A southwestern Ontario lady has obtained an $8,400 invoice from a hospital in Windsor, Ont., after she refused to put her mother in a nursing home she hated — and he or she says she has no intention of paying it.
Michele Campeau and her 83-year-old mom, Ruth Poupard, are caught up in a comparatively new regulation that enables hospitals to position discharged sufferers into nursing properties not of their selecting with a view to liberate beds. If sufferers refuse to maneuver, they face a advantageous of $400 per day as they continue to be on the hospital.
The invoice got here from Lodge-Dieu Grace Healthcare, the place Campeau’s mom stays, with directions to pay on the cashier’s workplace or by cellphone or on-line. The hospital charged the household for 21 days in March.
“I am by no means paying it as a result of the regulation is flawed,” Campeau mentioned. “It is unfair what they’re making an attempt to do to seniors.”
Her mom continues to be ready for a spot in a long-term care residence that may meet the household’s requirements and Campeau is anticipating an excellent larger invoice to land within the coming weeks because the day by day fines rack up.
“We’re anticipating one other invoice for $12,000 quickly,” she mentioned.
The regulation that enables hospitals to subject such fines — generally known as the Extra Beds, Higher Care Act, or Invoice 7 — was handed by the Doug Ford authorities within the fall of 2022 in an effort to open up much-needed hospital house.
It’s aimed toward so-called alternate degree of care sufferers who’re discharged from hospital, however want a long-term care mattress and do not have one but.
Hospitals can ship sufferers to nursing properties not of their selecting as much as 70 kilometres away, or as much as 150 kilometres away in northern Ontario, if areas open up there first.
Lodge-Dieu Grace Healthcare mentioned it can not touch upon Poupard’s case as a consequence of affected person confidentiality.
The previous couple of years have been robust for Poupard. Dementia set in, she underwent a coronary heart valve transplant and survived most cancers. She moved in along with her daughter, who took care of her and have become her energy of legal professional.
Poupard’s most up-to-date health-care journey started shortly after Christmas when she hallucinated in the course of the evening, fell and broke her hip. Campeau rushed her to hospital, the place she had surgical procedure. As a part of her restoration, Poupard moved to Lodge-Dieu Grace Healthcare for rehabilitation.
By Feb. 21, Poupard recovered to a degree the place her doctor decided she not wanted the hospital’s specialised care and discharged her.
Campeau and her brother determined that they alone wouldn’t have the ability to handle their mom’s wants if she returned to dwell in her daughter’s residence.
So the household labored with a placement co-ordinator on the hospital and put 5 long-term care properties on Poupard’s checklist. However these had been full. Discussions about including extra nursing properties to Poupard’s checklist then started, below the provisions of the brand new regulation.
Campeau agreed to place extra nursing properties on her mom’s checklist and the co-ordinator added properties till one which had a spot accessible got here up. Campeau then had 24 hours to go to the nursing residence and decide.
If she refused to maneuver her mother into that long-term care residence in downtown Windsor, the hospital mentioned they’d start charging her $400 a day. Campeau mentioned she visited the house and located it “disgusting,” refusing to position her mom there.
A number of weeks later, the primary invoice landed.
The hospital additionally charged Poupard a co-pay charge — the speed she would pay in a long-term care residence — of $653.20 for 10 days in March earlier than she refused the transfer into that one nursing residence.
“I paid it like I did the one in February, which I am very happy to do,” Campeau mentioned of the co-pay. “However I am not paying $400 a day as a result of I did not go together with their plan to place her in a disgusting residence.”
The province mentioned it believes solely seven folks have been fined below the regulation and that hospitals are accountable for the administration of fines. Well being Minister Sylvia Jones mentioned they can’t disclose how a lot these sufferers had been charged as a consequence of affected person confidentiality.
Campeau is now in limbo, unclear on what the long run holds.
“I do not know what occurs subsequent,” she mentioned. “I actually simply need my mother in an honest spot, that is all.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first printed Might 9, 2024.
