For the first time, I had the head of all their therapies in front of me. His assessment was grim on two fronts. Mom had not been at a high level when she had left two weeks before and now she was lower. Further insurance in his experience often kicked patients like mom before the 21 days. I needed to be prepared. The following Monday they would send in their first week's papers, he thought she could be released later that week. Further he wasn't sure if the Garden could take her.
One of the things I've learned over the multiple admissions by both my parents is sometimes the therapy people have very bleak assessments. This maybe because their goal is perfect safety. But I had noticed that often they would say my mom needed things that I did not think she did nor when I observed did the rest of the staff at Rehab.
So after Mr. Therapy gave me the bad news and left, I walked out and asked a CNA in the hall how they were transferring her (moving her between chair and bed or other situation). Sure enough despite what I had heard from therapy, the CNA reported she could transfer my mom by herself.
It also didn't surprise me to learn that the CNA attributed that to my mom trusting her. I, too, had seen that my mom did better when she trusted whoever she was working with in transfers.
I guess I could have gone to therapy and pointed all this out in hopes of better evaluations, but I doubted that would help. Instead I'd hear that CNA types shouldn't be doing that, and likely the CNA would get in trouble.
What I also did was to call the Garden's nursing director and ask her to be ready to receive my mom back quicker than the standard 21 days. I also touched base with the Rehab social worker to make sure she was sending reports to the Garden.
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