Northwest Ohio Medicine, Inc. Drs. Phillip L. Horowitz, Allen L. Markowicz, Raymond E. Bourey LIFELONG FAMILY PHYSICIANS DROP PATIENTS WHO ARE NURSING HOME RESIDENTS; DROP FAMILY MEMBERS WHEN THEY COMPLAIN Toledo Ohio

My seriously ill mother was recently dumped by her team of physicians simply because they are tired of the inconveniences of dealing with her nursing home. They had heretofore been my heroes, treating her successfully for decades and extending her life beyond my expectations. Suddenly, they jettisoned her, (my notice was an impersonal letter) and then me (also a longtime patient) because I sent a letter of complaint. They simply told me to call the Academy of Medicine to get a list of new doctors.

Whatever happened to the concept of dedication, loyalty and lifelong bond established between patient and physician? Below read the heartfelt letter I sent to the doctors. I also filed a complaint with the Ohio State Medical Licensing Board.

Northwest Ohio Medicine, Inc.
Drs. Horowitz, Markowicz and Bourey

Dear Doctors,

I write to implore you to consider the plight of your longtime patient, my mother, and to reconsider your decision to discontinue caring for her. Your blanket policy of discontinuing care to all nursing home residents unfortunately impacts my mother (and, by extension, me) in the most serious way possible.

You have treated my mother successfully, to say the least, for decades. That you would jetison her now, at this stage in her life when she needs you most, is unthinkable to me. You are literally my peace of mind. Although I have long distrusted the entire medical community, you three physicians have stood apart as heroes (and I do not use that term lightly) to us both. To say that you have saved her life on occasions too numerous to count is an understatement.

In the decades of care you have provided her, you have extended and improved her life beyond my expectations. For this, you know that you have my deepest gratitude; however, if you were able to accept my continuing expressions of thanks and love in those previous decades, I believe you should, sadly, be able to bear my sincerest expressions of despair and desperation at these moments of abandonment and betrayal.

You alone have the most intimate knowledge of my mother's serious and complicated medical conditions, including CHF, stroke, breast cancer and bipolar disease. Even if another physician could be aprised of her conditions sufficiently (and please note that none I have contacted thus far are accepting new patients), none would be remotely acceptable to me at the time when she should find herself needing critical hospital care.

I would also like to remind Dr. Horowitz that at the time of my mother's first, and very serious heart attack, it was you who advised me to remove her from her apartment and place her in Darlington House. This I did immediately, with the understanding that she would still be receiving treatment from you all. The Jewish community has abandoned my mother through the sale of Darlington House and the quality of her care there has declined enormously. Now you have declined to treat her, and I feel particularly saddened and bitterly dismayed by our community's betrayal of its elderly. What would you have done, Dr. Horowitz, if your mother had faced similar circumstances?

As you know, my mother is quite ambulatory (thank you) and can still visit you in your offices. Whatever inconveniences you may have experienced due to nursing home protocols can be bypassed, I believe, by me, her closest local caregiver holding Power of Attorney. Those inconveniences to you are a matter of life and death to me. I ask that you at least discuss with me possible options for our circumventing the nursing home issues so that both you physicians and my mother and I can go forward for the remainder of her life.

As an added factor you might consider that I, too, receive primary medical care at your offices and have done so, gratefully, for years. As you may recall, my conditions include high blood pressure and depression, perhaps due at least in part to the long-term care of my mother and, recently, high stress.

I have lost weight, added Prozac and counseling as my treatment and am doing my part in my own health care; you must do yours. I can assure you that, with the need for me to change careers at age 50 due to circumstances at the University and the dissolution of a 23-year marital relationship, you have added yet another major stressor to a life already in crisis. I remind you that your decisions affect families, and their health. First, do no harm.

You will forgive me if I do not see my mother as simply one of your many nursing home patients, but as the dearest and most important person in my life. She is, in fact, the sole reason I have stayed in town for my adult life, in order to insure the very best care for her, compromising my own career. As her strongest patient advocate, I can only prevail upon you each personally to look inside yourselves and make a well-deserved exception to your policy in my mother's case. Certainly, desertion of long-term, dependent patients in the last stages of their lives was not the reason you become physicians.

Most sincerely,

Shelley
toledo, Ohio
U.S.A.