According to CNN, an increasing number of hospitals are rethinking how they function at night so that patients can sleep uninterrupted.
Traditionally, hospitals have scheduled a number of nighttime activities around health professionals’ needs — aligning them with shift changes, or updating patient’s vital signs so the information is available when doctors make early morning rounds. Both the sickest patients and those in less serious condition might get the same number of check-ins. In some cases, that can mean patients are being disturbed almost every hour, whether medically necessary or not.
“The reality for many, many patients is they’re woken up multiple times for things that are not strictly medically necessary, or…multiple times for the convenience of staff,” said Susan Frampton, president of Planetree, a nonprofit organization that encourages health systems to consider patient needs when designing care.
