Answers to your questions about dealing with undocumented patients
Case Management Monthly, October 1, 2009
This is an excerpt from a member only article. To read the article in its entirety, please login or subscribe to Case Management Monthly.
Q. Have you ever run into a situation where an undocumented patient who needs long-term care refuses to return to his or her country of origin? Have you ever sent patients back against their will?
A. Sometimes, even our own citizens don’t want to leave the hospital. I think one of the things you have to look at when you’re talking medical repatriation is that it’s going to take some time spent with the family and the patient (if he or she is alert and oriented) to fully explain the reasons why they need to leave. You need to have a physician involved in working with these families so they fully understand the medical part and level-of-care issues. What I then recommend is to set up a date that says:
If you as a family set up a skilled nursing facility that you’re going to pay for privately, or you get an apartment for someone who’s homeless and they have a safe place to go to, then that’s the date you are going to be discharged. And if you have not found a discharge, we have a federal, legal, and moral responsibility to provide a safe discharge for the patient. We have found a safe discharge in [foreign city of origin] and arrangements have been made for you to go there safely. Again, if you find another safe avenue, then we are willing to listen. But on Thursday the 17th, that’s when you’re leaving.
We have found that process to be successful.
This is an excerpt from a member only article. To read the article in its entirety, please login or subscribe to Case Management Monthly.
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