Can hospital not divulge presence of patient at direction of person with health proxy?

[Anonymous]

Very elder parent, still of sound mind, taken to ER for unknown reasons, by sibling who will not share health issue or hospital with numerous other siblings. Will not answer phone or respond to texts. We've called around to all area hospitals and may have located the missing parent, but the particular hospital (part of a bigger system) denies they are in residence.

Can they do this? The sibling has manipulated into full control of parent and parent's assets. We assume they want to prevent family visitors or any contact.

[Anonymous]

Yes. Some electronic medical systems allow you to make a patient "privacy" to the point that they won't show up if someone does a basic search for them (like the person who you are talking to is doing). They can escalate it to someone with more access who then sees they are marked privacy and will say they can't find the patient. Other EMRs will just show the patient as privacy so the person will know to just say they have no record of the patient.

Obviously this is mainly used in abuse type situations or if there is someone people want to find info about (celebrity, notable person, prisoner, etc).

We've had police depts get a hold of us and we can confirm with them that the patient is in our hospital but what their status is. I assume they let whoever called them know that the patient is alive and their whereabouts are known.

[Anonymous]

Incredible. Sounds like you need an elder care attorney.

[Anonymous]

You can say “no directory info” when admitted. Sounds like you may need to report elder financial abuse to your local Adult Protective Services

[Anonymous]

I’m not sure what type of document you have or what state you are in, but many health care proxy/advanced directive forms are not effective unless the signer is not capable of making their own decisions so you have no authority currently.

I agree you should reach out to an elder law/family law attorney for advice on what documentation you need in this situation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m not sure what type of document you have or what state you are in, but many health care proxy/advanced directive forms are not effective unless the signer is not capable of making their own decisions so you have no authority currently.

I agree you should reach out to an elder law/family law attorney for advice on what documentation you need in this situation.

Sounds like the sibling is the health care proxy. And if the parent was brought into the ER, there very likely could be a chance they were confused or otherwise altered and it got out into play. At this point, OP needs to consult with an an attorney who deals with elder law. This is a tough situation to prove and get control of.

[Anonymous]

Thanks all for your thoughts. This is really heartbreaking. We are a large group of siblings and have all helped maintain both parents over the years (one passed a number of years ago). Of course, the ones who took the most and have the least, or more accurately, the worst financial track records are focused on maintaining maximum inheritance, by any means.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can say “no directory info” when admitted. Sounds like you may need to report elder financial abuse to your local Adult Protective Services

They will not do anything. Been there, done that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks all for your thoughts. This is really heartbreaking. We are a large group of siblings and have all helped maintain both parents over the years (one passed a number of years ago). Of course, the ones who took the most and have the least, or more accurately, the worst financial track records are focused on maintaining maximum inheritance, by any means.

There isn't much you can do if they are POA, if they are not, go to court and file for guardianship.