Mom is in a nursing home and has been since Sept 2013. She is on Medicaid and Medicare, the NH receives her full Social Security check. 2 months ago the nurse calls me and tells me Mom's formulary has changed and one of her Meds is no longer covered and it will be an 'out of pocket ' expense..... my pocket at $149.00 per month for 30 pills for 30 days. I've been getting the meds on my own from the pharmacy and delivering them to the NH every month. Saturday the NH calls me to say she is out of meds again, it's only been two weeks since I delivered the last 30 pills. I questioned them and they said they would investigate, I drove the 70 mile round trip to the pharmacy and they gave me 5 pills until the heart doctor could re-new her prescription. Today is Monday and the NH again calls me to say Mom is out of medicine. Then they told me the NH doctor upped the dosage to two a day, I called the NH doctor and ask him if he upped the dosage to 2 a day he said no he did not and ask how many months has she been running short on this med I told him this is the first month. This is a heart medication that her heart doctor prescribed to her long before she went into the nursing home. So I called the heart doctor to verify the correct dosage, it is one per day. The heart doctor did not up the dosage and has requested that she be brought in for an appointment since it has been a year that he has seen her and she needs to be seen every 3 months. The NH doesn't want to take her because she is difficult to handle and they want only the NH doctor to handle her care. The NH doctor told me he goes by what the heart specialist advises and follows his recommendations on Mom's treatment. The Nh doctor only sees Mom every 2 months. Obviously Mom is not receiving the proper care since for the last nearly 3 weeks now has been overdosed daily on her heart meds. Also one of her ($5000.00 per pair) hearing aids is missing the the other one they left in her ear when they washed her hair so now it doesn't work either, I have had to buy her batteries for the hearing aids since she was taken inot the NH. I called the place where I got her hearing aids and ask if they could replace them, they told me not without a new hearing test. I truly don't know that Mom would understand taking a hearing test at this stage of her Dementia. They lost all her clothes except for what she had on and she ended up wearing those for several days before I realized all her clothing was gone. For two days I, myself, had to go through every patients closet in the NH to locate Mom's clothes. I never did find all of them. I ended up having to go buy her $300.00 worth of clothes, underwear and shoes and night gowns and house robes... Everything!! I pay for her to have cable TV in her room and bought her a TV.... the original remote went missing and now the new replacemnet remote is missing.. I've had to replace 2 pessery rings, this is a prescription item also, to the tune of $120.00 each and now her glasses are missing as well. One of the male patients comes into her room at night time and tries to kiss her, she is scared to even go to sleep. Yes I have told the NH administrator and he laughs it all off saying he'll look into it yet nothing is never done. What can I do??? I have to work and I can't leave her alone in my house while I work, I do not make enough money to hire somebody to stay with her while I work. I am so scared and so worried about Mom. PLEASE somebody advise me. What options do I have, this is the only NH for a 50 mile radius of my home and I'm not so sure any of those would be any better. I am all she has there is nobody else to help me at home with her. I feel like because she has Dementia she is a second class citizen, she worked her whole entire life and to be treated this way just rips my heart out and I can't do a d*mn thing about it. Pleas God help me help her.
Then, go to your local department of aging or elder services (you can google these) and get a caseworker to sit down with, and go over all these transgressions with them. The part about your mom being scared to sleep b/c of the kissing neighbor and the NH not taking the complaint very seriously is unacceptable. I'm sure that once you do this, you will start to see some improvements. The important thing here, is to record everything in writing and take pics w/ your cell phone, when you visit.. anything and everything. You need to provide evidence and a trail, and once you report this NH & the staff & administrator's ineptitude, the Dept. of Ageing or Elder Services should look into it.
Unfortunately, certain things going missing is probably not going to be a huge deal to them... my mom has early stage dementia, is in an excellent Assisted Living facility, and unless we write her name on everything (sheets, towels, underwear, etc.), things do go missing or get mixed up in the laundry. I think it's the nature of the beast. We don't keep anything of value in mom's room. Being the nearest one to her (20 min. drive), I keep all her ID cards, etc. and bring them, anytime she needs them. We took care of most of her financial & business needs by having someone pay all her bills, so she really doesn't need any cards or money anyway, except for pocket money when she goes on group outings. Anything of value, mom either gave away before she entered her Assisted Living or has them at my place.
Best of luck to you. It's a horrific & emotional ordeal what you're going through, but your best ammunition will be to be calm, record everything and then file a complaint with the proper channel.
My father's treating cardiologist prescribed a specific med for my father. His VA "primary care" physician decided to change it to another med. I contacted our cardiologist who said he definitely did not want the substitute medicine; it wasn't that appropriate for my father's condition at the time.
Several years later we learned from my father's neurologist that the med the VA doctor wanted my father to use has side effects which can cause neuropathy, loss of taste and loss of sense of smell. My father had developed all three of those problems.
So substitution isn't always possible, save or advisable.
I assume you have ID labels ironed onto her clothing, and labels glued onto her other property?
I would also start looking at other facilities, even if this one is the only one in a 50 mile radius. That might be exactly why they get away with the poor treatment you describe. Even if you have to drive farther, if your mother gets better treatment you might be able to spread out your visits.
In the past I've arranged to come in and work on a Saturday to compensate for time taken off during the week for family medical issues. Perhaps you could try that.
Also, investigate the Family Medical Leave Act - perhaps your employer would allow you to take off time periodically just to get your mother into a better facility and visit rather than several weeks consecutively.
As to the heart meds, even though it's difficult she really should see her cardiologist, if only to reaffirm that her condition hasn't changed and that she wasn't affected negatively by the dosage mixup at the nursing home.
And unfortunately it seems you'll have to comparison shop for the meds unless you change the Part D coverage.
CVS Pharmacy did have a prescription plan with flat rates on 90 day supplies of selected meds. I left them and went with Sav-on Drugs because it was the only pharmacy I found that could provide the few meds my father needed that were still manufactured in the US. Too many others were supplying meds from emerging market countries.
Also try any local hospitals; two in this area have their own pharmacies, sell directly to patients, and one has a discount for seniors.
When I read these posts about someone being the only one visiting someone in a facility, I keep wondering if there are some options for drop-in visitors from churches or some type of caring agency. When my father was in a long-term care facility 30 miles from where I lived, I contacted the local group of his church and they sent members to visit with him.
It seems as though this is an area that's been untouched in the whole caregiving issue.
Sajones, if you do move your mother to another facility, you might want to consider contacting the local police and telling them about the med situation. If there's theft, there could also be black market resale.
Our last 2 rehab experiences were with a chain with several facilities in Michigan. After some research and on-site interviewing, I chose the one with the best reputation, about 50 miles from my house.
One of the practices which was new to me was that the meds were kept in the top, locked, drawer of the patient's dresser, in his/her room. Other than taken out for administration, they never left the drawer. I thought that was a much better way of handling med administration than what I had seen to be the apparently typical way of pushing a large cart filled with meds.
When we left the first time, the nurse gave us the balance of the meds, as they couldn't be used for any other patient. The second time, a different nurse didn't want to give out the meds but finally gave us some and kept others. Since they couldn't be administered to any other patient, I was suspicious but after thinking about what would be necessary to investigate theft, I decided my limited time would be better focused on helping my father recover from his second hip fracture.
I've never encountered a situation where you had to use only the NH des. definitely a written complaint to the NH and state each and every time you have an issue.
I actually put in writing to the nursing home that every time a med was adjusted, added or changed that I had to see the dr orders and if it wasn't covered by his insurance then it wasn't to be used and a med that does the same thing but is covered was to be ordered. you may have to be a real pain to get them to comply but the will eventually do it.
our best day was the day he moved to the new NH.
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