Inpatient vs Outpatient help

Hello everyone,

My father has early onset dementia and has Medicare + supplemental coverage. He was taken to ER after someone found him passed out on the ground outside his apartment. That has happened once prior in the last month and we were following up with a heart outpatient clinic per the last ER Doc's recommendation. Back to the ER call, he was in ER then admitted that night to stay overnight for observation. Overnight while in hospital care he had another fall and suffered 'a brain bleed' from the fall. Also during this time they determined his heart was stopping intermittently for several seconds causing him to pass out, so they scheduled a pacemaker to be installed. He has been in the trauma ICU now primarily because of the brain bleed but they say he will need to go though therapy etc. and be in the hospital for around a week. We're currently post-op and I haven't had a coherent conversation with him since he was brought to the ER. When he is awake, which is barely ever he is way off of his typical emotional and memory baseline.

During all this I get a call from someone with the hospital that informs me he is considered an Outpatient as opposed to an Inpatient. I have a vague idea of what this means. Should I be contesting with his patient advocate that he should be an inpatient? I really don't understand the difference and I have so much else going on it is hard for me to figure out what I should be doing half the time. Any help would be much appreciated.

Thank you,

submitted by /u/everheist
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