My grandmother is saying that her mattress was switched after a month of being in nursing care. Her insurance gave her a bed and mattress when she moved in (she had to get rid of hers). She thinks they gave it to her roommate. Yes, she has a touch of dementia, but seems to be aware enough to be able to point these things out.
Her mattress suddenly seems to be flattened while her roommate has just gotten a new mattress (from what my grandmother says). Her roommate is overweight and has been at the facility for a long time. It seems like my grandmother's claims could be valid, but we don't have experience enough with nursing care to know if this is a thing. We tried it out think that the mattress is flattened as well. That the staff could have given her new mattress to her roommate and she was given her roommate's heavily used one.
But we contacted her social worker and have gotten no indication that they believe my grandmother's claims. And we didn't anticipate this so her name wasn't written on the mattress or anything. We have no physical proof that anything has changed.
Has anyone heard of this happening? It seems like a ridiculous thing to do given that insurance pays for these medical beds and mattresses in the first place. But it's something that may force us to move her elsewhere if it isn't resolved in some way.
My mom was not in a NH but she did have a Hospital bed. And she complained about the mattress. Medicare doesn’t always supply a new bed as it starts off as a rental but they do always provide a new mattress. My mom got both new. I think they (medical supply company) changed it at least once and that I bought her a topper. We tried egg crate and a gel mattress. It seems like Medicare paid for one or both of those. She finally sorted through the options and was satisfied. She liked the position she could sleep in and the height she could sleep at. Not so much the mattress. When we encouraged her to go back to her regular bed after her injury healed, she decided to stay with the Hospital bed so it must have not been too bad.
The Medical supply company who supplied the mattress might be contracted with the NH but they are using your GM insurance to get paid.
If the mattress is only a month old they should be able to look at it and tell if it’s the one they provided. They do change manufacturers but a month is too soon to be worn out. If your GMs is the month old mattress and is in this bad of a condition then ask them to change it out. It must be defective.
Medicare pays for the beds but they pay the Medical supply co a monthly fee until the patient has had the bed for a couple of years and then the bed belongs to the patient.
Otherwise it goes back to the Medical Supply when the patient no longer needs it. NH may have a different procedure with Medicare.
As I’m typing this I’m remembering that the first bed we got wasn’t what we had thought it should be and we sent it back and went with a different company. No problem in doing that. We needed the bed and had to find a supplier who had it in stock before my mom came home from rehab.
I would leave the room mate out if it. Just stick with your GM’s complaint that her mattress has something wrong with it.
I would ask for the medical supply company name and number or better yet ask the NH person who arranged for the bed to call them with you in the room on speaker phone. Ask the rep to come to the NH and look at the mattress or to replace it.
It shouldn’t be that big of a mystery. Either the mattress was “misplaced” or it is defective. Either way the problem shouldn’t become your GMs problem.
If they are claiming they clean the mattresses then they should have a labeling method to make sure the mattress goes back to the correct person.
After this investigation you should be able to identify what a month old mattress looks like and how often new mattresses are provided (such as the one her room mate received).
I’m sure there are folks with and without dementia who complain about all sorts of things. That doesn’t mean your GMs complaint shouldn’t be taken seriously.
Let us know what you find out.
When you don't get help in resolving issues you should always put them in writing and go up the ladder.
Before you move her make sure you're not cutting off your nose to spite your face. If her overall care is good, use this as a lesson to mark everything with identifying information and move forward.
Ex: friend of mine, her mother was in a care facility for about two years. She was diligent about visiting her regularly and at different times during the different shifts. Anyway, she would buy dusters for her, write her name and room number in the seam and on the tag where it was "hidden" and seems every week they would be missing. So she decided that she would make a name tag and zigzag it to the front of the duster. Oh did the facility ever get angry!!!! My friend told them the situation that every week her mothers items were missing. My friend kept doing the same thing on everything she purchased and guess what... the dusters and other items stopped getting, misplaced, or lost, or whatever. One thing she failed to do was when the insurance purchased a wheelchair for her was to write down the serial number and confirm it with the administrator and when her mother died the wheelchair they returned to her was NOT the wheelchair her mother had used and when she went to the administrator they had the serial number of the one they returned to her but not the one that her mother had used which happened to be a nicer one. Lesson learned.
Blessings
hgnhgn
I worked for Sealy mattress. Most of our customers ordered mattresses when their customer actually bought them. When an order is placed, it takes about a week to make and ship. Some do keep a small inventory but those mattresses, if not sold, are returned in March when new covering comes out. So, there really shouldn't be too much time between manufacture and purchase.