Truth Falls Victim in Nursing Home Tragedy

Men's News Daily ^ | 17 February 2004 | Nicholas Stix

[3catsanadog]

I hate cradle to grave government nanny care as much as the next person, but then there's the working half of me that thinks that I do more in my job than the $10.40 per hour I'm paid. Yet I don't want to be more of a burden on our SS/Medicare system.

Sheesh, here I am, a poor working stiff wrestling with an enormous social problem much bigger than alot of Americans even have a clue about.

Scuse me, it's time for me to take my anxiety/anti-depressant medication.

[mrustow]

The job you are describing sounds much different than what is customarily a CNA position. In the State of New York, my understanding is that the law forbids CNA from handling any sort of medication, which is done by LPNs.

[mrustow]

Thanks for a very interesting and informative take on early Alzheimer's. (BTW, every time I forget something, my wife shouts, "Alzheimer's!")

[3catsanadog]

It may be just semantics butttt, your father wasn't paying, "rent."

Yes, you are right - "rent" is just my own shorthand term I use so I don't have to type out 10-15 words!

[mrustow]

Thanks for a powerfully written essay that deserves its own magazine page/web page/thread.

[3catsanadog]

Here in Pennsylvania, CNA's (who have to get 120 hours of training and take and pass a written and skills test provided by Red Cross to get licensed by the state) cannot give medication. On the other hand, $6.00/hour nursing assistants who aren't on record with the state can pass out meds at personal care or assisted living homes.

Go ahead, scratch your head.

[3catsanadog]

Thanks for your thoughts. You can start a new thread if you want to - between work, school and reading Free Republic I don't have much more time. Anyways I prefer responding to threads instead of posting them. I'm kind of shy.

[MEGoody]

Sounds like the poor lady wandered up to the roof. I do think the nursing home should have been more careful to check on each patient and make sure they knew where they were.

[MEGoody]

It sounds like you are understaffed. If my parent was there, I'd be raising cain with the administrators.

[3catsanadog]

Nope, according to regulations the home is in line with staff/resident ratios.

[Landru]

"What people don't realize, as well, is that in the "good old days" of at-home care, when people became very frail and very demented, they simply stopped eating and *died.*"

I'm gldd you've mentioned this point, because it's probably the most important aspect of life for the elderly there is, today.
That is to say, seems everyone's concerned about quantity of life while completely neglecting the importance quality of life plays.

"We don't consider that an 'acceptable' outcome anymore - we initiate RTC care, tube feeding, etc. All this care comes with a price."

Indeed we do.
While interstingly enough, our society believes subjecting human beings to lives devoid of any quality whatsoever to be completely acceptable instead of seeing it as it really is.

...a misguided but well intentioned abject cruelty.

[3catsanadog]

Well said. What's going on here is that because of the advances in medication and care, people who would have died before are able to live longer. However, getting care to a person having a stroke quicker may save his life but the damage will subject him to being paralyzed on one side, unable to take absolutely any care of himself.

So because of additional medical treatment this man will be living with this condition for years, wearing a diaper.

Hopefully, medical breakthroughs will change things but until then, we will have to accept the fact that we will have to take care of millions of elderly at home or in nursing homes and have our hearts broken inside as we watch our parents try their best to cope with their infirmaties.

I've spent many a night crying for my dad.

[Landru]

"I hate cradle to grave government nanny care as much as the next person, but then there's the working half of me that thinks that I do more in my job than the $10.40 per hour I'm paid."

Your "working half" is right, y'know.
My wife has spent the past 30 years working in the LTC business and yes, I'd agree no one working in the field is paid anywhere *near* what they deserve.

In fact?
I'd dare say LTC is among the last true "calls" occupation-wise out there; since, teaching can no longer honestly be considered a "calling" anymore whatwith their union wages & all.

Truth is, given our society's goofy priorities the money to pay people like you who're doing God's work with our [mostly] unwanted & forgotten elderly will likely never be there, either.

"Sheesh, here I am, a poor working stiff wrestling with an enormous social problem much bigger than alot of Americans even have a clue about."

Don't worry, the LTC situation's a train wreck waiting to happen.
There's no question about that either, only *when*.

One last thing.
You've say you're a "poor working stiiff," right?
Well that's not what I hear from you through your thoughts, y'know.
What I hear is a person with a solid heart of gold.

...& you'll never be any wealthier than that.

[Biblebelter]

I am looking into a nursing home for my father. I asked some health care professionals who were acquaintances for recommendations. Although there are probably twenty or thirty nursing homes in the community that I live in, the same two nursing homes were recommended by a variety of people. When I investigated I found out that there was a big difference between the two that were recommended. While both charged nearly the same rates, there was a big difference in the visible quality of care as well as a bigger difference in philosophy of running the nursing home. One nursing home had about ninety per cent public aid patients while the other had eighty per cent private pay patients.

I was very impressed with the home which had the eighty per cent private pay patients. I am certain that the home that had the ninety per cent public pay was the best home in the area of all the other nursing homes which have a preponderance of public aid patients. One thing is for certain both homes wanted to have patients entering the home on the 100 days of Medicare. This is where they really milk the system.

In both homes all the beds were Medicare certified, but in the one home only thirty per cent of the beds were public aid certified while in the other home all the beds were public aid certified. And in the home where only thirty per cent of the beds were public aid certified only two-thirds of those were currently allotted to public aid. I questioned the director of admissions a great deal and we had a very nice chat. It was the policy of this home to discourage admissions that would be public aid after the hundred days of Medicare was used up.

The patients who were on public aid had been private pay patients at the home for years and who had run out of resources. In fact the admissions director said that it was their policy to place Medicare patients who had run out of days and would have to go on Medicare into other nursing homes. In the course of our conversation it was stated that they received a fixed amount from public aid, and that was much less than the rates that they charged. The director said that the reason that the reason the quality of care and facilty's quality of operation was so noticeably different from other homes in the area was because the private pay patients paying the full rates allowed the home to simply put more money into salaries and operations.

My father and I have been very blessed. He worked very hard for his good pension and retirement income. If he has to go into a nursing home, he will be a private pay patient in the home that has the eighty per cent private pay population. I do agree with you that there are probably a lot of people who have gamed the system by intentionally planning to go a nursing home on my buck and your buck.

[technochick99]

"rest of the story."

Fascinating. Thank you for doing this job, and trying to do it well!

[Landru]

Thanks for your input, BB.

Sounds like you've a solid handle of the situation, have done all the proper research ahead of time which enabled you to make an informed decision.
Critical.

You're absolutely correct when you said, "My father and I have been very blessed."

...you with him, & him with you.

[mrustow]

BTTT

[mrustow]

Here in Pennsylvania, CNA's (who have to get 120 hours of training and take and pass a written and skills test provided by Red Cross to get licensed by the state) cannot give medication. On the other hand, $6.00/hour nursing assistants who aren't on record with the state can pass out meds at personal care or assisted living homes.

Go ahead, scratch your head.

Yup -- I'm scratching myself a bald spot!

[mrustow]

And usually the nursing homes have their own doctors that come in to check the residents. These doctors never, ever voluntarily consult with family members - you have to do the legwork to find out why and what medicine and care Mom is getting.

From what I hear from friends in the business, the reason may be that many of the doctors allegedly working in the nuring homes are just there to pick up some very easy money, on top of their private practices and hospital privileges. They spend little or no time with the nursing home patients, and just write up the same prescription for everyone. Not all of them, perhaps, but an awful lot of them.