We are 12 siblings, 1 has been given/obtained the authority of all medical decisions. Only that 1 sibling can obtain information in regards to my mother's health, state of being and is the only one allowed to see her in person at the hospital (now hospice). The rest of the siblings must get permission to see my mother through video chat or know the status of my mother by asking permission from that single sibling. There is no communication, and will only share information through a niece. 11 of us found out our mother had been discharged from hospital, almost 20 hours after. We then found out (through my niece) that we had 2 hours to see our mother before she would be taken to the hospice. My mother has been living with that one sibling for 1 year and 7 months, some siblings were allowed to visit but others were not because they felt my mother was being neglected by her. We want to know why she ended up in the hospital and why she's now in a hospice.
But just who / whom do you want action taken against? MPOA Sissy? The hospice group? The facility she currently is in? The hospital she was in (for records)? And what kind of action? Civil? criminal?
To become new “in charge person”, likely means filing for guardianship. Guardianship maybe 5-12k. & whomever is wanting to be named better be able to have sterling credit history & background on themselves and their household.
But imho you need to look at this from a bigger perspective:
Due to Covid, most facilities are either not allowing any inside visitors or limiting it to DPOA / MPOA with safety protocols.
If they are on hospice in a facility, and hospice has determined that the end is near, they usually allow for immediate family to visit briefly. For most, that’s maybe 2 or 3 kids or spouse and 2 kids. The patients in hospice are seriously ill, many immunocompromised, they have to limit all risk. 12 siblings wanting to be in the room or hanging about is not feasible even before Covid.
If it actually is 12 siblings that want to visit, that’s huge, HUGE, risk for any facility. I cannot see them allowing it. Maybe if you all can get same day Covid negative test and come in full head to toe PPE (all done at your expense too), and your mom is in an isolation room, maybe the 12 can visit for a few minutes individually on a set day.
The DPOA MPOA is serious legal document. If your mom did this, it was her intention to name Sissy.
To get it changed, you secure an elder law atty with guardianship experience to seek new guardianship for her in court.
If Sissy was named MPOA via a court order, I don’t see it being changed now as your moms on hospice so has been determined to probably have less than 6 months to live. She’s in hospice, make peace with her demise.
Please please realize as Your mom was hospitalized, there was an evaluation as to her health status upon admission. She had to be ill to get admitted. If she was picked up by EMS, they too did an evaluation. If any “suspected abuse” was notated, hospital staff & EMS are mandated reporters, so it would have been reported to APS. If there hasn’t been anything out of APS or social work Dept of the hospital after a few days of admit, realistically there wasn’t anything.
Kudos to the niece who is trying to appease all of you.
Medical powers of attorney are intended to address decision making, of the medical nature. Barring family members and parceling out information exceeds that authority.
What you might do is research, interview and select an elder law attorney to intercede on your behalf with the proxy under the POA. It should be someone with court experience in contested elder law issues.
The attorney might be able to negotiate visits, information release, etc. so that the rest of the family can visit, as it seems as though one person has established single rule and is sequestering your mother.
If an attorney finds grounds to do so, he/so could petition a court for injunctive relief forcing the proxy to provide the 11 siblings with information as defined by the court, as well as location and rights to visit.
This could be done either of 2 ways: (1) request for an immediate TRO to prevent the proxy from withholding information, or, and (2) court hearing at which the proxy would have to explain why information siblings need and desire is being withheld.
These would be the quicker actions; I suppose a suit could be filed but it would be costly, and if your mother is in hospice, may not happen quickly enough. A TRO is a more immediate action.