A friend of mine has a roommate who is 72 yrs old, with severe COPD & heart failure. She cannot continue in her current living arrangement as my friend works full time and cannot be home with her. Her oxygen levels get pretty low with resulting confusion on her part due to lack of oxygen. She was in rehab for 20 days, came home & was back in the ER within hours. This was in August. Since then it has been a seemingly endless cycle of ER, hospital bed & then rehab. She has minimal insurance (medicare) and gets little in social security monthly. Her actual family is out of state and quite frankly, not all that interested in her welfare. All of this sits squarely on my friend's shoulders but she has neither POA or medical POA and the patient is not always cognizant of what is going on around her. She has been bounced around to different facilities that seem almost indifferent to her fate. Any suggestions?
Hospice might also be a consideration because of the number of ER visits and admissions. The severe heart failure and COPD would also qualify her. She may not want to do any of those things but really she has no choice. I am afraid there will be no choice of facility, it will be the first bed available in a facility that accepts Medicare patients. The next time she goes to the ER contact her family and tell them that they will be responsible for her future care, as it is not safe for her to be alone during the day and there is no question of you not working. I can only wish the best for her but really this is the only alternative in this case. Explain to her when she is lucid that you wish it could be different but if the family won't step up this is what has to happen. I hope she gets a nice place and does not take it too hard. Of course the friend can still visit and take her out for meal if she is well enough but realistically she is entering or has entered the last phase of her life.
Is she on oxygen 24/7 at home? If not, why not? Medicare will pay for it although there will be a co-pay for the 20% that Medicare doesn't pay.