Respectfully, be warned, the nurses aren't playing dumb, they don't want to run up a bill for the hospice. They get in trouble for recommending and implementing things (specialty durable medical equipment, medications, hospitalizations, increased CNA visits, increased nursing visits, etc.) even if its in the best interest of the patient, because hospice gets paid the same per diem by Medicare regardless of the amount of services they provide. So they keep the bill low, by turning a blind eye to the patient's needs, recommending the cheapest of everything, minimizing services, when more is clearly needed, and the hospice profits more off of our loved one's enrollment. Believe me check your loved one's medical records & notes from Hospice, and what your assigned nurse and medical director told you out of their mouth regarding your loved one's health status & recommendations, and the two will be 180 degrees apart in the narrative.
Furthermore, the Hospice medical record will contain major gaps in the documentation, including completely omitting the family's concerns and objections, it will contain lies, such as your loved one was demanding more morphine but you know they were completely unable to communicate during that time period (clearly an overdosing cover-up on their part), and the medical record will contain exaggerations on your loved one's health status at the time of their enrollment if that's what the organization felt was necessary to get your loved one Hospice qualified. This isn't just me saying this - my loved one's primary care doctor put in the record the Hospice story is always conflicting and changing among their personnel. Buyer beware, keep your own contemporaneously written notes regarding your loved one, and compare them to the Hospice medical records; the truth speaks for itself. It's criminal, it's sinister, and its fraud, on every level, literally.
There's more, but I think the point is made, compassionate care is not their concern, the nurturing of the Benjamins is
Wow .. I'm SO sorry to hear this. When we enlisted Hospice for my mom (over 20 years ago), it was the best thing we ever did. Huge amounts of compassion, lots of tender care, great advice givers, comforters to *our* impending loss. I've been recommending hospice ever since. I sure hope this isn't the norm. I know we'll be needing it in the not so distant future. Forewarned is forearmed, I guess. Dammit. One more thing to worry about.
Yes and you can easily switch to another hospice provider,
Hospice is a MediCARE covered reinbursement and the mediCARE enrollee or their DPOA or MPOA can determine when & if the hospice group is to be changed. This can be done at anytime and does NOT need to be done at the end of the certification periods either. If you want to you can also file a complaint with CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid) easily on their website.
I am a hospice aide and I know just as much as a nurse do they play dumb here, she asks me questions, that I should be asking her, I read lot on these situation my family told me I should become a nurse but I don't want to be pulled away from my compassion from the elderly, I enjoy taking care of them
You know some nurses are books smarts and some are just plain stupid to me incompetent is a nice word you can ask them a question and they act like they do not know the answer
Yes. When my mom was in the last week of her life, the hospice nurses didn't use anything to monitor oxygen level and other vitals because "they were just there to facilitate the passing on blah blah blah." The non hospice nurses who came in for some shift were professional, monitoried everything, told us what was going on. Chatting with the hospice nurses..they were just looking for a job with a couple of shift a week...kind of a part time low demand something to get $. On the last day, when my mom was nearing death, the hospice nurse came on shift and reduced her meds so instead of being in a twilight comfortable state she became awake and in pain for the rest of the time. Then when my mom vacated ... duh ...she was about to die... this vile hospice nurse... rather than just do a quick change decided to change the whole bed moving my mom ...who had severe osteoarthritus back things etc. so when I came back into the room my mom was wide eyed in terrible pain. I had to try to calm her down then about 5 min she died a horrible death...because of that incompetent hospice nurse. In fact, I'm pretty sure she suddenly died then because that nurse put her through so much to change the bed. Before she died as I was sitting there holding my mom's hand and arm ... she was suffering so much... she could no longer eat or drink because of dementia hit the swallowing thing ... she was on oxygen for comfort ... the idiot hospice nurse starts talking about oh...who put the paperwork in for this oxygen blah blah blah as I'm sitting there with my dying mom.
I've been through hospice with both my parents. They are mostly incompentent. They are the only way to get the meds needed for comfort but honestly...if you find a hospice nurse who you think is incompetent or negligent, call for a replacement. I should have done that rather than suffer through nearly a full shift with an arrogant paper pusher. Watch how they just sit behind their laptops filling out paperwork. The non-hospice nurses who came in on shifts through hospice never did that. When they are then tell them to shut that laptop and care for your loved one...and yes...that means more than just watching them die.
Furthermore, the Hospice medical record will contain major gaps in the documentation, including completely omitting the family's concerns and objections, it will contain lies, such as your loved one was demanding more morphine but you know they were completely unable to communicate during that time period (clearly an overdosing cover-up on their part), and the medical record will contain exaggerations on your loved one's health status at the time of their enrollment if that's what the organization felt was necessary to get your loved one Hospice qualified. This isn't just me saying this - my loved one's primary care doctor put in the record the Hospice story is always conflicting and changing among their personnel. Buyer beware, keep your own contemporaneously written notes regarding your loved one, and compare them to the Hospice medical records; the truth speaks for itself. It's criminal, it's sinister, and its fraud, on every level, literally.
There's more, but I think the point is made, compassionate care is not their concern, the nurturing of the Benjamins is
Hospice is a MediCARE covered reinbursement and the mediCARE enrollee or their DPOA or MPOA can determine when & if the hospice group is to be changed. This can be done at anytime and does NOT need to be done at the end of the certification periods either. If you want to you can also file a complaint with CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid) easily on their website.
I've been through hospice with both my parents. They are mostly incompentent. They are the only way to get the meds needed for comfort but honestly...if you find a hospice nurse who you think is incompetent or negligent, call for a replacement. I should have done that rather than suffer through nearly a full shift with an arrogant paper pusher. Watch how they just sit behind their laptops filling out paperwork. The non-hospice nurses who came in on shifts through hospice never did that. When they are then tell them to shut that laptop and care for your loved one...and yes...that means more than just watching them die.