The Hospital Bed

Today’s adventure, so far, has been to order a hospital bed for my mother’s home. Her bed is too low to the ground for her to get into safely, and there are no railings to keep her securely in the bed at night when she is apt to want to wander. Plus, there are times when she needs either her head or feet (or both) elevated.

To order a bed, I called the company that supplied my mother’s oxygen tank, New York Home Healthcare Equipment, because they have her insurance information on file. Happily, Alice had this information handy-I had no idea where the tank came from. My mother has Medicare and a wrap around policy to cover what Medicare will not cover. Thankfully, my mother set that up herself years ago.

The representative at the company told me that her doctor will have to call in the prescription and:

•    ask for a hospital bed
•    submit a diagnosis code
•            indicate a ‘lifetime’ need

Once they receive this information, the company will verify the secondary insurance coverage and then arrange to deliver the bed.

This is great and relatively simple. What is more challenging is the idea of dismantling and removing my mother’s king-sized bed which she has had for years and that my father made by hand himself. Add to that the fact that 1) I have no place to put this handmade bed, 2) we are supposed to be going on vacation this week, leaving Friday and 3) there is no way in hell that my mother will accept this new bed or allow us to remove her old bed.

I'll keep posting…