My father-in laws MD said he can no longer see him because the MD does not have oversight of the Nurses, is that true?

Jim, it depends on the rules of the facility or State laws set up regarding this issue. I would first check with the Admin department to see how does this work.

If your Dad is living in a nursing home, then the nursing home has their own MD on Staff even though he/she may not be there at all times. The nurses take orders from that MD. I would think the two doctor would be communicating with each other, maybe not.

My Dad lived in Assisted Living and he was able to see his own private doctor as the facility did not have on the floor a doctor. Everyone used their own private doctor, and went to that doctor's office, the doctors rarely came to the facility. That would be expensive as the doctor would need to charge travel time. In fact, the facility offered transportation to the doctor's office for a fee, and only if the doctor was close by. The facility Nurse did honor any request made by the doctor.

You received so good advice from the other posters. Many hospitals in the big cities and urban areas are hiring "hospitalists", doctors who only work in their hospital(s), and it seems that the nursing home is doing the same thing--hiring their own doctor(s). [LTC Doctors?] Many family practice doctors are SO busy in their own clinics that they do not like to spend time going to see people in nursing homes.

Many states do have laws that require that the residents must be seen by a doctor and/or that their medical records, (especially their medications and treatments), be personally reviewed by the doctor and renewed for another month or 3 months.

Some doctors send a PA or NP to see their residents for three of the quarterly visits and then the doctor would visit the nursing home for the required "Annual Doctor's Visit".

I know one doctor who required that the nurses FAX ALL requests for new orders or any resident updates to his office. We even had to FAX (and NOT call) for an order to send a resident to the hospital ER DEPT. I got chewed out for that one several times. I would send a FAX to the doctor as the rescue squad/ambulance was loading up the resident to take them to ER instead of WAITING for a RETURN FAX giving me permission to send the resident to the ER Dept. and THEN LOADING the resident loaded into the ambulance. Oh, well.

That was my only complaint with my mother’s facility; the physician on staff. He is an MD who travels from facility to facility. I know this because when both my mom and husband were in separate facilities, the same doctor came to both. Both facilities had close to 150 patients a piece and apparently this doctor saw them all, maybe once a month each patient. Most of the ones the nurses told him needed to be seen were on the verge of being 911-ed. My mother’s previous doctor of 20 years never contacted her or me again when Mom went into a facility. Just like hospitals, doctors have to have the right to practice at any facility.

You can probably have his medical records transferred to the facility if they haven’t already been.