The Nursing Home Guide by Joshua D. Schor

Author:Joshua D. Schor
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2010-03-01T00:00:00+00:00

Other Medications and a Final Word from Your Sponsor

The other large group of medications is antibiotics. I will cover these in chapter 11 on infectious diseases in long-term care. The bottom line with all medications is that you should be looking for reasons to take people off of medications rather than slather more on. The average nursing home patient is on more than nine medications. This used to be the panic level but now has become quite a meaningless number. The more medications to hand out, the less time the nurses have to actually be nurses as opposed to pill-dispensing machines. Be aware that vitamins and alternative medications like Saint-John’s-wort, ginko, etc., may sound great in theory, but if you request them, you’d better have darn good evidence that they work in a significant way. If you want the doctors to do their work, then please do your work and don’t make more work for everyone.

If you feel, based on this book or other sources, that a medication is not needed or may be dangerous, call or meet with the doctor and ask him or her to stop it. More than likely, he or she will agree and a convergence of state surveyors and Medicare apparatchiks will already have speeded them in that direction (just FYI, the federal rule we’re talking about here is called F-tag 329, and specifically refers to unnecessary medications). If you run up against a reluctant physician, you can appeal to the administrator and say that with the information you have now, you refuse to have the medication given to your loved one. That will most likely be honored and the medical director should be asked in to get the deed done. Alternatively, he or the actual attending physician may be able to explain to your satisfaction why the medication is indicated. Failing that and only in rare circumstances, you have a case for the ombudsman’s office... not a card to play lightly, but one that you do hold in your hand.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.