My mother is the POA for my grandmother with Alzheimers. My grandmother was admitted into the hospital for treatment of pneumonia. Last night was her last night being admitted into the hospital, as she got discharged today. I went to give her a fresh change of clothes to go back to her memory care facility in, and when I got there she appeared extremely angry, combative, and was swatting at nurses helping her change and get her wires off so she could be transported to the home. I asked the nurses if she had been given any medication, as sometimes my grandmother doesn't act like herself when given certain medications (her memory may be bad, but she is the sweetest woman). They told me no and that she was up and just "like this" all night, and told me if this wasn't her baseline to let the doctor know. It definitely wasn't her baseline, but I chalked it up to stress from being in the hospital and being confused because of her Alzheimers. So we continued with the transport back to Memory Care. Come to find out, the hospital had called her Memory Care facility and informed them they gave her Haldol the night before so she would lay down/sleep. My Mom was not called to ask if this was okay even though my grandmother's issues with strong medications was made clear to them upon her admittance, and she had never taken this medication (Haldol) before. This medication caused her to be very scared and confused once back in her Memory Care facility and she definitely had a bad reaction to the medication. Is it illegal that they did not inform my grandmother's POA (my Mom) before administering a brand new medication? Just to have my grandmother lay down and sleep all night because the nurses didn't want to deal with her? I mean this is an anti-psychotic for people with schizophrenia. We want to know if her rights were infringed upon and if we should take any legal action. This occurred in the state of Ohio.
If the doctor ordered medication it will be given by the nurse.
NOW it is up to the POA to be certain that an allergy to haldol is added to her medication list so it is not given again. THEN if they order it they are at fault. When she is admitted the intake RN may ask "what kind of allergy to Haldol does she have" and the answer will be "severe combativeness and anxiety".
These drugs do have side effects.
A POA is not called every time a medication is added to a patient's list unless that is the agreement made between the POA and the Doctor. IF your Mom is POA she should now make clear that she wishes any and all new medications discussed with her as POA as your grandmother is unable to act in her own behalf. This should be added to her care plan with EVERY ADMISSION anywhere, as it won't travel with her autoatically through different doctors and facilities.
SO, the best you can advise your mom to do - is to inform the staff of the problems grandma had with this medication. The facility and your mom can get a copy of your grandmother's hospital record to see exactly what medications your grandmother received and any unexpected reactions she had to medication. Medications that caused documented adverse reactions (see list for each medication) should be noted as an "allergy" in your grandmother's record.
On the issues you now see with your grandmother; my mom was also recently in the hospital and we never left her alone, one of us (her children) were with her all the time, sleeping there in the chair next to her so when she woke up confused she always had a familiar face. After about a week there was an obvious change in her mental health and she developed a psychosis that isn’t uncommon for elderly patient's, particularly ones with some dementia, to develop when hospitalized. She has been home for over a month now and she is still on an anti-psychotic which is helping a lot but has taken quite a bit of adjusting. Your grandmother may have some form of that as well, having nothing to do with the Haladol so I would urge you to take her to a geriatric psychologist who can determine if she needs medication or not and what would be best if she does. For future reference you can ask that geriatric psychology see her in the hospital too so that they then have some control over any psychiatric drugs she is given. I learned this the hard way.
In my 98-year-old mom’s case, she was writhing and screaming in pain. They ignored the pain and were going to give her Haldol despite my protestations as her HPOA. Then I called the patient advocate, whose only job is to protect the hospital, not the patient. I don’t know if it was coincidence or if the fact that the patient advocate just by virtue of being there, but mom got a room upstairs and better doctors.
These Haldol - pushers are not good doctors AND take advantage of the most vulnerable.
What is truly inhumane is letting an elder suffer with hallucinations because ill-informed or paranoid relatives think anti-psychotics are just meant to hurt their loved one.