If it is an emergency, go to the emergency room, not an assisted living facility. June 9, 2009

It certainly seems like common sense that if you have a medical emergency you should go to a hospital emergency room.  If you are so sick that you need intensive care you should be in the hospital.  Unfortunately some administrators at assisted living facilities do not seem to have this kind of common sense.

Assisted living facilities are supposed to provide residential care for the elderly or disabled who need some minor assistance with their activities of daily living but do not need skilled nursing care.  For example assisted living facilities appropriately provide services to people who just need help getting dressed or reminders to take the right medication.

Administrators at assisted living facilities cause needless suffering and death when they keep people who need more care than the facility is capable of providing.  A critical problem is that assisted living facilities have a built-in conflict of interest.  The longer a resident stays at the facility, the longer the facility has a paying customer filling a bed.  Thus, assisted-living administrators have a financial incentive to resolve any doubt about whether a resident’s condition has deteriorated beyond the ability of the facility to provide quality care in favor of keeping the resident.

Of course, the safest approach is to transfer the resident whose condition has deteriorated to an emergency room for evaluation or if the situation is not an emergency to get a timely evaluation from the resident’s primary care physician.  Tragically we have seen too many cases in Daytona Beach, New Smyrna Beach and other Central Florida assisted-living facilities in which the administrator does not follow the safe approach and the resident dies without proper medical care.  Thus, if you have a family member in an assisted living facility it is important to be in close contact with the administrator to make sure that the administrator takes the safe approach to protect your family member.