Cathy Etter

Review of UW Health

Had my grandson in the UW Hospital Pediatric Emerg...

Had my grandson in the UW Hospital Pediatric Emergency Department on Sunday. I ve never seen such sub par care in my life! I am a nurse and a Director in an ED. If my staff behaved like the UW staff, they would be seeking employment opportunities elsewhere. After the initial check in for a seizure in an otherwise healthy 7 year old, it was 3 HOURS before anyone stepped foot in the room. That was a tech coming to check blood pressure. She wasn t exactly Kid oriented, never explaining anything despite my grandson saying it hurt and moving around. She should have told him something like holding still would make it go faster, pump up less drastically, etc. At hour 4, I went to the desk and asked for an update. I was told they were waited for neuro. Since when does an ED Provider NOT do basic medicine? There were no blood tests, no imaging like a CT, no anything. At 4 1/2 hours I requested the Provider come to the room for an update. When he did come in, he acted like we were annoying him and interrupting his time sitting in the nurses station talking. Every time I looked out of the room, staff were sitting and talking to each other. Now do not get me wrong...staff usually work hard and a little down time is needed. But this group sat for hours. We were finally told neuro would be there in 20-45 minutes. A Resident finally came in and basically did a few questions and a very simple neuro exam, which I had already done to prepare my grandson. When we asked the plan, testing, etc, we were told she needed to check with her Attending and she would be back. An hour later, no neuro resident , no nurse, no tech had entered the room. During all the time we waited, we asked at least 4 people if my grandson could have something to drink or eat. As a nurse, I know we are careful filling the stomach. But the neuro resident said there was no reason to withhold food and she would tell staff to get him something. At hour 5, no food or water, no staff in the room, my son went searching and found a refrigerator with ginger ale and a sandwhich. At hour 5 1/2, we decided to leave. I approached the desk and asked for AMA (against medical advise) paperwork. Miraculously, his primary nurse suddenly appeared, demanding to check his blood pressure. When I challenged her stating she was doing this to cover her own a$$, she turned to my son and said we should write a complaint because they always have this issue with neuro. I spoke up and stated the issue is not with neuro. It s with her! Not once in 5 hours did she ever reassess her patient. There was no hourly rounding, no poking her head in asking if he was ok or if we needed anything. No one ever came in to the room until I went to the desk to ask for an update. Everyone treated us like we were an inconvenience to them. When we arrived, we were the fourth patient on the board. They had no big emergencies during the time we were present. It wasn t until we left AMA did anyone bother to try and talk to us. We did leave, without signing the AMA paperwork or discharge instructions. This is an ED issues, and I am not the first one to have this same problem there. It is boardering on malpractice. I discussed this scenario with my own ED Providers, asking what would you do if.....and they all stated blood work and a CT scan. When I asked about this at UW, I was told we had to wait for neuro to decide what they wanted done. Seriously, when did the ED Providers at UW become prohibited from practicing medicine? Basic medical care, prudent medical care, evidence based practice, all indicate treating the patient, ruling out certain things with simple blood tests. For a world class pediatric ED, the care was less than medically acceptable and frustrating. What if I wasn t a nurse? A family without an advocate would sit there, unwatched, unobserved, uncared for until something horrendous happened. We could have left the department, shutting the curtain and door behind us and no one would even have known. UW is not a world class ED. It lacks empathy, compassion or caring.