Why I Hate Hospitals!

wolfen

This is just my rant for today, and I know It is NOTHING compared to what some of you have gone through, but it makes me angry, nonetheless.

At 12:30 Tuesday morning, my son called me so sick he could barely talk. He had been vomiting and running to the bathroom for 6 hours nonstop and could not keep anything down. He thought he might have food poisoning. I got dressed and we picked him up and arrived at the hospital at 1 AM, got him in a wheelchair, and registered. A nurse took blood, put in a picc line, and moved him to a hallway between the two emg corriders. Many people, staff and patients, came and went from those corridors. No nurse ever checked on him. Two hours later, I found the nurse who had placed us there and asked her if I should begin making funeral arrangements or if someone could possibly see him. She told me the wait was because there were no clean rooms and couldn't give me an approximate time of how much longer we would have to wait. I relayed this info to my son, who was doubled over in pain and could not lay down in the NON RECLINING Recliner he had been left in. They had been kind enough to provide him with a blanket, so he said "the hell with this" and spread the blanket on the floor in the hallway and lay down on it in a fetal position.

WELL, THAT GOT THEIR ATTENTION!! Less than a minute later, 2 nurses came down the hall, and said "Oh, how are you feeling. We CAN'T have this. Let me make up this cot over here for you." Hubby said "Maybe if you are this busy, we should take him somewhere else." the male nurse responded, "You are free to take him anywhere you choose, sir. After all, he is the patient and the CUSTOMER." Gee, how refreshing to know that you are the CUSTOMER. I bit my tongue(Hubby did not), and told the nurse, we just needed some help for him.

Soon , he was moved into a room, 4 bags of fluid were given, and 3 anti-nausea shots. He could not be given anti cramping med because the last one he got caused a seizure.

During the next 7 hours, I had occasion to walk through the emg area a few times and noticed that all the empty rooms of the 50 total were dirty. I'm wondering whose job it is to keep these rooms clean and ready for emergency patients. Surely, not the nurses.
It is a shame that he had to lay on the floor to get any recognition.

I warned thxmiker about this hospital, and ONLY took my son there because it was an emergency and he lives a block from it. From now on, I will drive the 15 miles to a hospital that I know has the patient's welfare in mind and does not just consider him a CUSTOMER.

My son is feeling much better now. My rant is over. Thanks for listening.

Luv,

Wolfen

Lovekitties

Dear Wolfen
Wow...that is terrible! We think that our hospitals are a source of help in our time of need...obviously not all are based on your experience.

I am not sure I would be over the 'rant' just yet.

Seems to me that letters to the head of the hospital and the departments of health and whatever agency regulates hospitals should be sent.

Not having rooms cleaned to accept patients is inexcusable, and the attitude you got from the staff should not be tolerated.

Glad son is feeling much better and hope no emergency ever takes any of you there again.

Hugs,

Marie who loves kitties

LivinginNH

Dang, that's really awful.

Dang, that's really awful. You know, I bet the local newspaper might be interested to hear about your story, just a thought...

Take care,

Cyn

Annabelle41415

Horrible
That is just horrible how he was treated. You do have to wonder why the beds were not cleaned or if it was because it was the middle of the night and staff is lighter then - still there is no excuse for allowing him to be in so much pain for that long. Glad he is feeling better. Did they ever find out what was wrong with him?

Kim

jjaj133

I hope your son is feeling
I hope your son is feeling better & it was a stomach virus.
The more experience i have with hospitals the more I am afraid to go to them. I would write to the nursing supervisor and cc the head honcho. My husband was in the hospital was having severe pain and was informed the ONE dr. they had in house was also covering the emergency room!!! (3 am)
OMG!
Hugs,
Judy

MrsJP

")!!!!!!
Hey. So sorry to hear your son was so ill. It's sad to no that the bottom line is $$$$. So much for compassion and caring for the fellow being. Just wanted to let you no I work for a hospital, many positions, presently I bill insurance companies...but I have always considered my patients as patients---not customers as my higher ups refer them to. My motto is treat people as you would like to be treated....have compassion for one another...we need each other to make it threw the days, weeks, years ahead. It's not going to get easier....but we can get stonger. Demand better care and treatment. Write a letter to the administrator. If not for self gratification but to make sure this does not happen to the nest guy.!
Take Care.
jp

thxmiker

I am glad your son is OK!
WOW, I am glad your son is OK!

I would follow up with a call to the Hospital Administrator. I called one after a stay. She got a little rude to me. I told her, do not worry, the next time I hear about a lawsuit with these kind of issues, I will be on the list of witnesses to testify. She got a lot more civil to me. I had a meeting with the Nurses in charge of training and hopefully the issue has been addressed.

Best Always, mike

steveandnat

scarry going to hospital
It is a sad state of affairs when we dread going to the hospital. I have to be really desperate to go because you know it will be torture. Your experience is even going beyond bad. I'm glad your son is doing better. Jeff

wolfen

MrsJP said:

")!!!!!!
Hey. So sorry to hear your son was so ill. It's sad to no that the bottom line is $$$$. So much for compassion and caring for the fellow being. Just wanted to let you no I work for a hospital, many positions, presently I bill insurance companies...but I have always considered my patients as patients---not customers as my higher ups refer them to. My motto is treat people as you would like to be treated....have compassion for one another...we need each other to make it threw the days, weeks, years ahead. It's not going to get easier....but we can get stonger. Demand better care and treatment. Write a letter to the administrator. If not for self gratification but to make sure this does not happen to the nest guy.!
Take Care.
jp

Thanks Guys
Thanks for your support. I sat and stewed about this for 24 hours and then had to spit it out. I sent an email to the Director Of Nursing and asked her to forward it to the proper person since no email is given on the website for the patient advocate.

I should have known better than to use this hospital. My entire family and several friends have had many bad experiences there, but in an emergency, you always go for the closest place. Whenever, my husband and I choose a doctor for any ailment, we always make sure there is no affiliation with that hospital.

The diagnosis was unclear. Possible food poisoning or stomach virus. I just know he was one sick puppy. And all you mothers out there know "you don't mess with my kids" no matter how old they are. I had to jump on the nursing supervisor for JBG one time, because they left her in a dirty bed. But that's another story.

JP, you are so right about the money. And they also treat a young man differently if he has long hair and tatoos. No matter that he has a 4.0 college average and could probably run rings around most of us intellectually.

Okay, don't get me started!!!

The older I get, the less tolerant I am of stupidity.

Luv You Guys,

Wolfen

wolfen

steveandnat said:

scarry going to hospital
It is a sad state of affairs when we dread going to the hospital. I have to be really desperate to go because you know it will be torture. Your experience is even going beyond bad. I'm glad your son is doing better. Jeff

Thanks Mike And Jeff
Mike, now you know why I told you to stay away from Scottsdale-Osborn.

Jeff, I agree it's scary. You really don't know what to expect. But I also know that sometimes we have no choice, but I'll be sure to make a better choice of hospitals in the future.

Luv,

Wolfen

herdizziness

OMGosh
I loved your line about "making funeral arrangements", I think that's close to something I would have said, you go woman!!! Dang, a lot of hospitals are like that though unfortunately.
I remember when my son was 2 years old and we had fallen off of a hay wagon (he did that head throw thing backwards yanking me off of the hay and we both landed on pavement with me on top of him, talk about feeling like the worst mother of the year)and he had a broke collar bone, so we sat and sat and sat and sat and sat and sat..... waiting for his collar bone brace to be put on, that's all we were waiting for. He finally starts to cry and fuss and cry louder and a nurse comes running over to berate me for his loud crying, informing me I need to remove him from the ER waiting room as he was annoying the patients, well.... I did go off, and he had his collar brace within the next 5 minutes, so I understand what you went through, but it's just d@mn sad that your son had to go through that pain for a longer length of time needlessly.
Glad he is feeling better!!!!
Winter Marie

tommycat

Jeez!
One other person you may want to send a copy of your letter to is the PR person for the hospital---one thing a hospital hates is bad publicity. Even if this hospital is casual about their patient---excuse me, CUSTOMER---care, I bet they are not casual about their bottom l$$ine.
Sorry you had to go through all that.

Sundanceh

"Mama"
You made me laugh with this line..."making funeral arrangements" - laughed with you, not at you, LOL! I just had this image in my head.

I know what you mean about bad hospitals...I always told my onc, if I want to die, I would go to our city's local hospitals...but since I want a chance....I'm headin' thisssaway:)

I've told Kim in an emergency, I guess I'll go local...but ASAP...transfer me down to UTSW and I'll pay the "shipping & handling" charges.

I'm sorry about all of that and am glad things are on the upswing....yes, the older we get, the loss tolerant we all seem to be - or perhaps we just weary of negligence and incompetence.

Yeah, that must be it...that's the one:)

-Craig

wolfen

Sundanceh said:

"Mama"
You made me laugh with this line..."making funeral arrangements" - laughed with you, not at you, LOL! I just had this image in my head.

I know what you mean about bad hospitals...I always told my onc, if I want to die, I would go to our city's local hospitals...but since I want a chance....I'm headin' thisssaway:)

I've told Kim in an emergency, I guess I'll go local...but ASAP...transfer me down to UTSW and I'll pay the "shipping & handling" charges.

I'm sorry about all of that and am glad things are on the upswing....yes, the older we get, the loss tolerant we all seem to be - or perhaps we just weary of negligence and incompetence.

Yeah, that must be it...that's the one:)

-Craig

Short Update
I've been in email communication throughout the day with various hospital officials. The Associate Vice President would like to speak with us, so I'll set up an appointment sometime next week. I'm sure she will appreciate the picture I took of him laying on the floor. I'll let you know what happens.

Luv,

Wolfen

jjaj133

wolfen said:

Short Update
I've been in email communication throughout the day with various hospital officials. The Associate Vice President would like to speak with us, so I'll set up an appointment sometime next week. I'm sure she will appreciate the picture I took of him laying on the floor. I'll let you know what happens.

Luv,

Wolfen

woohooo. Hopefully some
woohooo. Hopefully some people are gonna get the butt kick they need.

good for you!!

Sonia32

Hugs
You rant away, glad he's feeling better.