Well,  just when Grandpa died you might have thought we were through with medical bureaucracy issues. From my last blog post you will remember Grandpa was ushered out of the hospital only to die within 2 hrs of discharge. This was orchestrated under the guise of hospice, but it was really a way to get him out of the hospital in time to prevent him dying there and  becoming a negative statistic for Kaiser Permanente.

When we went to make arrangements for Grandpa, we were questioned as to who was going to sign the death certificate. How would we know? Was there a problem?  Yes, there was. You see the doctor who saw Grandpa on the morning of his death did not want to sign the death certificate, because an ER doctor stopped by his room late afternoon to check on him. Since he was not the last physician to see Grandpa alive, he would not sign the death certificate. The ER doctor would not sign the death certificate for some reason which was never clearly explained to us. He was the last physician to see Grandpa alive. Next we were shoved off to hospice to have the hospice doctor sign the certificate.Since hospice was not at Grandpa’s home to evaluate Grandpa (although they had promised someone would be there to receive Grandpa when he was delivered home), which was not the case. By the time the hospice nurse arrived Grandpa was in the last hour of life and there was no evaluation done. Since he had not been evaluated by the hospice physician, the hospice physician  would not sign the death certificate as he had never seen Grandpa.  Well, this went on for two days until finally another physician from hospice signed the death certificate. He NEVER saw grandpa, so how could he sign the certificate attesting to a cause of death. Bureaucracy never ceases to amaze me.  Whatever is expeditious becomes permissible!!