Ask for a palliative care consultation. If the hospital does not have a formal palliative care service, request a consultation with an anesthesiologist. Nursing homes rarely have palliative care doctors or teams. The patient many need to be moved to a hospital to stabilize pain, or a consulting physician may be called into the nursing home. Doctors have an ethical obligation to refer a patient for consultation without abandoning the patient when the consult is completed.
Doctors have an ethical obligation to manage pain competently.
Take a copy of your complaint directly to the hospital medical director's office. In your complaint let the hospital know that you consider undertreatment of pain to be medical malpractice . A complaint form is available. If the patient's care is paid for by an HMO, add the state insurance commissioner to your list. Follow-up with formal complaints is covered in the next section.