I ended up in the long-term care rehab facility after I had a stroke and about profession I'm in. I have chronic pain and I'm prescribed pain meds but they think I no longer need them so they're decreasing them and changing the prescription my doctor wrote. Who's allowed to do that?
Maybe they don’t offer that particular medication in that center’s formulary and they had to write a substitute.
I encourage you to make an appt and meet with the rehab doctor to tell him your concerns.
Wherever you are living, you're still a patient and you still have a professional relationship with your doctor. If you're not happy with your treatment or medical care, that's who to speak to. If you're not happy with the *doctor*, then there are other things you can do about that.
In your case do advocate for yourself, insist your regular doctor be consulted and whoever is making the changes explains the reasons and details of them to you until you understand and feel comfortable with the plan. I would urge you to include a trusted family member or friend as well if at all possible because this is really too much for a patient to be doing all on their own.
If your own physician is the one still caring for you, and not the facility doctor, then the prescription should stand as he or she wrote it. However, if the facility feels that you are having side effects or symptoms they may have their own nurse call your doctor, requesting that the prescription amount or timing be changed.
You almost cannot know exactly what happened here without asking how this happened.
I hope you are not experiencing more pain.
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