Vultures!
4/23: Mom was rushed to the ER with breathing difficulties. She was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation. That got under control with Cardizem, and she was put on a blood thinner due to the risk of blood clots. We were visited by the case manager to see if we wanted to talk to hospice. She said that hospice would provide an extra level of care for Mom. We were presented with a list of hospice providers. We were in the hospital with no means of evaluating them. The case manager recommended Company X. We agreed to talk to them. X said that Mom didn?t qualify for hospice due to her being proactively treated for the heart problem and clots, but that they would do us a favor and qualify her due to being in end-stage Alzheimer?s.
We didn?t sign the papers immediately. The case manager and the X people visited us several times a day and seemed so caring and supporting. They emphasized how Mom would receive an extra level of care with them doing in-hospital hospice.
4/29: Mom hit a low point. We were told that she would die within hours and that the family should plan to spend the night.
4/30: We signed the hospice papers, and X talked us into stopping the meds other than those for pain, along with the electronic monitoring, so that Mom's last days would be comfortable.
5/1: Our daughter who was pre-med at Georgia Tech visited and got furious about hospice care (actually, the lack of care). From observing Mom, she said Mom had too much quality of life to be written off. She insisted that Mom be put back on a blood thinner, heart meds, and monitoring. Because sister, brother, and I were so mesmerized and pressured by the case manager and X who kept pushing us for hospice, not to mention our being thoroughly exhausted and thus unable to make intelligent decisions, we got caught up with the sales pitch of the hospice company. Daughter gave us a reality check. I contacted sister and said we wanted to put Mom back on meds and monitoring.
5/2: Daughter's (and our, because sister totally agreed) wishes were followed. Mom experienced a remarkable improvement. Sister and I realized that Mom hadn?t been receiving an extra level of care after signing up with hospice ? actually she was receiving less care. That night a rep of X visited. She obviously had not read Mom?s chart. Sister and I went ballistic. We scared everyone in the hospital in advocacy of our Mom?s care. We refused to sign papers that said that if we discontinued X, we were signing away 90 days worth of Medicare. That's not what they told us when we signed up with X. They said that we could change our minds at any time and not lose anything. BTW right after that, sister was walking by the nurses? station where the X rep was, and she heard someone say, ?Hey, we?ve got someone who can read.?
Basically we feel that we were pressured into hospice so that X could make money from Medicare. They were amenable to giving us the ?favor? on 4/23 because as soon as they acquired the signature, they would make 90 days of money from Medicare. They are a for-profit company. Frankly the reason that they were constantly hounding us and providing ?support? is because they were afraid Mom would die before they got her signed up, and thus the income.
The care was sub-standard. They told us that electronic monitoring was unnecessary, they took Mom off her meds, and Mom had her vitals checked less often. The only ?extra care? Mom got was visits from a fake-caring chaplain who made me want to puke, a visit from a social worker who was clueless, and the visit from a clueless dumbass who visited Mom last night that caused sister and I to go ballistic.
Also on company X's watch was the fact that they didn?t even notice that Mom had an infection from a poorly-installed IV. Mom complained to me that her arm hurt. I was afraid she was having a heart attack. I looked at her arm, and there was a huge, gross-looking infection from an IV. The X people were scared ****less. They knew that they had screwed up.
The hospice people are like vultures. If they see someone who is in an end-of-life situation, they barrage the family to sign up for hospice ASAP because if the patient dies before the family signs up, they lose income. These hospice companies are for-profit companies. They are totally about making money, not for caring for the patient. In retrospect, that comes across as totally fake.
Bottom line: if you have a loved one in the hospital, you must be there for them 24/7 to advocate for them. And even if you are there, if you are not a physician, mistakes will be made. I am 100% sure that if we had not been there 24/7 for Mom, we would be having a funeral in the next day or so. It still could happen (heck, it could happen to all of us, regardless of age). But it is more likely for an older person. Like daughter said, she is not willing to give up on Nanny. A few weeks, a few months, and beyond, is what we want for our sweet Mom/Nanny.
Mom got well enough to leave the hospital on Monday. She is at a non-profit hospice facility at Christian City that is by-invitation-only. They had a waiting list, but years ago my Daddy was one of the founders of Christian City, and he gave a large amount of money in memory of my brother. So Mom got right in. It is so nice. We feel good about he being cared for by people who know our family.
I'll ask sister.
