Dramatic cognitive decline after hospitalization. Thoughts?

This happened to my mother as well. Please insist on having your dad checked for a UTI (urinary tract infection). It is often overlooked as a common link to sudden cognitive decline and hospital delirium.

Yes, I have the same experience with my mother and the nursing home she's in. I get the same response, my mother's nursing home has tried to diagnose her with dementia 3 different times even though the neurologist they selected and sent her to says she does not have dementia. Where my mother differs from your dad is that when she goes to the hospital (as she did a few weeks ago with a severe UTI) she becomes more lucid and aware of her surroundings. I could have a meaningful conversation with her. My opinion is that her condition is caused by two things:

1. The medication the nursing home's medical director puts her on to keep her quiet and compliant
2. lntense isolation forced on residents when covid quarantines are in place

Currently, the facility has my mother on two anti-psychotics and when they put her on the first one, i noticed an immediate decline (at the time, i did not know they had put her on it because they didn't tell me but I had visited her one week and she was normal, and two weeks later at a window visit, she was literally drooling). i am now insisting they wean her off both. I am at a loss as to what to do about the isolation, though. Social interactions are extremely important to seniors and many studies show that lack of such increases the risk of dementia and altzheimers https://www.cdc.gov/aging/publications/features/lonely-older-adults.html . In the area my mother lives, one positive covid test is cause for a complete facility lockdown. Patients may not leave their room and they can have no visitors. During these lockdowns the only interaction they have with another human is when an aide or other worker brings them their meals, cleans them up, etc. The rest of the time, they lay in bed doing nothing. Our lockdowns have lasted as long as two months. Add to this - low income nursing homes have used covid restrictions as a means to reduce their staff and the services they provide. I don't know what the answer is to all this. If you open your mouth to the nursing home (which I've done) they just blame it on the state's covid restrictions and lack of staff to be able to provide adequate activities during these times.

UTI
Hospital Delerium

It could be delirium due to medications or medical condition.