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My 95 year old dad is extremely weak and falls often. He has been pretty much bedridden for a week after falling. ER sent him home and he stubbornly walked upstairs to his bedroom.

He is on the 2nd floor and we have no way of getting him downstairs. His doctors tell me to bring him into office or they can't sign off on home health care. I tell them he is unable to get there and all they say is call when things have changed.

They offer no suggestions on who I can call for transportation assistance.



Thanks.

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I absolutely did experience this with my late mother. She especially did NOT want to take medication that could help her. So for you, you could make a "faux" Dr appt for yourself, but it's really for him.
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Call a certified home care agency and explain this situation. They will evaluate and if your dad has a skilled need such as physical therapy he will be admitted. They will get md order based on their assessment. You might try a senior ambulette service if you have one in he community.
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All the doctor needs to do is right an order for home-care to come out and evaluate. If the Dr. is his primary, he should be aware of his history.
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Humana (my mom's insurance) pays for transportation to pick her up to and from Dr. appointments. Does your dad have medical insurance of any kind?
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I see your biggest problem is getting the old man down the stairs.
As a hospice nurse I ran into that problem several times. Two old ladies ( the wife and I ) could not move that 200 lbs of flab anywhere so I would call the non emergency 911 number explain the situation and help was on the way. I even called the police dept a couple of times to see if they had a key to an apartment building. They did not but the fire dept did. I had to get pretty creative at times. I even had the phone numbers of all the local highway debts and was not shy at calling them out in the middle of the night to snow plow.
Shame on the Dr for not helping you solve this. if you have to go the 911 route and he goes to the ER check before hand that the NH bedis still available and obtain the paperwork a Dr has to sign off on and insist the ER Dr signs off and refuse to take the old man home with you and only agree to a transfer to the NH with transportation. They will probably agree if you stand your ground which won't be easy otherwise they will be blocking one of their own precious beds. Anyone who has been left in an ER bed for 10-12 hours waiting for a bed will understand where I am coming from. If you have another fierce adult take them with you. I would recommend Jeannie, CM, Pam Stegma, Phoenix, or Golden and probably many others to help.
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MsBelmont3, please do yourself a big favor and call the local hospital for info on a transport company who will take Dad to the Doctors and get him into that home asap. I just went through the same thing and it's no fun but it has to be done. With Mom downstairs and the Old Goat upstairs your the one who will end up in that nursing home room. As a matter of fact I would see if they both could be moved into that room at least until Mom can get around on her own again. I'll assume your working with Medicare and you should get Medicaid into the picture too. Lots of help out there but as with everything controlled by the government ,you really have to dig to find it. Try Care.com for information. All they do is try to advise you, tell you the things you can do and it's free. They helped me a lot.
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Your county social services should be able to help arrange a visiting nurse to come to the house They will work with his Dr to get whatever is needed done.
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Good suggestions all. I use my caregiver service to move my dad into the car and then I invade the doctor's office. One such invasion into a small office space and the willingness to work with you improves. Seriously, I specify a caregiver or two who can lift and move 160 pounds of dead weight. So far, so good.
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Yellowcab and many other taxi companies have handicap accessible vehicles. I used one for my mother. We were able to call and set up a ride in advance. We were able to wheel her into the cab without her getting out of the wheelchair. We also found a visiting physician to come to the home through the visiting physicians association website.
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Do you mean a visiting doctor? Unfortunately, there are none in our area.
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Can you use a physician service that comes to your home? My friend used that for issues not related to her ALS diagnosis.
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Thanks for the answers. He's not improving and we have a nursing home room available, but now the doctor has to see him before she'll sign papers they need. I'm now worried we'll lose the room as others are interested in it as well. Of course, the doctor doesn't tell me this until the end of the day and they can't see him until Tuesday. I'm going to see if the fire department can just bring him down the stairs with a stair chair for us and then we can get him in the car. I can't put him downstairs in a room as my mother broke her leg and is occupying it and it's not big enough for 2 beds. When it rains, it pours!
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MsBelmont3, please call Hospice or the VNA. They can evaluate him and contact his MD. Some health insurance companies have a nurse you can call 24/7. Check to see if his insurance has this.
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You can arrange for a private ambulance service to come and take him to the doctor. Dept of Aging in your county probably has buses that will pick up patients and take them to MD appts but the patient must meet them at the bus- they won't come in your father's home and get him downstairs as legally many of those companies are not allowed to do that due to employee safety issues.
You can of course call 911 but they will transport to the ER only. And many 911 services these days charge the patient if what they were called for was not an emergency.
Best bet is a private pay ambulance service. Hospice is an option but a physican must write that order as well. Does your father have a good relationship Witt his PCP? If the doc is aware of your dad's decline he may just order Hospice after having a hospice nurse come out and do an assessment.
If possible can you try to move his room downstairs? I'd be worried he may fall if no one is there with him 24/7.
Good luck!
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Have him evaluated for hospice, then they will take care of everything.
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