Elderly Care--What I have learned - Page 6

manny2 · ‎05-24-2010

@smoochy wrote:
@Sooner wrote:
@Carmie wrote:
@Laura14 I am not willing to have my taxes pay for an Empty nursing home room. Some people in a nursing facility go to the hospital for weeks....then they pass away and never return to the nursing home.

Our healthcare system cannot afford to pay for empty rooms.

It is also not right when somone is turned away because there are no beds available because they are being held for somone who may or may not return.

My friend was in the hospital for almost 30 days for surgery and complications after she fell on a previously broken hip. When she went back to the rehab nursing facility, she was given a different room.

If a room was not available, I would have had to make arrangements at another facility. Luckly, I didn't have to.

These nursing facilities are not motels, they provided medical care. If you are not there receiving medical care, then you don't need the room.

This issue happens, but not too often. Nursing facilities are mostly understanding, but they can't break the law. It is not lawful for them to hold an unpaid room and turn others away. They could lose their license.

Most of these people in nursing homes are on Welfare/Medicaid, using taxpayers money. Medicare does not pay for nursing care unless you are getting skilled care and they only cover up to 100 days.

If you can pay for your own care, they will guarantee to hold your room.

No one is going to become homeless. That is just silly. The hospital social workers will help find a room in another nursing center.

They have a list of places that have room. You can choose from the list and they will take care of making arrangements for you.

@Carmie What about people who have been a facility a long time but may make short trips to the hospital for adjustment of meds, cases of pneumonia, x-rays from a fall or a few days to set the arm, leg or whatever, for observation, etc. etc.? LOTS of quick hospital trips are made.

So you just want to dump 'em out at another facility where they don't know a soul? Don't have their things, don't fit in? Really? Do you know what chaos this would be?

I have a total number of 16 years of people in nursing homes that I have been responsible for. You have no idea what this would cause.

The things you mentioned as needing trips to the hospital can, should and will be addressed by the nursing home physician and nursing staff. That's why the facilities are called skilled care. Medicare and Medicaid won't pay for frequent trips to the hospital for conditions that can be managed at the facility. They carefully review the cases and will stop funding if someone is consistently being sent to the hospital without meeting clinical necessity. . Note that I'm not speaking of true emergencies (falls with injuries, acute cardiovascular events for example). I'm only talking about the specific things you mentioned You seem to have a purely emotional based view of how long term skilled facilities work. And how government insurance works. I worked in long term care for over twenty years of a forty six year nursing career. Much of that was in clinical management, ie Director of Nursing.

The facility has to pay for transportation to the hospital every time a medicare or medicaid patient goes to the ER, so they do try to manage within the facility. The Medical Director makes the call if they go or not.

manny2 · ‎05-24-2010

If you have someone that needs care because of dementia, and I'm talking about people that wander look for a lock down unit. It sounds like a prison it is not. Lock down units are made so they are not restrictive to the patient. They can move around and go whenever they want to go within the confines of the unit.

The main thing to remember is you are a partner with the facility. You have to go and make sure your loved on is being taken care of. Get to know the staff. Get to know the other residents. Every facility has one or two residents that are alert, and know everything that goes on. Get to know them and you will have an inside look into what goes on when you are not there.