My mom is in a NH in Pennsylvania. The nursing home has assigned a physician to my mom. Is she allowed to choose her own physician (family / primary doctor). I have asked for my mom and I am getting unclear answers from the NH social worker and director of nursing.
I believe the reason for this is that all the patients records are controlled by one doctor, who apparently is on call 24 hours a day. I've seen him in the building on weekends. Plus the nurses can get immediate communication with him, where a primary doctor outside of the facility it might takes hours to him/her to reply back.
I imagine if you wanted to keep appointments with her previous PCP, you could, but s/he would need to be willing to work with the medical director in agreeing on a course of treatment.
Once my mother was admitted to the NH, post stroke, post dementia dx and post broken hip, we were no longer interested in the latest diagnostics or the most current curative treatment. We were interested in my mother's comfort.
The nursing home staff is quick to catch pneumonia and pleural effusions, which are the killers we are trying to keep at bay. There's nothing that an outside doc can prescribe at this point for my mother's underlying chf that's going to make any significant difference in her longevity.