Thanks.HIPAA laws suck in that circumstance. It's amazing how often the POA thing is not remembered. Truly very sorry to hear about your struggles. Dementia sucks. My mom refuses to take medications. Dad doesn't want to upset her. Her neurologist told her last fall there's nothing more that can be done and only she could help slow the process by: exercising, regularly taking her medications, socializing and doing brain exercises. She nodded her head, went home and did nothing. My sister and I have researched a lot about the progress of dementia and tried to get my parents to start being proactive instead of reactive, but it falls on deaf ears. At some point we (my sister and I) had to come to terms with the fact there's only so much we can do until they get to a point they're willing to change or we are legally able to change things. It's hard.
I'm pretty sure HIPAA doesn't preclude sharing that information with the residential care center though.
Also, the hospital was sharing all of her other medical information with my sister that would have been HIPAA protected. They just didn't include this (pretty important) little nugget.