We moved my dad from an SNF to a Memory Care today after one month at NH. It is much closer to my mom's house, is significantly less money, and most important he has a large private room we can set up as an apt. of sorts to make it more comfortable for him and visitors. The hospice nurse did a discharge check and found out he was not given one of the required meds, an anti seizure med, the whole time he was there. Luckily it never became an issue, but I found out the reason was because there was a clerical error upon admission so it was never listed on the meds list. The Social Worker investigated this and found out it was clearly a mess up on their part and this represented negligence on their part and they are going to self report themselves to the governing state agency. I found this owning up very refreshing. Still, I feel we did not receive the services we paid for so I would think when the bill comes we should be able to negotiate a discount of sorts. You could say no harm, no foul but still, this was troubling to me when you pay a lot to make sure your LO is receiving proper care only to find out they were not. Again, the SWs attitude helped dampen my disappointment, but I think this admission should be accompanied by a reduction of fees. Any thoughts?
Oh, the facility will do everything they can to not reduce the monthly rate. Sorry but reduction in rate probably will not happen.
Is the memory care private pay ? You may be disappointed on many fronts -
mom's memory care is considered assisted living and frankly they are just not equipped to handle more than a basic level of care
Residents often go without meals and liquids - there isn't any monitoring, and lots of families either spend a great deal of time with their loved ones or hire private caregivers
It is a big money business - when you can, check out your state's licensing site and view inspection reports and see if they're ordinary or serious -
one recent report for an investigation on a resident injuring another was found to be inconclusive because the injured resident has dementia and couldn't corroborate the attack
I am mom's constant advocate and yet she had a UTI so bad she went into sepsis and had to be sent to a nursing home for a month, and she is one of the lucky ones - others are left untreated until it is too late
Let us know how things get resolved
I'm so sorry you are going through this, not like it's not hard enough you have to deal with incompetent monkeys. Sorry if that offends, my personal experience has caused me to believe that very few if any of these places care about anything but the money. Not enough regulations and not enough enforcement of existing regs.
Keep your cool, be nice and continue to advocate for your dad, keep notes and report this nonsense. By the way, they can fax orders and they should have sent paperwork with orders with your dad. Heads should role for this. Just remember to never be threatening or angry, the law is all on the side of the incompetents, if they say they were scared of you, you could face charges. That is way they think they can harm vulnerable people, they cry foul and all there actions are secondary to their feelings. Messed up beyond words but reality.
But get this, we moved my dad to the memory care then yesterday found out he had not had anything to drink for 24 hours. The MC said they had not received any orders for beverage thickener, the hospice said they tried to call MC to give them orders, and both are blaming the former NH to say they did not forward orders.
So what do you do? Let an old man go 24 hours without anything to drink? I said I am going to go to the pharmacy to buy some thickener myself and get my dad something to drink while they work out the paperwork. They said I cannot feed him that until orders come in. I said the heck with the orders, I am not going to let my dad dehydrate, which he probably already was as when the orders came in, he drank down a quart of thickened water. Everyone is pointing finger at each other. So fine, but in the meanwhile, doesn't the facility have some responsibility to keep him hydrated while all this is worked out? You pay money to these places so you don't have to worry, yet I feel if I am not on top of them all the time, we have no assurance he is getting what he needs Last night later I asked the aids when he was given his meds. They didn't know.
It was a mess, every employee covering for each other, they tried to say hospital didn't send correct list, boy were they red when I produced a copy of what hospital sent via me when he was transferred.
If this is a for-profit facility they are just paid monkeys doing the corporations circus act, no accountability. I would tell them that you are filing a complaint with Medicare, licensing board and whom ever else oversees the vulnerable population they handle so carelessly. This will be your best chance at a discount, picture them trying to buy silence.
I pray you get a huge discount, oh yea I also told them they should get on their knees and thank God that my dad didn't throw a clot as it was only his mercy that protected my dad from their incompetent care.
As to getting a discount -"if you don't ask the question you will never get a yes" is a favourite saying I have - good luck
Oh, same amount each month.