Kathleen A. Gagne

Kathie Gagne died 4,583 days ago.

July 8th, 2012 @ 5:30 pm

I called Woodland Terrace at (386) 738-3433 to try to talk to my mom.

A receptionist answered and I explained that my mom was Kathleen Gagne, that she had been discharged from Halifax Hospital on Friday, and that I had been unable to talk to her yet even though I’d called there twice already. The receptionist said that she was probably in the East Wing, so she transferred me there.

I waited on hold for three minutes, and then someone answered the phone. I explained that my mom was Kathleen Gagne, that she had been discharged from Halifax Hospital on Friday, and that I had been unable to talk to her yet even though I’d called there twice already. The woman said that there was nobody in the East Wing named Kathleen Gagne, so she must be in the West Wing, so she transferred me there.

I waited on hold for five minutes, and then someone answered the phone. I explained that my mom was Kathleen Gagne, that she had been discharged from Halifax Hospital on Friday, and that I had been unable to talk to her yet even though I’d called there twice already. The woman said that there was nobody in the West Wing named Kathleen Gagne, so she must be in the East Wing. I was put on hold before I could argue.

Blog Created

July 8th, 2012 @ 4:02 pm

I decided to use this domain, kathiegagne.com, to document everything that happens with my mom. I have stacks of notes and pieces of paper and emails and faxes scattered across my home and office. I think by keeping everything in one place it will be easier for me to communicate new information with my sister and family, and maybe — just maybe — it will be a helpful resource to others attempting to deal with caring for a parent going through a tough time.

Trying to Talk to My Mom

July 8th, 2012 @ 3:50 pm

I called Woodland Terrace to see if I could talk to my mom. A woman named Marty answered the phone. I said I was trying to talk to my mom, who had been transferred there on Friday evening. She put me on hold for about thirty seconds and then returned to tell me that mom wasn’t answering the phone in her room.

I explained that my mom was apparently heavily sedated and hadn’t really been able to answer a telephone in several months. Marty said she’d see if she could transfer me through to a nurse. After being on hold for four minutes, I hung up.

Searching for Woodland Terrace

July 8th, 2012 @ 3:46 pm

I tried Google searching for a website for Woodland Terrace. I looked for “woodland terrace” and “woodland terrace daytona” but couldn’t find an official website for the facility on the first search engine results page.

I did find a link to the local-nursing-homes.com site, where someone posted a one-star review of Woodland Terrace and noted:

Some nurse are very rude & when they wash the clothes they don’t put them in the right room so the family have to buy more clothes every time. I wish I can find a better and nice place for my aunt.

So that’s not very comforting.

A Call from Marie

July 8th, 2012 @ 1:43 pm

I got a call from Marie shortly after speaking with Ida Alvis. I assume it was Marie Garcia, the Admissions / Marketing Director at Woodland Terrace. (I’m not going to list the phone number here because, since I could swear I heard children playing in the background, I am almost certain she was calling me from her home telephone.)

Marie told me that Ida and Nurse Paula were correct: My name was not associated with my mother’s chart in any way, so nobody should be divulging any information to me because that is forbidden by HIPAA regulations.

I tried to explain to Marie that, no, we did not have Power of Attorney because by the time we realized we needed to get it, my mom was no longer competent to grant it so it would not have been legally binding. But in the absence of “POA” I — as the oldest direct descendent of the patient in question — was the one legally responsible for her care. Marie seemed to feel that this made logical sense but that because of HIPAA her hands were tied. I tried to explain to her that this was not the case, and that she should trust in logic, but she refused and simply told me I needed to contact “someone” at Halifax Hospital who could provide evidence to Woodland Terrace that I was authorized to receive information about my mother.

I told Marie that I had no physical documentation beyond a ridiculous “Guardian Advocate” wall hanging that looked like it came from a fourth-grader’s coloring book that someone at Halifax sent me after I completed an absurd twenty-question test which proved nothing except that I could read. She said that I should fax that to them at (386) 738-7420.

She also said I could email her at wtadmissions@gmail.com. Then she quickly said that wasn’t the right email address; it was really wtadmissions120@gmail.com. Then she corrected herself again and said that her email address was actually wtadmissionsterr@wterrace.com. (Since I later learned that the actual domain name of Woodland Terrace is terracedeland.com, I’m not very confident in the legitimacy of any of those email addresses.)

I realized that Marie wasn’t going to budge on letting me discuss my mom’s medication with anyone that afternoon, so I just got off the phone with her and resolved to try calling again later in the afternoon.

(Again, because I was so flustered, I failed to note that they were fine with giving me all sorts of information until I started questioning the information I was being given.)

Prescription Confusion

July 8th, 2012 @ 1:10 pm

I called Woodland Terrace in an attempt to speak with my mom. After a bit of explaining, I was eventually connected to Nurse Paula, who was assigned to my mom for the day.

Nurse Paula said that my mom was in her bed and had been “quite a handful” all day. I asked her if she could confirm what medications my mom was being administered, because some of them made her more agitated than others, and — since she had only recently been transferred there from Halifax Hospital — I wanted to make sure she was being given the correct drugs. Nurse Paula was happy to oblige and, after getting my mom’s chart, started reading the medications she said she gave her that morning.

The very first drug she named was Aricept, so I interrupted right then and said I thought there was a mistake, because my mom hadn’t been given Aricept for weeks and weeks, if not months. Nurse Paula said that it was on the orders she had been given from Halifax, and continued reading drugs to me. I told her that didn’t make any sense, and it sounded like she was reading me a list of every medication my mom had ever been prescribed while at Halifax and not what she was supposed to be getting administered currently.

At this point Nurse Paula became pretty combative and defensive. I tried to express to her that I wasn’t trying to accuse her of making any mistake or negligence, but that there was definitely a problem. I told her that I had talked to nurses and doctors at Halifax twice each day almost every day for the last eight months, and was very adamant about knowing exactly what medications my mom was being administered and when, and that the only psycho pharmaceuticals she was currently being administered should be Zoloft and Namenda.

Nurse Paula asked — seemingly sarcastically — if it was okay to give my mom aspirin. I said that of course she could have aspirin, and I was only referring to the psycho pharmaceuticals. She told me that she had given her all the medications on the list that very morning, and I became very upset because — if you’ve been talking to me at all in the last eight months you know — I’ve been working very hard to get them to stop giving her so many mind-altering drugs.

We had some back and forth on this topic for a few minutes, with Nurse Paula listing assorted drugs for hypertension or digestion and me repeating that I was only referring to the psycho pharmaceuticals, until finally she got upset and told me that I needed to speak to her supervisor.

At this point Ida got on the phone. (Based on the staff list I later found here, I assume this was Ida Alvis, Director of Staff Development.) Ida just insisted that it was a violation of HIPAA regulations for them to be discussing anything about my mother with me. She said I wasn’t listed as a reference on my mother’s chart at all, anywhere. Ida told me that they had nothing noting my name and they weren’t allowed to discuss anything about my mom with me, certainly not her medications.

I was so flabbergasted that I failed to remember that someone from Woodland Terrace had, in fact, proactively contacted me just yesterday! They had to have had my name listed somewhere on my mother’s chart! But I was so astonished at how they abruptly started (improperly) invoking HIPAA as a defense when I questioned how they were medicating my mother that I forgot all about the fact that they called me the day before.

Ida told me that she would have “Marie” contact me, although I wasn’t really clear who Marie was supposed to be. Then I was hurriedly rushed off the phone and told I’d be contacted soon.

Found Her on the Floor

July 7th, 2012 @ 11:50 am

At 11:48 am I saw that I had missed a call at 11:29 am from Woodland Terrace. There was a thirteen second voice mail from Sue-Lynn, who simply left her number as (386) 738-3433, said she was calling from Woodland Terrace, and asked me to return the call. She didn’t seem to indicate that there was any urgent need for me to call immediately, but of course I did.

Here is a transcript of the message:

Hi. My name is Sue-Lynn. I’m calling from Woodland Terrace. The number here is (386) 738-3433. If you can give me a call back it’d be much appreciated. Thank you.

I called Woodland Terrace at 11:50 am and had a fifteen minute call with Sue-Lynn. She told me that they had found my mom on the floor next to her bed that morning. Sue-Lynn said that they didn’t think my mom suffered any injuries, but they had performed several x-rays to make sure.

I did my best to quickly give Sue-Lynn a synopsis of my mom’s recent history, which was difficult because I had a very poor wireless connection at the time. Sue-Lynn asked if I’d like her to call me with the results of the x-rays even if they were fine and I told her that, yes, I would very much like to get confirmation that everything was okay. Sue-Lynn said that she understood, but nobody called at any point to tell me the results of the x-rays.

An Email from Halifax

July 6th, 2012 @ 11:49 am

I received an email from Marsha Porter <Marsha.Porter@halifax.org>, one of the discharge coordinators at Halifax Hospital:

Mr. David Gagne,

Per Jenna at DCF CARES, you need to google Florida Department of Elder Affairs 2040 form. Print form, then fax to 386-238-3199 attention Linda or Jenna. Please fax form as soon as possible.

This is the Name, Address and Phone number to Nursing Home: The Woodland Terrace 120 Chinola Ave, Deland Florida 32720; phone number is 386-738-3433.

The idea that anyone at the Florida Department of Elder Affairs is waiting for my consent to continue processing my mother’s Medicaid application is insulting and pathetic. I’ve talked to them well over a dozen times in the last eight months, so hearing from Marsha that they have no record of my mom on file is frustrating, to say the least.

It’s also beyond disgusting that the Florida Department of Children and Families would use the word “care” in their acronym.

Oh, and the address for Woodland Terrace is 120 Chipola Ave, not Chinola Ave.

Dr. Nasr Calls

July 5th, 2012 @ 10:00 am

Dr. Nasr called to let me know that he didn’t have any copies of mom’s test results because they were run in response to an error on the part of a Halifax Hospital employee and not someone from his practice. He said that he would call the hospital and that someone from Halifax would contact me to send me copies of the results.

Update: I received a call from Halifax four days later, on July 9th.