The best way to determine if a PCR test for COVID is a false positive is to ask what that cycle threshold was.
If it was 35 or above, more likely to be a false negative
If 30 or below, probably real, and the patient has asymptomatic COVID infection

Your fathers case is a typical example of what happens to elderly patients who often cannot hear and have difficulty communicating, and this is compounded by poorly coordinated medical care, and COVID isolation preventing family members from being in the room.

My suggestion is that you and your mom demand in the future daily phone calls with the physician in charge of his care.

Good luck in the future.

BTW, most likely cause of your dads urinary retention is prostate enlargement, which is usually benign

Flomax is a drug that often helps, my guess is this is most likely what the urologist will prescribe if it turns out to be the most likely cause

I'm a hospital nurse, working on and off Covid floors during the pandemic.

Unfortunately, your experience isn't unique. Care on Covid floors is often needlessly complicated, much of the time performed by contract nurses who work a lot of hours and who are not very invested in the local hospital. We had to weed through several who had no idea what they were doing. That's not to say all contract nurses are bad, as some of the best nurses I've ever worked with were working contracts, but it's a crapshoot.

There's also been a huge braindrain problem with older nurses leaving and experienced nurses going to work contracts, so in some places more care than ever is being performed by nurses with less than 2 years of experience, many of whom had their orientation and nursing clinical hours screwed up by the pandemic. It's dangerous to be in the hospital right now.

Combine all of that with isolation precautions and you have patients who just aren't being thoroughly assessed.

Quote:

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1. why did it take a urologist to order a catheter?

2. why were they not alarmed at lack of urine output enough for one of the docs to order the catheter? Were they not monitoring urine output?

3. How can my mom ask the right questions to ensure appropriate treatment while not allowed at the hospital and only participating via speaker phone?

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1. You don't need a urologist to order a catheter. Without seeing his chart, I have no idea why they waited for a urologist to order one. It's possible they didn't notice he was retaining until the urologist assessed him or they may have noted retention but were concerned about a difficult insertion. If it was just lab work that was off, not sure why they felt the need to consult urology and not nephrology. There's probably a piece of the story missing here.

2. Accurate I/O is a very important part of hospital nursing, especially in older adults. Urinary retention isn't that difficult to spot by a decent nurse, all it takes is someone paying attention to intake vs output or other symptoms like discomfort, frequent urination, etc. Assess your patient and do a bedside bladder scan. It's portable, non-invasive and does not require an MD order. However, there are people who retain yet still make urine and may not have significant symptoms. The I/O may have been lost in the shuffle or he may have been producing just enough where no one thought anything of it.

3. I know he's discharged now but posting this for others if needed. In my experience, the best way to get needs addressed with nurses is to be polite but thorough. Ask about plan of care, including lab results, scan results, new meds, therapy, etc. Best time to call from a nursing standpoint is going to be around 1030-11am or from 1-3. Going to be difficult to get anyone on the line at 7a/7p shift change or during 9a/9p med passes. Ask that the MD call when they round. They won't be able to give you a specific time, but make sure the nurses know the doctor needs to call family.

Make sure you've got him signed up for MyChart or whatever system Methodist uses. You should be able to see the MD notes and labs.