Nursing Home

HRPager

When an Employee's parent is in the Nursing Home, what is "to care for an immediate family member (spouse, child, or parent) with a serious health condition" mean to qualify for FMLA?

I have an Employee whose mother's doctor signed certification paperwork because she is in the Nursing Home and may need her to care for her intermittently for the next 6-12 months. I'm not convinced her mother is in need of extra care that the Nursing Home can't provide right now. Can we question this certification or would you just accept it?

This employee has also been absent for most of the last 3 months due to a Workers Comp injury (in which the doctor released her to come back but she didn't feel ready so we made her use sick leave) and her own sicknesses, and is now out of all her vacation and sick leave so she reverted to FMLA.

Any Advice would be great appreciated!

KP68

Not that this will be much help, but in seminars I have taken on FMLA, I have been told by several employment law attorneys that FML to care for a family member is the most difficult to deny, because it's very broad and general and what are you going to do, send the employee's mother for a second opinion? Doubtful. (At least we have never done so).

But you do raise a good point about what the employee has to do to care for her mother that the nursing home can't do. And why should she be away from work if the reason is more for emotional support and for visiting? Can't she go after work?

I will be curious to know the outcome of this.

Rockie

HRPager:

Most important...if a doctor certifies that a family member is needed on an intermittent basis to care for someone in a nursing home or whatever, I'd not question it.

If anyone has ever had a relative in a nursing home or any healthcare facility for that matter, you can bet they don't get the attention they deserve. Staffing is low in a lot of cases and the quality of the employees might be less than desirable.

This is especially true of elderly patients who are basically in a helpless situation and can be neglected or taken advantage of easily. A good friend of mine recently went through this with her mom and she took time to show up unexpectedly either during lunch or before or after work....or sometimes even in between when the staff wasn't expecting her.

All this being said, in your case, I can understand your suspicions of this employee. Did this person use their WC leave in conjunction with FMLA? This should have burned up most of the FMLA available for the year.

HRPager

A good reason to be on a rolling calendar instead of calendar year like we are, which just started over July 1.

mushroomHR

I believe FML allows for "psychological comfort" of an immediate family member as well. Having gone through the nursing home thing with my own mother, these residents need all the psychological comfort they can get. Being in a nursing home isn't easy and I'd grant the leave.

deniseE

I have to agree....true...she will not have to attend to the cooking of meals and maybe the immediate cleaning of the living area...but residents of nursing home facilities still require care beyond the medical necessity. And the staff just can't do it all.

I understand the situation you're in with this particular employee...but the good news is that FMLA does not last forever....keep the documentation rolling and you'll be fine.

Don D

Also, remember that intermittent MUST BE negotiated with and approved BY the employeR. The ee cannot come and go at will and claim to be at the nursing home. I would work toward a structured approval of something like early morning or late afternoon and nail it down so that she is at work for your most critical demands.

You are also at liberty, under FMLA, to have the employee put in writing what it is she/he will be doing to care for the family member, although I don't know that I'd go there.

HRPager

What are you thoughts on this?

We would like her to schedule her absences 2 weeks in advance (if something drastic were to happen we would be flexible at that time, but right now her health is stable). We would also like her to provide a doctor's note that she was caring for her mother on those days. Are we stepping over our boundaries asking for these?

System

This is an emotionally charged situation where I would carefully consider the needs of the employee and the employer. I still believe I would get more details in reference to the doctor's note as to what is meant by intermittent care. Is it esential that the care given by your employee can only be provided during work hours? Why not in the evening? If the employee is absent a full day, is she at the nursing home for the whole day? Psychological support and emotional support are different. You're in bounds to ask a few more questions.

deniseE

The only other issue you may want to factor in is that not all nursing homes have a doctor on site every day. They may be on call for emergencies, but I don't think signing your ee's note will be an emergency.

However, most state regulations do require that visitor sign in and out. Perhaps you could require that she provide either a copy of the visitors log or have the Head Nurse sign the note?

The advance notice is fine, depending on her mother's condition...and the willingness to be flexible is a plus on both ends....

jrzgrl

You absolutely want to look into changing your policy to a rolling calendar year. Not only did she just start all over on July 1st, but you said the doctor certified this intermittent leave for six to *twelve* months - just in time for her leave balance to start all over again.

Don D

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 07-21-04 AT 09:00AM (CST)[/font][br][br]Our form, and probably most, right above the employee's signature has this statement: State the care you will give and the approximate times and durations of such care.

That puts the onus on her. If I were you and thought she was attempting to be manipulative with FMLA, to serve her own purposes, there is no end to the (legal) hoops I would jump her through.

We would have a long discussion about what she writes in that blank section and how she recommends the intermittent leave be set up to occur. With a strong preference/recommendation from the company that the visit either be early a.m., coupled with the noon hour, or the last thing at the end of her work day. I would absolutely not approve her leaving, say, at 1:30 not to return for the day, or coming in at 12:00.

The whole thing should spring off her answer to the question I cited above.

Down_the_Middle

KP68:
I'd probably go with the MD's cert and as Don suggested, work with the employee to find a mutual way to address her absence. Requesting to be off work for weeks at a time (full days) doesn't make sense to me, so some type of intermittent absence sounds practical and probably workable. Remembering that intermittent leave is intended for planned medical treatment or the recovery and that it requires employer agreement, I think you can interject enuf involvement to minimize the feeling of being victimized by the employees absence. You don't mention whether the nrg home admission is intended to be long-term or a short term recovery, so it's hard to understand how long your problem will last.......... Work with the employee and it'll be in your best interest every time.