Isn't it illegal for a nursing home to block important records in a patient's care?
Before major surgery my mother changed her health care DPOA to me. Due to complications, she wound up in a nursing home. I requested that they contact Brigham and Woman's Hospital to obtain a copy of that new DPOA record. The woman in charge erroneously sent the request back to my husband. He told her that and asked her to contact the hospital!
The next I heard was that she had 'tried many times' and that the document didn't exist. Two social workers stood "in my face," yelling repeatedly that there was no such thing as the document I requested. In the meantime, my mother's health was diminishing by the moment. Brigham and Women's instructed me to have a nurse request it because that would bypass the social workers and also be attended to that night.
Unfortunately, the social worker heard of this, and told that young nurse that she could not, by any means, make the request. BWH keeps impeccable records and has since reported that there have been no -- as in zero -- requests from that rest home for my mother's health care proxy. That social worker's one "attempt" was to receive my husband's request, to be forwarded to BWH by her, which included a letter already written out and the fax number she needed to send it to. As previously stated, she faxed the whole thing right back to him.
And that was it. That represents the department's "many, many attempts" to provide paperwork important to my mother's care. I finally called on another medical person (outside the rest home) to make the request; she had the document in one hour. I had decided to let this all go but am currently seeing similar dynamics at play and need to take a stand. I do think what they did, given the urgency of my mother's care, was illegal.
4 Answers
Popular Questions
- My mom has Alzheimer's and she is in a nursing home. I get physically ill at the thought of going to see her and I have to force myself to go. Does anyone else have this problem?
- Nursing home neglect! My mothers is in ICU, now what?
- Do you feel that putting someone in a nursing home is just giving them a place to die in?