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The phrase we kept repeating was "unsafe discharge". My sister camped out at the hospital at 6AM to catch the doctor and one of us was there all day. When he did rounds, she outlined every symptom we knew of and pushed for assessments and evaluations. The doc was the one who got the ball rolling, OT, PT, cardio. On a side note, you are one impressive lady, with strength, intelligence and compassion.
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What VStefans said. Write it out and rehearse it.
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All the previous posters have great ideas and suggestions! All the best! Some background from my grandmas cycle of "Fall at home, Break bones, Go to ER, Rehab at Rehab facility, Discharge to home...and repeat." I am not sure if you are having/had meetings with the rehab staff on a regular basis; definitely request a discharge meeting with the PT,OT, SW, Rehab Coordinator, and have your Grandma present. What I heard everytime was: "Your grandma has reached a point where no further treatment will make her better. She is at a plateau point where Medicare and her current insurance will not cover any further expenses here. We have to discharge her." At that point is where I requested all those at the meeting to advise me of what other alternatives are available instead of her going home to fall once again. They all agreed that she shouldn't be at home...there was just nothing they seemed they could do about it...or had the knowledge to share with me on what the solution was beside repeating the cycle. Once I even asked for a Medicare review (Rehab facility did not like that at all!). I also found that I could keep her in her same room there, and even get the staff to fib to her about her needing to stay a bit longer...its just very expensive to do so of course. Each time I would lean on the SW for guidance...and finally took it upon myself to research, locate, and tour LTC facilities that would take Medicaid (because eventually my grandma would financially qualify), read up on Medicaid, how to qualify mentally/physically & financially, what tricky diagnosis words and phrases I needed to ensure were in her record "cognitively declined" "mentally disabled". Really leaned on her primary care doctor and contacted DOA and all of the resources they had. Read as much as I could on this site and took down notes from all the posters who had knowledge and advice to share. Took pictures and recorded video of all the issues dementia was causing: bruising, wounds, overcooking, leaving the stove on, lashing out with anger and hitting, wandering down the street, etc....and then promptly showed the pictures and played the videos to anyone who thought for a split instant that grandma was okay to be on her own at home for any length of time. I know I was being discriminated against due to my young looking face and the fact that I was 2 generations removed from my grandma...no doubt you are likely feeling the same way...and for us, we definitely have to do more. Continued best, I am proof there is light at the end of the tunnel and things work out.
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