Review of Rex Healthcare

3 years ago

ER

ER
I sustained an open tib /fib fracture and came to ER via ambulance. I was immediately placed in a bay and was greeted by a nurse. Dr arrived within ten minutes. Unfortunately, all the pain meds I had on board when they decided to attempt to reduce the fracture was fentanyl given in the ambulance. They decided to give morphine, but continued with manual traction and repositioning of broken bones to allow for a splint to be placed without waiting for the morphine to take effect. At least portable x-rays were performed immediately afterwards. My request for surgery to be delayed until the morning was taken into consideration even if the ER doc wasn't too impressed by my explanation that I didn't want emergency surgery by a surgeon who already had a 10+ hour day.
1.5 hours later they give me more pain meds (hydromorphone this time as apparently they recognized the morphine was insufficient), and after they took effect they irrigated the fracture site and try to reduce the fracture yet again. Still not enough pain meds to make tugging on and repositioning broken bones in a leg that is swelling about twice it's normal size tolerable, so sorry to anyone who was disturbing by my screaming.
Tl;dr- Was seen and treated immediately in ER, but at the expense of pain management. Redefined 10/10 pain for me and possibly those in surrounding bays.

6 West
I had great nurses, aids, techs, and housekeeping so idk where all these negative reviews are from. Everyone was great at explaining things, but sometimes didn't have accurate information from the drs/other departments/ ect. There was sometimes a 10 minute wait if call button was used around the hour mark & the nurse was busy with other patients. When I refused a Foley catheter at 2am and asked to have it placed closer to surgery, the nurse passed on my request without issues. Only issue I have is I was not allowed to shower before discharge, even though I was allowed to walk and the shower had the bench and handheld head that would have made showering there much safer.

Food
It's pretty terrible. Worse than public schools, college dorms & buffet restaurants. Additionally, there's very limited options, and lunch and dinner options are the same for that day since they're continuous service. The vegetarian options are pb&j or a salad, which is fewer and worse options than even most steakhouses.

Surgery
I met the night anesthesiologist when transferring from the ER, and saw both him and the day shift anesthesiologist in pre-op. Both were friendly, clearly explained their plans, and answered questions.The pre-op nurse was also friendly and helpful. However, I literally met the surgeon and was told what procedure he was going to perform and what hardware was going to be used when the anesthesiologist had to go find him so that I could sign the surgical release form prior to being sedated for surgery. The nurse asked if I would sign the release form stating that I had been told about the procedure, risks, and potential complications without actually meeting the surgeon and discussing it with him. I'm not sure if my expression or his own common sense had the anesthesiologist shutting down that suggestion real quick.

The post-op nurses weren't as personable and it was very tiring to hear them repeatedly tell another patient to not to get up/remove their IV as they were just getting out of surgery (about 15 times in a ten minute period). I wasn't monitored very closely, even though I received 3-4 pain meds in post op and my anesthetic regimen contained ketamine which is not reversible. Also, I was transferred between a few nurses when they were trying to figure out lunch breaks. I'm not sure I would trust loved ones to that lax monitoring, but it was good enough for me. Also, family members were not allowed in post-op at that time as a prisoner and two guards were there.

Overall
Public hospital full of bureaucracy and is short staffed and underfunded.