Health Care: Regulatory Inconsistency
by Tom aka Rusty Rustbelt
Health Care: Regulatory Inconsistency
When an elderly patient is in the hospital suffering from dementia, depression or schizophrenia, the hospital nurses may administer any psychoactive or anti-psychotic drug ordered by the physician within normal protocols and practices.
When the patient becomes a nursing home resident a few days later, the resident will often be denied the medication (even possibly anti-seizure meds) because the medication is assumed to be a “chemical restraint,” and the facility needs time to clear the regulatory hurdles.
(The federal government assumes nurses drug residents into stupors so the nurses don’t have to work as hard, ignoring that nurses cannot administer a vitamin without a physician’s order.)
This pharna roller coaster hurts the patients, but it is the law of the land.
Tom aka Rusty Rustbelt
As I now have 2 parents with dementia, I am realizing just how poorly constructed Medicare and Medicaid are. Great programs if you need a simple checkup, but god help you if you get really sick and need assisted living.
Neither program does much with assisted living, although some states are changing Medicaid in this regard.
Seems to be the case. And I am not even talking custodial care, but medically necessary. I am having a rough time even undertsand the complex rules. It will be a fun adventure.
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