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Overall a poor and regrettable visit for my wife. ...

Overall a poor and regrettable visit for my wife. That said, the nursing staff of the cardiac care unit is outstanding and caring. Beyond that, this place is a disaster. My wife had been diagnosed with a secundum atrial septal defect (ASD). After an uneventful visit for a transesophageal echocardiogram (TEE) to assess and measure my wife's heart defect, everything went downhill from there. The first time the repair procedure was scheduled, the procedure was cancelled as they were wheeling my wife into the cath lab - the doctor did not arrange for the proper size implantation device to be on hand. Insurance was billed for this failed attempt. On the second attempt the next week, my wife was being wheeled into the lab without the doctor even stopping in to visit her. We overheard him in the hallway telling the nurses that my wife would be staying overnight after he had repeatedly assured us that this was an outpatient procedure. The nurses informed us after the procedure that this procedure had never been performed before at HCA Tomball. The doctor did not stop to talk to my wife after the procedure, despite this being the first time this procedure was ever done at HCA Tomball. The intermediate care nurses were inattentive - fortunately the techs working for them were more caring and detail oriented. The next morning during rounds, the nurse's report on my wife to the oncoming nurse was "same old, same old" - not very medically accurate or professional, considering my wife was monitored with telemetry the entire time. Her cardiologist, actually ANY doctor (another cardiologist, a hospitalist) could not be bothered to come to see my wife to assess her recovery and give her detailed aftercare instructions specific to the procedure. As my wife and I are both medical professionals, we found aftercare recommendations for the procedure online from professional journals, and these recommendations were much more specific and aggressive than those my wife was given at HCA Tomball. We are seeking a second opinion from an interventional cardiologist not affiliated with HCA and hope and pray that the inattentive care provided for my wife does not result in life long effects on her health. Furthermore, I am changing my primary care physician because of his recommendation of this cardiologist and HCA Tomball.

As an update to my review 2 months ago, I want to thank HCA Tomball for reaching out to us personally and getting details on our experience. They conducted a further review and showed sincere interest in improving their service. Now that time has passed, I would place most of the responsibility for the poor care my wife received on her lead cardiologist, who was new to HCA Tomball. I hope his performance hasn't left a poor impression on all the dedicated staff that have worked years for this facility.

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