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My brother is in a memory care facility. He is in a wheelchair, only with his left arm functioning. He suffers from memory loss and can do very little for himself. My question is this: My husband and I have medical POA for him. We are going out of town for a few days and have asked two people to be his patient advocates in case of an emergency and he has to go to the hospital. Because of his memory loss, he is not always accurate in his responses, especially when it comes to medical history, relaying events, etc. Because of HIPA, do we need to prepare a document giving the patient advocates permission to answer questions that the ER staff would ask him? We are not sure how to go about this since we do not want to give give up our POA rights by assigning them to a patient advocate, yet we do need the support when we cannot be present.

Wow. I would NOT do this.
You are out of town, not really on another planet with communications today. I would keep control of all this. How can these other parties conceivably make decisions in all of this?

Provide emergency numbers where you are.
Be certain that all necessary DNR/No Code, precluded heroic measures are listed and scanned to MD charts.
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Reply to AlvaDeer
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I agree with Alva (as usual), but I wanted to add that even as a POA you may not be legally entitled to assign anyone to take over your POS or health directive duties unless that person is already listed for health directives in your brother's will or estate plan. You should check with an Elder Law attorney to see if this would be considered legally negligent before assigning any duties to others that are not already listed.
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Reply to LostinPlace
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You are only going to be gone a few days - The facility can call you, face time you if you are needed. During covid I had to give verbal authorization for a procedure for my daddy when he had to have an operation because I was his medical POA, I did it via facetime.
I would not ask anyone to be a medical POA for a person who has memory loss and I would not accept it either.
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Reply to Ohwow323
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There is a form that can be filled out giving these people the ability to make decisions. While you are away, in an emergency.
I have to say though if I were in this situation and I was asked to step in in case of emergency i would feel uncomfortable making a decision without contacting you first. And I am sure that the facility or hospital would contact you before doing anything. (unless it were a true "life or death" decision and there were only minutes to spare. And while that makes for great TV it rarely happens in real life.
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Reply to Grandma1954
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Will you be somewhere that you cannot be contacted? If not, then just let the facility know you'll be out of town and to call you at the first sign of any issues. We're going overseas for 2 weeks, so having the same dilemma for 3 elders we manage... we just told them to call us any time of the day or night.
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Reply to Geaton777
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I frequently sent a paper in to my mom's facility indicating that my cousin would be her spokesperson. The letter went to the nurse
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Reply to MACinCT
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Where exactly are you going? Some uncharted desert isle with no contact with the outside world? North Korea? Surely someone will be able to contact you if there is an emergency…
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Reply to ZippyZee
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There is a real funny story about this I have to share. I placed my Husband in a MC facility while I went away. I told the facility that my sister would be the contact person and she could be contacted in case of emergency. (I was going out of the country and was not sure how my phone reception would be, but I would have access to email)
I was awakened by hotel staff that I had a phone call, it was an emergency and I was to contact my BIL.
I finally got hold of him and told him to authorize any treatment.
He did not have any other information other than the facility had contacted my sister and the facility doctor was concerned about some infection.
Well I was a nervous wreck for the next 14 days. I never heard anything more but in an email my BIL said everything was fine.
I got home...
My Husband was fine when I picked him up.
I got the bill a day or two later from the facility and the URGENT...EMERGENCY...that infection...Athletes foot!
So what the facility may see as an emergency or urgent might not be.
Don't stress about this, enjoy your time out of town. And if it is out of town not out of the country you can very easily be in contact with the facility.
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Reply to Grandma1954
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