Restraints - A situation that went from bad to worse.

- My father’s LTC facility sent him to the ER for a psychiatric evaluation due to agitation. (The facility never informed me that he was being sent, and I’m the POA).
- The following day, I received a phone call from the ER (who obviously was aware that I’m the POA from past visits) to let me know that my father was ready for discharge.
- I was shocked by the ER call and communicated to the ER that I had no idea my father was there! (I further communicated to the ER that I had been away for the past week, and during that time, contracted Covid. I was home by this point but could not go to the ER)
- After receiving the call from the ER, I contacted my father’s LTC facility immediately. I wanted to know what happened, and why I wasn’t notified. (The DON said that my father slapped 2 residents in the last 11 days, and I probably wasn’t notified because it was a miscommunication). While still dealing with my own foggy brain compiled with other Covid symptoms, I confirmed with the DON that she was aware that my father was evaluated, cleared, and was being discharged back to the facility later that day. The DON said yes she was aware.
- When my father was finally discharged from the ER (late that evening), he arrived to the LTC facility in four-point restraints. (I found this out because when I called the facility to see if he arrived yet, I was told by the nurse that he did arrive - but he was in 4 point restraints so she made the transport company take him back to the ER).
I asked the LTC RN if she called the ER to ask why he was in restraints - she said no. I asked if he was agitated when he arrived - she said no. I asked, then WHYYYY did you send him back?! She said because he was in restraints.
I called the ER that night to ask what the heck was going on. The ER told me that my father was never in restraints during his stay in the ER. They said that he was easily redirected and they were just as confused as I was as to why he was returned 1/2 hour after being discharged. I asked the ER nurse for the name of the transport company, and placed a call to them the following day. The transport supervisor reviewed the report and told me that the restraints were supplied by the hospital and they were applied by 2 EMTs and 1 ER nurse minutes before discharge because my father became agitated when they were trying to move him from the bed to the gurney. I contacted the ER DON, told her what the transport supervisor told me, and asked if there was a physician authorization for the restraints. I also asked why I wasn’t contacted by the ER, since I had been speaking with the nurses all day regarding my father’s status, and each time I was told that he was content and doing fine.
The ER DON told me that the hospital often will lend supplies to EMT drivers but in this case, the nurse who supplied the restraints to the EMT driver had no idea why the EMTs wanted them. The information I was being given did not make sense and I felt like I was going crazy! I’ve had multiple conversations with the hospital patient advocacy team, as well as the EMT supervisors, and one of the actual EMT drivers who transported my father back to the facility that night. I found out there was no physician authorization for the restraints, but the hospital ER as well as the hospital pt advocacy team are adamant that they were never applied to my father in the ER. The transport, on the other hand, told me they were (and has documented it in their report). Although my father was not physically hurt by the use of these restraints, it has emotionally damaged him (and me) because his life has been changed as a result. He spent 2 weeks in the hospital (as I looked for a new facility, which he now resides in), but how could this happen?!