Mom was in memory care/short term memory loss. She caught respiratory infection going around the ALF and upon hospitalization, learned she also had UTI. She is now in rehab after 10 days in hospital, extremely weak and trying to walk again. I am unprepared to move be her to nursing care if she requires it, should her community not accept her back, What do I do?!
As to whether your mom can return to the assisted living (AL), you probably want to start with your mother's contract with the assisted living home she was in. Then, depending on the state you live in, there may or may not be regulations governing when AL is appropriate. In my state we have regulations for AL and a person can stay a long time in AL if there are some outside nursing service provided. Depending on your mother's care needs, AL may or may not be the best for her. For example, there may or may not be 24 hour nursing care available in AL.
If you are willing and able to pay your mother's bill for the AL while you are waiting to see how well she recovers, then they should hold the room for her. Again, you probably want to look at the AL contract.
If your mother needs to be in a nursing home from here on out or even temporarily, please become an informed consumer. Medicare.gov has some information on what to look for in a nursing home and also the 5-star rating. You may also want to contact your local long-term care ombudsman for additional information about local nursing homes.
If your mom uses all her Medicare days for this rehab stay and cannot pay privately, and does not have long-term care insurance, you will want to apply for Medicaid. If that is the case, you may want to contact a certified elder-law attorney---depending on her assets. When it comes to Medicaid----please, please, please don't rely on information from the hospital, nursing home, rehab, friends, family or any non-attorney persons.
If your mom ends up staying in a nursing home, you will want to learn about the rights of residents. There are many rights, based on federal regulations, that are there to protect the residents and provide for quality of life and care. Information is power! Your mother is fortunate to have you in her life. Take care!
I am a RCFE owner and I welcome outside agencies to assist in rehabilitation when the resident returns to the facility from an illness or surgery. Try this alternative for her care short term.
Best wishes,
In my state, the resident can remain in MC and they will care for them even if they are bedridden, need hand feeding, incontinent, etc. Unless, you intend to have tube feeding, then, I'd discuss it with the MC director about their requirements. If it's just physical therapy that she needs, maybe she could return to MC after she gets her strength back in Rehab.
That is one reason that I felt comfortable with MC for my LO. It's a place that she will receive her care until the end.
After a week she was transferred to a Rehab facility.
We have decided she will stay at the Rehab on private pay when her days are up.
We discussed it with the admissions office and social worker. There are other full time residents there and the care is excellent.
It is going to take her a while to recover from both of those infections, and also time to recover from hospitalization which is hard on seniors with dementia. Does she seem to be making progress now? It is possible that she MAY return to her baseline (or close to it) over time. But unless she is at a level that matches the ALF's care level, when she is discharged, she will have to go somewhere else. It might be a good idea to start looking at SNFs incase that will be needed. Maybe you are worried for nothing -- maybe the ALF will be able to accept her back.
Hope for the best. Plan for the worst.