Fog Hazard

Review of Southern New Hampshire Medical...

tl;dr: Rude ER staff kept us waiting six and a hal...

tl;dr: Rude ER staff kept us waiting six and a half hours while a worker playing Pokemon on her Nintendo Switch did not bother to get a wheelchair for a patient who could not walk.

My wife had been operated on for plantar fasciitis this past Friday. I would like to say now that Friday s surgery went very swiftly and was completed by kind and caring professionals in the same building (which at this point is hard to believe). Two days later, she began feeling her calf was tender to the touch. The on-call doc recommended she go to the Nashua Southern New Hampshire Medical Center ER to get checked for a potential blood clot. We arrived around 2:00 PM.

The PA put in the order for the ultrasound at 3:47 PM. It seemed the staff thought we were hard of hearing, as all they were talking loudly and frequently like this was some sort of social event. Nothing work-related. We waited roughly an hour with no contact from anyone and were starting to wonder if we were forgotten about. From this point on, we waited patiently until 5:15 PM before asking for a wheelchair so I could bring my wife to the restroom. She tried getting up on her own, but the pain was too great for her because her pain meds had worn off by now. The ER nurse said You can t walk there? Didn t you walk in here? My wife was embarrassed to admit her meds wore off and the triage nurse we saw initially said DO NOT take anything before the ultrasound. The ER nurse replies OH that s just for belly ultrasounds , this one it s fine.

Eventually, the ER nurse admitted I m not sure why your ultrasound isn t ready yet , and someone started bickering with her and shouted WELL NO ONE TOLD ME TO CONTACT THEM! The one shouting, Kelly, began accusing others on her team and other teams of who was supposed to do what and said it s not her fault repeatedly. The ultrasound tech had apparently left. Throughout all of this we did not get an apology or even hear the words I m sorry from anyone in this office.

Finally, around 6:50 PM, she was seen for the ultrasound by some one on-call. She asked the ER nurse if I could go with her, to which the ER nurse quickly objected OH no, males can t go into the ultrasound area unless they may be an expecting father. Do YOU have to worry about that? I get the attempt to lighten things, but this legitimately made her and me uncomfortable.

While waiting, I noticed at one point one of the guys at the desk glared at me and must have mentioned something to someone. No one bothered to talk to me or apologize for the inconvenience, but were fine with talking about me behind my back.

The PA told us It s not a blood clot, so that s good." I followed up asking what it was to which we got the reply oh, we dunno. I thought this was a joke. The PA then openly admitted he had never even heard of this, even though the procedure was done in the same building just days before.

By this point, we were unsure if we were supposed to leave or if we were waiting for a nurse, so I asked for clarification. I was interrupted by the PA with YEP YEP she ll be in to read you- you know what I ll come in and do it and as soon as he enters he changes how he s speaking to a nicer tone and apologizes directly and condescendingly to my wife. While all of this was happening, the accusatory worker, Kelly, was playing Pokemon on her Nintendo Switch. I can t make this up.

A guy at the desk gets the wheelchair and tells me Okay I ll wheel her out front while you get the car to which I agreed and thanked him. I escorted them to the entrance and he said he d be there with her to bring her out when I pulled around. Well, he abandoned her and asked some security guards to do it, who said they would. They did nothing. I found this out after I helped her to the car.

We ended up leaving at 8:15 PM. This entire visit was disheartening, troubling, and down-right insulting to say the least. I sincerely hope the hospital cares enough to read this feedback.

I had to fiercely amend my review due to Google s character limit. There are many more details.