They rarely keep patients longer than 17 days due to insurance. Mom is 89, broke her hip almost 3 weeks ago. Spent almost a week in hospital then to acute therapy as an inpatient for 9 days where the pain was too much for her to progress much. Last Friday we moved her to sub acute care where she has been for 6 days. As the pain lessens we are seeing more progress but really not sure 17 days here will be enough for her to return to her independent living in her senior apartment. Rehab center tells us this is common for insurance companies to release patients early. Here is our problem. If she can't yet do for herself someone will have to be with her until she gets to that point. They already told us we would have home care therapists, nurses etc. But we are concerned about nights alone. Her apt. is small and if it were only a couple weeks me and my sister in law can take turns staying with her but my concern is what if her recovery takes longer? She had no money and my goal is to try and keep her in her apt as she has lived there for the past 17 years and it's where she is comfortable. It's a government subsidy apt so if she had to go on Medicaid for long long term I fear she would lose the apt. We are at loss for a plan B as neither mine or my brothers homes would accommodate Mom for the long term. Has anyone else out there had to deal with this type of situation and if so what did you do???
So, I look at this that Mom has 5 more days where Medicare pays 100%, 21 to 100 days Medicare pays 50%. Hopefully the supplement will pay the balance but Mom paid $150 a day.
There may not be much they really can do for a broken hip. You may want considering getting her homecare therapy. Medicare will pay. If Mom receives Medicaid as her supplement, then ask if she can get an aide. If Mom is not on Medicaid as her insurance, I don't see where having a subsidized apt would be effective. I would think there r a number of people in these apts that receive Medicaid in some form.
When my 91 y/o father fell and broke his hip, he was living in Independent Living at the time with my 87 y/o mother. He was unable to walk after his hip surgery, and not making the required 'progress' in rehab, so Medicare wouldn't pay for him to stay there past 10 days. The PT/OT kept telling me dad could NOT go back to independent living, period, and that he had to stay in long term care at that facility. Well, what about MY MOTHER and his wife of 68 years???? Him staying in LTC was not an option, so I was freaking out. To make a long story short, I wound up getting both of them into Assisted Living where they did just fine. The PT/OTs worked with dad in the ALF and he wound up walking some. Turned out he had a brain tumor which was halting his 'progress'.
Anyway, as much as you shouldn't worry about the future, part of you HAS to consider what may come next! Don't be blindsided and find yourself freaking out like I did. Have your ducks lined up. Talk to the social worker at the Rehab facility and make sure she helps you EVERY STEP OF THE WAY with what comes next. If your mom isn't able to go back home, then the social worker can help you figure out how to apply for Medicaid, etc.
I know how awful this is, and how much stress you are feeling. Wishing you the best of luck with whatever comes down the pike with your mom's rehab.
And then, where there's a will there's a way. Trust me: little old ladies who have nobody on earth to care for them *still* manage. For night times, there are bedside commodes, perching stools for the bathroom, leg-lifters if she struggles to get her feet from the floor onto the bed; there are stand-aids and grab rails and bed handles; there are falls alert pendants (or wriststrap style, to taste); there are walking frames with little trays and cupholders on... you name it, if there's a problem somebody has come up with a way round it.
Okay, every solution usually comes complete with a different problem, I'll admit. But all the same!
If you decide somebody must stay with your mother, do not you and your SIL stay too long or do too much. You will disable your mother and undermine her confidence. The temptation to pamper someone who's been injured and is still recovering is enormously strong (I found myself drying a client's hands tonight until I said aloud "what am I thinking?!" and stopped - my client is not a helpless infant, she is a grown woman) but you need not to do things for her that she can do all or mostly by herself.
Aren't these examples better? - a tiny frail lady in her eighties with a fractured pelvis used a leg-lifter to get herself into bed. A terminal cancer patient discharged early this week with a colostomy is now able to manage the stoma care confidently, with support from a specialist nurse and daily caregivers. Soon, she'll be doing it without even noticing.
Rather than worry about what ifs, the best thing you can do for your mother is encourage her to cope; and behind the scenes get busy with social workers, occupational therapists and any allied professionals you can think of to get her kitted out and re-abled.
As the social workers at the rehab center how you transition her to long term care, either at their center or elsewhere. This may be a temporary move, or it may be permanent.
Have you applied for Medicaid for her? Otherwise, she will be private pay at a LTC facility.