Carenote from W

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Which doctor has standing when hospice begins?

When hospice is called in, does the previous doctor have any standing? The hospice doctor ordered pain medication for my wife. The medication sat in the main office for many days before she was given a dose. I only found out two days earlier that it was sitting at the facility office. 

We were told that they were waiting orders from the primary care doctor. I thought the previous doctor was no longer my wife's doctor once we had called in hospice. No one in management at the facility ever told us about having the pain medication or expressed any concerns regarding their withholding it.

As a result I moved my wife to a different facility where she spent her last couple of weeks with minimal pain. Had management talked to us, we could have resolved it. As a result I filed a complaint with the state.

Should we have been asked about whether we wanted the previous doctor to stay on the case? The answer would have been NO. 

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