How To Get an Elderly Parent Admitted to a Hospital

When your elderly parent gets a medical emergency that requires inpatient care, you need to know the process to follow to get immediate medical attention. Otherwise, you'll miss out on essential steps that can delay your elderly parent's admission.

To get your elderly parent admitted to a hospital, you need first to pack their personal items and assess their condition to see if it warrants emergency transportation. Once you get to the emergency room, you provide their health details and get them admitted for treatment.

The process may be long, mainly because your loved one is suffering, but manageable if you know the steps. This post discusses what you need to do from home to the hospital bed to ensure a smooth admission process.

1. Pack Personal Items

Staying in a hospital is stressful and overwhelming. And failing to carry personal effects for your loved one can make the hospital stay more unbearable. When packing, you should be selective and only carry necessities to supplement what the hospital provides.

Because a hospital maintains controlled temperatures, your loved one will unlikely need heavy clothes. You should pack lightweight garments such as:

• Loose-fitting pajamas.
• A light robe, in case they'll be in a shared room.
• Underwear, socks, and a bathing towel.
• An eye mask for blocking light while sleeping.
• Rubber sole slippers to keep them from sliding.

For personal care, you'll pack items like:

• Toothpaste and toothbrush.
• A comb or a hairbrush.
• Sanitizer to sterilize hands after contact with hospital surfaces.
• Bathing soap and tissue paper.

2. Prepare a List of Your Parent's Medication

Failing health necessitates a senior to be under prescription or over-the-counter medication. Though these drugs can be updated and prescribed by a physician and recorded in a patient's medical records, there is no universal medical record system.

So, during admission, the hospital will ask for all medicines your parent uses. Preparing a list ahead of time ensures you provide comprehensive information without errors.

The list should include:

• Name of the drug (prescription and over-the-counter).
• Dosage or frequency of use, for example, two times a day.
• The duration they've been using each drug.

Preparing this list helps to prevent:

• Medical duplication. Medical duplication occurs when a patient takes two or more different drugs from the same class.
• Medical dosage errors. A high accumulation of medicines in the body is toxic and can lead to health complications.
• Adverse medical interaction. Having a list saves physicians from mixing non-compatible drugs.

3. Gather Historical Medical Records

Historical medical records are crucial in ensuring your aging parent receives quality care. It is the first tool doctors use to arrive at a diagnosis or recommend further testing.

A medical record should include details such as:

• List of chronic diseases. It should include conditions your senior currently sees a doctor for and the diagnosis date for each.
• Laboratory results. These include blood and urine tests from the past one or two years.
• Emergency and hospital narrative reports. These are the notes that physicians prepare for other physicians when admitting a patient.
• A list of involved clinicians. Knowing why your loved one saw a specific specialist can help a physician discover underlying problems.
• Clinical visit notes. Bring any notes dating back one year from the primary care doctor.

4. Pack Necessary Legal Paperwork

Never underestimate the importance of legal documents when admitting your senior to a hospital. You should ensure you pack the following documents:

• An identification card or passport. It helps doctors to confirm your senior's identity to prevent insurance fraud.
• Insurance cards. Health insurance cards give doctors certainty of receiving payment.
• Financial and medical Power of Attorney. This document is consent from your senior, giving you or someone else the power to act on their behalf in case of incapacitation.
• Do Not Resuscitate Order. It expresses if your senior wants to be resuscitated or not if their heart stops beating.

5. Choose an Ideal Hospital

All hospitals are not equal. They differ in quality of services, expertise, and specialization. To help you choose an ideal hospital:

• Consult your parent's primary caregiver. Discuss your parent's condition with their primary caregiver and have them recommend a hospital.
• Consider your finances. Check your senior's insurance coverage and see if you need Medicare or Medicaid preauthorization.
• Compare different hospitals based on your senior's needs and finances. Research online and consult with a family member to settle on the best option.

6. Decide on the Means of Transportation

After getting all the documents ready and selecting which hospital to go to, the next thing is to decide on the appropriate means of transportation. You can call an ambulance or use private means.

If the situation is dire and waiting for an ambulance can cost their lives, you should use private means. Then call the Emergency Medical Service (EMS) to have the operator connect you to the hospital you're headed to or report the case on your behalf.

7. Get Them to the Emergency Room

The emergency room can be confusing and stressful. Once you arrive, a triage nurse will attend to your senior to take the medical history and do a brief medical examination. Only patients with the most critical conditions receive treatment immediately:

• Level 1 – patients who need life-saving intervention such as resuscitation
• Level 2 – Emergency
• Level 3 – Urgent
• Level 4 – Semi-urgent
• Level 5 – Non-urgent

Should your senior's condition worsen while you wait, inform the triage nurse to send an emergency specialist.

Tips To Guide You When Giving a Medical History

• Start with the most pressing problem and symptoms, including when they started.
• Disclose all the medications your senior uses, including supplements and painkillers.
• Give details of past hospitalization and illnesses.
• Tell nothing but the truth.

8. Registration

The purpose of patient registration is to get your senior's information in the hospital's system. It helps the hospital maintain efficient health records and give a patient identification number.

During registration, you'll provide:

• Your senior's full legal names
• Date of birth
• Social security number
• Insurance details
• Emergency contacts
• Known allergies

9. Admission

Once the physician completes the diagnosis and determines your parent needs hospitalization, you'll receive an admission order. After admission, a doctor will be assigned to take care of your senior, and together with the nursing staff, they'll develop a care plan.

During your senior's hospital stay, ensure you:

• Stay involved. Check on them as often as possible, or designate a family member to be present at all times.
• Monitor their care. Ask questions, and if you notice anything concerning, speak up.
• Plan for discharge. Start thinking about the discharge plan early to ensure a smooth transition back home or to a care facility.

About Chip Mitchell

Chip Mitchell is the founder of Growing Gray USA. With over a decade of experience owning a home care company, he has helped hundreds of families navigate the complexities of caring for aging parents.