John Albers

Review of Indian River Medical Center Fo...

This is in reference to the behavioral health cent...

This is in reference to the behavioral health center only, as the actual hospital is an entirely different subject. The front desk people are loud, incompetent, and either stole or lost my possessions. It was pitifully easy to escape their "quiet room" on multiple occasions, and in the course of just a two-day stay I was able to amass an entire drawer full of contraband and weapons with which I could harm myself or others should I choose to do so. The actual RNs are overworked but genuinely try hard, which is difficult for them and everyone else in cases where dementia or Alzheimer's is concerned.

Their psychiatrists are a joke. The first, Dr. Hebig, prescribes ECT for the vast majority of cases that cross his desk; no great surprise when you take into account that he has a vested interest in the local ECT clinic. Dr. Kent, to whom I spoke most often, wanted me to pray with her several times and directed me to a number of paid programs focusing on meditation and pain-management which have been disproven as quackery on many, many occasions. Though still focused on suicidal behavior, they discharged me on the basis that there was nothing they could do for me further. Upon my discharge, the administrative nurse finally filled out all the paperwork she should've done when I arrived and then handed me their booklets with treatment plans, rules, regs, etc that would've been of use when I first got there.

Finally, the facility itself is falling apart. It reeks of neglect and abandonment, and if you weren't mentally ill going in, you sure would be coming out.