Coming across inaccurate medical scenarios in books is common for me so to have one raise my ire enough to blog about it generally means a pretty big eye roll was involved when I read the passage.

Scenario: An elderly male dressed in sweats is found wandering the streets of New York in a confused state.

The author’s solution: The police take him to a nursing home.

Well, yea, just— no.

If police find an elderly male, let alone any confused individual, wandering the streets without any ID the first place that person is going is straight to the ER likely via ambulance.

The reason? One, is to make sure nothing medically is wrong. Chronic diseases such as dementia and Alzheimer’s are not the only reason the elderly people become confused. Something as simple as an electrolyte imbalance could be the cause. In any new onset confused state, other minor and major medical conditions need to be ruled out first. What might some of those be? Electrolyte imbalance. Brain Tumor. Stroke. Head Injury. Brain Bleed.

Secondly, there is not a nursing home in the United States that will take in an elderly person unknown to them without a medical evaluation first. Plus, do you know all that’s involved for nursing home admissions? A lot.

In this instance, if the patient is deemed to not have anything clearly medical (that could be fixed or treated) causing his confusion, then the hospital would involve the police and likely social services for placement.

But no drive by drop-offs at the nursing home.