When I found myself with a temperature of 103, abd...

When I found myself with a temperature of 103, abdominal pain that localized to the RLQ and bilateral back pain w/ CVA tenderness, myalgias and headache I chose to go to Methodist because of the reputation they have and expectation that I would receive good care. Also, my fiance and I are both physicians but we wanted some privacy and chose to not go to our own hospitals we work for.

Triage went fine, turns out I'm tachycardic, hypertensive and temp is still high. The ER doctor got a quick history, ordered some labs and imaging and said would put in nausea/pain meds. Now I am writhing in pain and couldn't sleep which is why I went to the hospital in the first place. I got moved to a room and the nurse was clearly in over her head, in fact she told me so and apologized for the "neglect" since she had so many other "really sick patients". I'm thinking, I only go to the hospital historically when I needed surgery so I'm feeling pretty sick myself.

They want to send me to CT but have misplaced the urine sample to test for pregnancy prior. I ask if I can get the pain meds the doctor said he ordered since I can't sit still, especially before imaging. She said she didn't think he ordered any and would have to ask. The doctor came in quickly pressed on my belly in the RLQ and I nearly jump off the table. He asks if I got the pain meds he ordered and I replied not yet.

He said they would evaluate me w/ CT for appendicitis vs. pyelonephritis and again said he would tell the nurse to get the pain meds. I go for CT after finally getting anything for pain when the nurse said "whoops didn't realize he put in meds". The ER doc eventually comes back and says well good news is you don't have appendicitis or pyelo and your urine results don't exactly explain how sick you look so do you want to be admitted or discharged with meds. I told him I prefer to be home and he said "ok great, that is easier for me". He said he will load me with IV antibiotics and send me home w/ scrips for outpatient treatment.

I also ask if I was flu tested because my son had the flu (and I work in the hospital so plenty of exposure). He replied the flu test was negative. I look over the test results on my DC summary and see no flu test ordered, clearly a lie since he didn't test me.

I then ask if the CT was non-contrast and he said yes. So I had not mentioned that I am a radiologist and my fiance accompanying me is pulmonary critical care physician and any radiologist would know that appendicitis and pyelonephritis are not excluded on a non-contrast CT so really they don't know.

I then asked if my blood and urine were going for culture bc the sample had been sitting on the counter for 6 hours. The nurse looks at me kind of dumbfounded and said well I don't think they ordered that or planning to send them.

While the nurse prepares to DC me, I ask for the CD for the CT and the nurse just replies you can get the report but that's it. We go around like this a few times when I reply I believe it is possible to get a disc or something with my CT on it and not just the report. She finally comes back and says ok it will be a few minutes. I eventually get the disc and she is taking out my IV. She then reviews the medications and is unfamiliar with them so tries to tell me the pyridium is for pain. I never said I had UTI symptoms though. I asked for a few days of meds to help with the back pain/spasm (which is what brought me to the hospital). At this point she realizes, whoops the doctor put in for IV antibiotics. Do you want to stay and get those? At this point I realize this is why patients complain about doctors and I can't disagree.

This was such a disappointing experience and in fact I would be embarrassed if this were my hospital. I expect to wait in the ER, not a big deal. What I do not expect is to be lied to about my test results, not get cultures sent per sepsis protocol or even antibiotics and "negleted" because they had "more sick patients".