R. Bennett

Review of Cartersville Medical Center

My daughter was brought to the hospital earlier to...

My daughter was brought to the hospital earlier today with a cough so severe she was nauseated. They checked for strep, said she was clean, told my husband it was probably just a virus and sent her home. I spoke with my mother and discovered that a family member who had been babysitting for us over the holidays was diagnosed today with pertussis, and we were told it was possible for a child to contract pertussis even with a recent vaccine, so he took her back to CMC and requested that they test her as all of her symptoms were consistent with the early stages, minus the distinctive "whooping" sound that, according to everything we've read and been told is not necessarily present in many early cases of the infection. CMC outright refused to test her. The PA apparently went back and debated it with others at the nurses' station and was overheard by the physician on duty who declined to get involved, and decided that even though my daughter's symptoms were consistent they just didn't want to test her because of the absence of the "whoop"...and apparently this PA wasn't sufficiently educated to realize that that particular symptom is by no means present all the time. My husband specifically requested that they test her and they again outright refused. He told them that if her symptoms persist we will take her to a hospital in Rome and request testing, and he asked for documentation which they refused to provide, citing HIPAA. I called and spoke to the supervisor on duty who fully agreed that yes, she should have been tested, particularly since she had been exposed and especially since the parent had requested testing multiple times. She said there was nothing that could be done for me and said she was only concerned about my daughter...yet no one at CMC's ER was concerned enough about my daughter to be thorough in their testing. This is an absolutely HORRIBLE hospital, and no matter how my daughter's case turns out I will be filing complaints. No one at this place really cares anything about patients at all and their policy is obviously to take as little time as possible with anyone who doesn't have private insurance. The PA who refused to do a simple test to help my daughter should be fired.