My mother was entered into Hospice care after my aging father could not continue to care for her at home. She went into in-home hospice care at my brothers house. He got a letter a few days ago stating that she will be released from hospice in less than 2 months because they felt she has been "cured". We have no clue what will be happening.
She cannot walk or get out of bed, they offered no rehab during her hospice care to help her regain her strength or nutritional support.Plus now she is heavily addicted to the strong pain medications they prescribed during her hospice care.
I am so mad at the healthcare system, I don't know what to do next. Anyone can give advice on this?
They have private insurance, medicare and Tricare.They do not qualify for any low-income programs.
Hospice is there for comfort care, not rehabilitation. They do give heavy doses of pain medication as part of keeping the person comfortable. Considering that the person is supposedly dying, addiction isn't the issue - comfort is.
That being said, many people do improve once they are in hospice. Sometimes it's because they have been taken off of a long list of medications that had horrible side effects. Other times, it's simply the course of their disease and no one knows why they improve. However, once they are no longer considered terminal, insurance will no longer pay, so hospice has no choice but to release them from the program.
Since your mother has two months left in hospice, I'd start looking at nursing home or other care just in case she makes it. However, she may be in a temporary upswing with her condition and that may pass. No one can really tell - even the doctors. Just start preparing for her care outside of hospice knowing that it's entirely possible that she won't keep improving.
Most people who leave hospice are back on again shortly - after all, they were accepted into the program because they were diagnosed as terminal.
Please keep us updated. This is horrible to go through alone.
Carol
It's not unusual for elders to get better under hospice care and be taken off hospice. She may well qualify for hospice again in the future. Hospice organizations are used to this. But they can't continue to provide care if death is not imminent.
Assuming there's funds for her care she can go to a nursing home or skilled nursing facility. My guess is that if she was admitted to hospice she should be in a skilled nursing care facility.
I have heard of people being on hospice for 3 years in some cases. I hope you get the help you need soon. That is how I take things...one day at a time.
Then it happened he formed a clot in his lungs and has a fib (just developed) and they changed his dx to heart condition. The nurse had mentioned that they re-evaluate and that's why they changed his dx. At the beginning though the doctor that signed the papers knew he was not terminal. However, I wouldn't be surprised if this did not happen to me either. I'm just saying what they did in the beginning for us. I hope you find a solution. I know how extremely hard this is and that is putting it lightly.
What you should know is that Hospice provides no rehabilitative of curative care. They are there just to provide comfort care and pain relief primarily through the use of narcotics.
I stayed with my mom every day. She died after a month. I was extremely close to her and feel guilty for not having been able to do more for her that may have extended her life or at least provided her with the comfort of spending her final days at home which is what both she and I wanted.
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