Yesterday (the 23rd) my mom, Jeff, and I had a meeting at the physical rehabilitation center with the social services/discharge planner, head nurse, and head physical therapist. After discussing his progress, the staff suggested (and we agreed) that he needs 24/7 assisted living care after he leaves, at least for a few months. We were told that we needed to start looking for a place for him to stay right away because he could've been released as soon as that upcoming Friday. It is MUCH easier to transfer him to another facility than to have him come home first, especially since he's not fully ready to take care of himself yet...he needs assistance with daily insulin shots and blood sugar checks, has incontinence problems, his memory has gotten worse, and he doesn't eat healthy meals.
His insurance company met with the facility today and decided that mobility-wise he is doing much better, and since physical therapy was the main reason he was there, he now meets the criteria for leaving. We found out about 4pm this afternoon that he's going to be discharged on TUESDAY DECEMBER 1ST, which gives us about a week to find a place for him to stay. That sounds like plenty of time I suppose, but there's a lot to do...making calls, visiting assisted living facilities, meeting with people, filling out forms, etc. AND it's Thanksgiving week. But the worst of this is that they have to pay OUT OF POCKET.
I made a call this morning in anticipation of this to an Edler Care Advisor who gave me about four places to call, plus we had one more in mind. So I was on the phone all day with one person or another, playing phone tag, talking to the head of one facility while the advisor who was helping me kept calling on the other line with more info. I was also anxiouslyu awaiting the call to find out his discharge date, as determined by his insurance company, so that was pretty nerve-wracking.
We have (I think) narrowed it down to two facilities and will be visiting them within the next few days. One costs more but has a really good memory program (which is why it costs more). It is "an enriched program staffed with experienced, professional caregivers with special training in dementia care." The other sounds like a good facility but only takes care of all of his needs without concentrating so much on memory care. So basically aside from the VERY specialized memory care part, they sound pretty similar. We are trying to decide if that is worth the extra money, especially if it will help my dad improve his cognition enough for him to function at home, maybe better than before he went into the hospital. I guess the answer will come after we visit both facilities. I will also be meeting with the advisor tomorrow at the physical rehabilitation center so he can meet my dad, evaluate his condition, and get his thoughts on the facilities.
With this being a holiday week, we pretty much won't be able to do anything until Monday since we need time to visit the places, and the social worker at the rehabilitation center is going to be gone for the rest of the week. So far this is all so confusing and today was very frustrating and taxing, even though all I did was talk on the phone a lot and takes notes. And when we find someplace, there will be the whole ordeal of moving him AGAIN. Let's just say I'm a TAD bit stressed. Or even more stressed, if that's possible. AGGGGGH!!! There, that feels better. No it doesn't.
Happy Thanksgiving to us.
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