Hospice care - Page 2

OMG I totally know what you mean. I worked for a for-profit home health agency after 20+ years in a hospital based environment. Once the profit motive become the focus the care goes out the window, and employees become disposable. Never again! I only want to work in non-profit environments from now on no matter how attractive the job looks. TAKE PROFIT OUT OF HEALTH CARE. I am sorry, but it does not belong! All companies want to do well, but the whole stockholder thing makes it UGLY. It just does. Those who don't know can argue till the cows come home. I don't care. I lived it and I was so disturbed by what goes on that I never want to work for a for-profit again. Hospitals can pull some ugly stuff to survive, but it is nothing compared to what I saw when there are stockholders involved.

Call Medicare and Medicaid anonymously- they will investigate. Call the state auditor office anonymously. You MUST. No one should abuse the dying. These owners are the lowest of the low.

How could you not know, after 29 years in Hospice, that the big corporations are all about the $$$$$? Also, being a non-profit doesn't always make it a bed of roses either. Find a small, locally owned hospice.

Have you thought of contacting a television or newspaper reporter? This story needs to be told, and the corporation would have no choice but to clean up their act.

[quote=civilized;5244053]dance4life, I was very shocked about DPH myself. I always assumed they really investigated complaints. Now I find out they only investigated "serious" complaints. Giving a copd patient who was eating PO and walking, morphine to help with her was not considered serious. She lasted 2 days! "


Just so you realize that morphine is a wonderful drug for end stage COPD- this is a normal practice and relieves a lot of anxiety and dyspnea. My mother is on it currently under hospice care and it has helped so much.

you don't need prayers, you need a lawyer get one ASAP

I am so sorry civilized but I believe you my last LTC job I worked night shift and I and the aides would find bruises, a broken toenail down half way across the nail and assorted other injuries on doifferent residents. I would of course write an incident report which is law for my state and the DNS would go write a note in the chart behind me saying what she believed happened which the last time I was taught you cant write down what you think happened you write the facts . Well anyway I was later fired for a mess- up in scheduling and the state unemployment judge didnt go for them saying I was a bad employee and called off alot which they had no paperwork on . I got unemployment finally and I also reported all these incidents to the state right after they fired me and the state went to the facility and found no evidence . There were nurses there changing 0800 meds as ordered by a doctor to 0600 so I could give them and they changed them directly on the MAR. Yet when state went there they saw no evidence of it so they said my allegations were unfounded. I want to know how the MARs were fixed and the other things skimmed over. ?
The facility which is owned my two physicians and is located in the state capitol might have had something to do with it I do not know but state either told them they were coming or something of the sort. I lost my faith in the state DHHS here after that. I know what I saw and what they did and how the residents were treated. I really think the corporate ownership of long term health care is why it is the way it is today. I am so sorry that happened to you. I still feel the pain of that and the position I have now I like my coworkers and my residents but the corporate part is just awful. Nurses to corporate are seen as liabilities and to tell you the truth I have been respected more by my employers when I worked in housekeeping as a young mom and military wife. I am so burned out by corporate ran healthcare I am looking into home health where I will do private duty with one patient. I dont even care I am not going to make as much money . I wish you the best and I just had to respond because I have been burned like that too for doing what I am supposed and most of all what is right. I hope things work out and you decide what you need and want to do... sorry post so long.. but know you are not alone this happens everywhere even in so called progressive states which brag how they take care of the elderly and mentally ill while cutting services. Take care and good luck...

For those Hospice Lovers out there.....this is not intended to put you down. This is just fact.
Almost two years ago my mom was put on hospice. She did not have cancer but suffers from chronic pain.
In two weeks she went from being in poor shape to almost dead. She was in Assisted Living and the RN's were passing her meds, as usual, but now Hospice came in and change it all. Now Hospice is in charge. And I, being an RN look to them for guidience? Yes. One week into their "treatment". (they want to put her deep into pain control, and then slowly take the meds away to find the correct amount) I get a call from the assisted living RN. I am told my mom "is going, come quick". I arrive 1 1/2 hrs (drive) later, and the hospice nurse is hovering over my mother saying "your mom is going". I said, "going where"? Hospice said she had a stroke. So I decided to move in. The nurses at assisted living knew me as an RN and I would go to the desk to get her meds. Then I threw them down the toilet. Guess what? Mom woke up one day later. I moved mom into my home and almost two years later as we speak, mom is downstairs (she takes the stairs and is 90) making her breakfast. She does not wear diapers. Her ONLY problem is that she is hard of hearing. I have no clue as to why we need hospice. If someone is dying, and in pain, can't a MD order liquid medications? Is hospice there to give out a hospital bed? When family is able to do the job, there is no need for hospice, a huge organization that makes a lot of $. At one point I had 3 hospice people interviewing me and my mom. That is a lot of $.

Hi Needshaldol. Wow. Feel for you and your mother, and glad you stepped in

Just curious, which doctor gave what diagnosis to your mother to qualify her for hospice? Or did hospice make something up? Sheesh!

This makes one wonder how far the corruption extends. What a nightmare for you, the aides and the patients. Depending on how far you would want to take this, you might consider going to the newspapers or TV news.