Thought I would send a short update on the last several days activities.
Steven and Mom traveled to Northern Kentucky yesterday to visit Cardinal Hill in Ft. Thomas. They visited as we are looking at options for a long term acute care facility (LTAC) for Dad. It was an older and smaller facility, although the personnel seemed very nice and friendly. Compared to other options, it will probably not be our first choice.
Mom and I went home to Frankfort for her to pick up things she needed today. Then we went on to St. Joseph's in Lexington at Eagle Creek. It is a newer facility and the rooms were good size. We talked to the main respiratory therapist who was friendly and seemed knowledgeable, althought I admit I did have flashes of "Doogie Howser" while talking with him. He was very youthful! They have one doctor, a pulmonary doctor, who is there on staff. There is no rotation of other doctors in and out like we have had here. Of course, if you like the guy that would be a plus, if not, definitely a con. We didn't get to meet him today, he's on his once a year vacation.... Fields luck!
St. Joe is very selective in their admissions. They have a 92% success rate in getting patients off the vent, but part of that is because they are so selective in who they permit to come in the first place. Dad may not "qualify" due to his many challenges overall. The most concerning it appeared to me from the respiratory therapist was that Dad is currently not responsive. He also indicated that at that facility they don't have access to a neurologist. They have 33 beds overall with 6 dedicated to vent patients. They were going to request updated records from Baptist East today so they could review again based upon our discussion of today. We asked that they try to let us know by Monday if he would meet their criteria or not, so that we could move towards a decision. They did review Dad's medical records a couple of weeks ago and indicated that he was not eligible for their facility at that time, but agreed to look at them again.
Denver is still an active consideration as well. Our family had a really good conference call with the doctor in Denver and other staff on Tuesday. They seemed very knowledgeable and I was most impressed with them since they didn't seemed shocked or started at anything we threw at them as far as Dad's challenges. They seemed to take it all in stride as things they had seen or heard before. the facility is very close to John, so that's definitely a plus. Transport to Denver will be very expensive and we are trying to maneuver through the logistics of negotiating prices so that we will have that information to help assess options towards an ultimate decision.
Thank you again to all that have called, emailed, texted and stopped by. We appreciate so much your continuing good thoughts and prayers. May God bless each and every one of you and your families during this holiday season.
Much love,
Robin
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