Ava W

Review of Sutter Medical Center Sacramen...

I brought my boyfriend into the ER here because he...

I brought my boyfriend into the ER here because he was feeling consistent discomfort for about a week in his lung/abdomen area. Not pain, but discomfort to the point that it was stressing him out and making it hard to do normal activities. Anyway, not sure if this was regular protocol and I just have high standards, but our experience here was terrible. First red flag was my boyfriend discussing his vitiligo with a "doctor" who didn't even know what it was. He literally said, "how do you spell that? Never heard of it." Ummmm are you serious? I honestly laughed in shock because I've never seen nor heard that type of thing from a doctor in my life. You are supposed to feel comforted knowing you're in the presence of a medical professional who has perfected his practice to a T. Not questioning whether he even knows what he's doing. He then proceeds to take his blood pressure THROUGH his thick sweatshirt sleeve, not asking him to remove it so he could wrap it on his bare arm. How are you supposed to get accurate vitals when the band is not even against your skin? Next doctor we went to for blood draw, LITERALLY did not say a SINGLE WORD from the moment we stepped in his office, he didn't say "So we're going to be drawing your blood" or "first I'm going to wipe your arm and insert the needle" or in anyway explaining what was going on, not even a hello or goodbye, not one word. He then proceeds to tie the string AROUND HIS SWEATSHIRT (to DRAW BLOOD) just like the last doctor did! He was very rough with my boyfriend and tied the string so tight that it pinched his skin THROUGH HIS SWEATSHIRT and left bruises!! Through his sweatshirt!!!! (I have pictures) Finally after waiting almost 2 hours (which is not at all why I'm upset, I know ERs get busy and hectic) this nurse walks in the waiting room FULL of people wheeling in a big vital machine to take his vitals again in front of a room of people. She then proceeds to talk openly and LOUDLY in front of everyone about him eating "boring foods," no spicy no alcohol or caffeine etc. Excuse me what happened to patient confidentiality?? It was so awkward sitting there having a private conversation announced to a room of 20 or-so people. I have the paperwork, they never gave him medicine or any advice on how to fix the discomfort except not to eat spicy food (which doesn't make sense because he felt discomfort in his lung? So how would that have anything to do with it? And if so could you give me a little more information or explain the problem?) overall there was never an official diagnosis, she literally never even told him what COULD have been wrong with him or what MIGHT have caused it. Nothing. We left with just as many questions as we came with. Oh, except that he, for some reason, can't eat spicy food. The whole experience felt very rushed and dismissive. I know they have much bigger problems to deal with in such a busy ER and I totally understand that, but people who come into an emergency room are scared and in a vulnerable state, they want to be helped and comforted, not rushed or have our problems minimized. Countless times he told them he had discomfort NOT PAIN and they still wrote in the paperwork "pain in lungs." So he is getting falsely diagnosed because we were being rushed? Another thing that was really outlandish/third-world to me, was that they had patients in their hospital beds IN THE HALLWAYS, like literally sick people coughing, laying down sleeping, or just looking overall unwell, laying right out in their beds in the hallway. Whether they were over-crowded or whatever the case was, I have NEVER seen anything like that in my entire life. The sick patients didn't have masks on or anything. I just couldn't believe that they would have sick/vulnerable patients out in the middle of the hallway for everyone to see, like a display. And also risk exposing everyone else to their germs or bacteria. I have never experienced a hospital visit even close to this in my life. I didn't even know it was possible for doctors to be unprofessional or "inexperienced."