How do I get a psychiatrist (and other nursing home doctors) to listen to me?

They have the form, they call me all the time about little things like anti-biotics for her eye that seems permanently infected from that hospitalization I mentioned above. She went to this horrid rehab place that had roaches.

PCP???? That is my biggest problem. My mom had a wonderful PCP but he moved way to far for her to see him back when she could get places on her own. She was seeing her nephrologist (diabetes complications) for a while but he never came to see her and never ran regular tests (pap, mammograms) even though he claimed to be an internist as well. When she was hospitalized for an upper GI bleed, he showed up once. They totally F-ed that up and that accelerated her dementia. I swear she skipped 2 stages and went from 2 to 4. She was just weak when she finally came home from that so I thought she would bounce back. I found a local PCP who she could get to alone once she recovered. She never recovered and that woman was a joke. She would call you out on your Yelp reviews if they were less than 5 stars. I was in the process of firing her when the $#!t hit the fan and my mom became really bad and I had to take her to psych. So there is no PCP, not one that I trust. I wouldn't trust that woman as far as I can throw her. Her old PCP the one that is wonderful but too far went concierge because of Obamacare. It's $1800/year plus insurance. I can't afford that at the moment.

We had those care conferences every month and found it was really the best time to get issues resolved that weren't handled immediately. Strange, how some people jump to when facts are given in front of other staff members!

At the first rehab Mom's own doctors came to see her and that was great. The second place, the staff doc was all about making her own changes in meds and never returned calls. It was a battle every week! With one of us being there 24/7 and keeping very detailed notes, we were able to nip problems before they became big issues. Good luck!

You should also be having regularly scheduled care conferences at which you can voice your concerns. Does the staff have a HIPAA form singed by your mom so that they can respond to you?

I would try talking to the social work department about your need to communicate with mom's doctors, or at least with the nurse practitioner who probably oversees her day to day needs.

First of all...I would make an appointment with your mother's PCP outside of the nursing home and take her there yourself. Tell him/her you want her off the Lexapro and state why.

The real problem with a Nursing home is...they have a resident dr who comes in maybe once a week and if you are there when he/she comes in...you get no communication with the dr..only second hand info from the nursing staff. Any meds your mother was on at the time of admitting her in the NH (nursing home), those meds will stay with her unless you take things into your own hands.

My mother is in memory care...part of an assisted living facility. I have the freedom of taking my mother personally to all her dr appts...can change her meds if needed...for example...recently my mother was showing anger issues...she was on Citalpram for depression...I took her back to her PCP physician who stopped the Cilalpram and started her on Lexapro. It has worked out great.

If you have POA or DPOA...you do not have to accept their in house dr that comes in once a week...you do have the option to take your mother out...even if it means they provide the transportation to and from the dr if your mother is immobile. I know the stress involved in this type of care...and it is a life saver if you can set up in house care so you don't have all the dr appts to deal with. But as my sis and I found out...the resident podiatrist only comes once every 3 months...not often enough for our mothers feet issues so we cancelled it and are back to personally taking her to the podiatrist ourselves every 6 weeks.Good luck and I hope this helps give you info on how to proceed.