4 years ago
We took my mother here for a severe knee injury to...
We took my mother here for a severe knee injury today, and I am absolutely APPALLED by how she and I were treated by the staff. She was saddled with an incredibly rude nurse (unfortunately, I didn't get his name) who didn't care to give us the time of day, let alone manners or anything resembling human decency. We were forced to wait a ridiculous amount of time in triage and neglected by the nurse, who when my mother went outside to have a cigarette, laughed and said condescendingly that "she shouldn't be doing that anyway, it's so unhealthy" as if he doesn't understand the concept of an addiction. Even worse, he said it right outside the curtain where I, her daughter was sitting. I was then moved back to the waiting room to sit alone with no word on where my mom was for...an hour and a half. He also constantly harped on us about how "swamped" they were -- I swear to God, I heard him say that ten times over the course of our visit. The doctor was kind and helpful, the nurse? Not at all. At the end of the visit he gave her a knee brace about 10x her size and told her "it won't fit, but take it home anyway" and "I /could/ look for a smaller one, but we're soooo swamped right now". I understand being busy, and I sympathize completely, but last time I checked, you weren't supposed to use that to guilt trip your patients? Hmm. I also couldn't help but notice that the care went downhill as soon as the nurse found out that we no longer had insurance, which I thought was...concerning, to say the least.
Oh, yeah! Honorable mention: The sinks were really, really gross and unclean. There was a chewed piece of gum in one and dirt smeared on another, and it just seemed unsanitary. (if you're wondering if I'm exaggerating, I have pictures.)
I'm not trying to be uncivil, but I'm so frustrated by this experience. When you go to the hospital you expect to be cared about and cared for in a time of pain and need, and it added onto an already awful day when that was the opposite of what we got. I was unsettled by the lack of compassion from certain staff members and I doubt we'll be coming here again.
(Thank you very much to the staff members who were kind and genuine to us -- it meant a lot.)