staff (2 nurses and my manager) did not know a single doctor. I was a little shocked since the whole purpose of us having to sit on the floors is to speak to them...

I do not find it very productive to have to lug my mobile desk (back pack and a computer bag) throughout the hospital and jockey for a place to sit. The rooms I sit in are either very quiet and hardly anyone stops in during the day (and I find my self needing a nap by 1pm), or chaotic with medical students and nursing students (and I need to put in ear buds to focus). I feel trapped even to go to the bathroom. My hospital has had a few occasions were peoples bags have been stolen out of work rooms/lunch rooms etc. And I don't want to pack everything up and go to the bathroom/lunch and risk losing my computer station. I also find a draw back as a new CDI is not having other CDI to speak to. I attempt to call/e-mail my manager for advice and she is not always available. The other CDI work in rooms were meetings can be held and aren't always readily available either.

I think having my own designated cubicle near other CDI staff would be most beneficial. And as the previous poster said, actively engage physicians as needed.