Pat QZ

Review of Hunterdon Healthcare

I've gone to Hunterdon Medical Center Emergency ro...

I've gone to Hunterdon Medical Center Emergency room twice in the past couple years - once for a fractured ankle (mid afternoon on a week day and they had no radiologist OR doctor to examine me - just a physician assistant who incorrectly diagnosed me with a sprain - I told him that I knew his diagnosis was wrong as I heard and felt the classic "pop" with instant swelling and couldn't put any weight on it immediately after). The radiologist read the x-ray the next day and confirmed my suspicion that I had an ankle fracture.
Second visit was for a hand laceration that happened outside. The examining room was not neat and tidy and didn't seem set up for sterile procedures. The nurse did not visibly sanitize his hands when he came into the room, and just put on gloves (now possibly contaminated) to touch and examine my open wound. The physician made a decision to have a derma-glue applied to the laceration to close it up ( I went to a dr I trusted the next day who had to remove (ouch!) the glue and open it up to prevent bacteria from growing and being trapped). They never even gave me any antibiotics but told me to follow up with a family dr in a day or two)! The nurse came into the room with a pre-filled large (?) syringe and a small vial of TDap vaccine and injected my arm for tetanus. Since it was filled before he came into the room, I don't know whether sterile protocol was followed - he could have filled it and put it down on a contaminated counter and then brought it in to inject me.
Bottom line, don't go here unless your life absolutely depends on it. They do not follow sterile protocol procedures nor, from my experience, are their emergency medical staff knowledgeable or well trained. My neighbor has confirmed her aversion to the hospital. Stay away.