Strange medical condition in nursing home (MD's?)

[scsigurl3000]

Originally Posted by evilnewbie

Seems to me patients have severe arthritis and severe dementia/psychosis that render them into a catatonic state...

I do feel better talking about this; I'm sorry to share my nightmares with other people. I wish a physician would respond.

I'm wondering, too, if that particular nursing home was not some sort of catchment area. Another job I had in grad school, one summer I worked as a medical transcriptionist in the basement of a mental health catchment area. I type very, very fast and passed myself off as a medical transcriptionist, though on every new position there was a very high and fast learning curve with respect to the terminology in that particular area. I quickly had to form a vocabulary book.

But I learned the phrase "catchment area" from that mental health facility job, where the doors were locked and you had to go through a locked door to get to the clerical area. I was told that if I ever had patient contact, not to turn my back on a patient (I guess who might be delusional). After a summer of typing physician dictation regarding the emotional difficulties of these patients, I came to appreciate and value my own sanity.

Anyway, since there were so many of the patients in the nursing home which seemed to have the same visual and behavioral profiles, I'm wondering if that is the case: that home was a catchment area for these kinds of patients.

[akvarmit]

Some nursing homes have different care "levels" within them........this could have been a more skilled area where all the patients would have had the same severity of disability. Not sure about the "tables" though, maybe it was a physical therapy area?

When people age and reach a point of immobility they are at risk for muscle contractures, the muscles will shorten pulling the limbs back into a fetal position. Good physical therapy and exercises can prevent this, but often that doesn't happen at the bedside. Some folks in nursing homes have been there years and time has taken it's toll. Add that they probably can't feed themselves or are maybe too mentally gone to eat, and they receive feedings via stomach tubes. Tube feeds will support life, but they'll still wither away.

Any of a number of medical conditions (Alzheimers, stroke, dementia) can render the mind separate from the body and time speed up and take it's toll. It's a shame you did have to see that with no explanation!

[scootiepie]

I never saw it, but at a medical facility I once worked that housed a spinal cord injury unit, they had a special room they would take patients to for their bowel care. Of course, SCI patient's can't "go" so they had to be cleaned out. I would imagine some nursing home might have something similar for older debilitated patients.