Husband Says Hospital Moved His Wife 1,000 Miles Away On Christmas Eve

[okarol]

Husband Says Hospital Moved His Wife 1,000 Miles Away On Christmas Eve

Posted By: Jennifer Lindgren     Created: 12/25/2008 5:46:28 PM    Updated: 12/26/2008 12:43:25 PM

SAINT AUGUSTINE, FL -- William White won't be visiting his ailing wife in the hospital this Christmas; he says the medical care center transported her to Illinois without the family's permission on Christmas Eve.

William White says his 65-year-old wife, Viola Jane White, has been sick for a long time and needs dialysis and a ventilator to live. He says she was a patient at Kindred Hospital in Green Cove Springs until yesterday, Christmas Eve.

That's when White says the hospital called him to let him know Viola had been flown to another nursing care center in Elmwood, Illinois.

"You can't go see her! You might could go once a year!" White said.

What angers him: White says the Kindred Hospital staff decided that Viola White did not need his approval to go; that she herself could make that decision.

"They said she agreed to it. She can't even sign her name. She don't know what day it is," White said.

In September, a letter arrived from the hospital stating that Ms. White's Medicaid and Medicare benefits would be exhausted by mid-November, and that the Whites would need to pay $1,000 a day for her to stay at Kindred Hospital.

White says he has not been able to keep up with Viola's medical bills, and didn't have the money to keep her there.

First Coast News placed a phone call to Elmwood Care, in Elmwood, IL, where staff confirmed that Viola Jane White was admitted as a patient on December 24, 2008.

After speaking with case workers at Kindred, White says he was told the only option for his wife was to seek treatment at an out-of-state facility where she could still be covered by Medicaid and Medicare, but he refused to let her be sent away.

"I said I don't agree to send my wife 1,000 miles away. I'm 72 years old!" White said, adding that he doesn't know when he'll get to see her again.

While he wants what's best for Viola's health, he was hoping to look into other options closer to home.

First Coast News placed several calls to Kindred Hospital on Christmas Day, and left voice messages for case workers and administration.

On Friday, Kindred Hospital faxed First Coast News the following statement:

Kindred Hospital, a Joint Commission-accredited acute long-term care hospital, provides high-intensity medical care. Once a patient is stabilized and improves they are moved to an appropriate, non-hospital level of care, pursuant to a physician discharge order.

In this case, after working with the patient over the last several weeks and upon receiving a physician discharge order, the patient was transferred to an appropriate, non-hospital level of care.

The timing of this transfer was unfortunate.

Due to privacy laws, we are prohibited from further comments.

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/local/news-article.aspx?storyid=126616&provider=rss

[Chris]

Something sounds fishy here.

And with Illinois Medicaid, you just can't come to Illinois and automatically get Medicaid. So now there will be bills I am sure that this new facility will expect the husband to pay.. Who is going to do all the footwork to the Medicaid office in that county, which maybe some distance away.

So many missteps have been taken here.