What will a hospital do if you tell them there is no one available to take care of your loved one at home?

Sometimes, the hospital will transfer the person to a facility for some "rehab" with the idea that maybe the person can go home after rehab. Some have success with this, while others do not. My most recent experience with this was that the "there's no one at home to care for this person" problem was just pushed down the road. Hospital transferred the lady to rehab, eventually rehab ended and it was now REHAB staff trying to discharge the person to me as opposed to the hospital trying to do the same unsafe thing. If you think it will buy you some time or might even help, you can ask if your loved one could go to a rehab for a period of time. I had to refuse to take my person home from rehab and it got ugly. I told them there's no WAY she can manage at home and we had already tried it for a period of time. No significant progress had been made in rehab - but the staff did try. SW found her a permanent, long term bed. She's been there ever since.

In our experience, they will leave them parked by the nursing station with all of their stuff.

As Geaton said, under no circumstances do you allow them to talk you into caring for ur LO. They will say that there is help out there. Yes, there is, but you either have to have no assets for Medicaid, or have a lot stashed away for private care. Once you walk out that front door with the LO, they are your responsibility.

So, as said, you say its an "unsafe discharge". There is no one to care for them. They need to be placed.

You need to contact Social Services and tell them this. You need to work with them on discharge planning. If you are talking about your OWN home you can forbid them from making and "unsafe discharge" --and use those exact words, where no one can care for the person. If you are talking about her OWN home, that is a decision between the hospital, its doctors, and your Mom if she is capable and competent to make decisions.

It's called an "unsafe discharge". Depending on the hospital, do not believe it if they beg you to take him, promising to "help" -- they won't. Once someone from your family comes to get the LO, they are "it". If your LO does not have a designated PoA, then eventually the county will move to acquire guardianship so that they will manage all their affairs going forward.

If loved one would be in an unsafe situation because LO's care needs would not be met at home, then the SW at the hospital should take steps to find an alternative living arrangement. Usually this means a nursing home.