Not the only one...
Several years ago, I was having chest pain. It was a Friday evening and I was getting ready to fix dinner.
"How 'bout we go to the ER?" P__ asked. I agreed and told my younger two, both in their 20s, that they shouldgo ahead and fix themselves something to eat.
Since Northside Hospital was the closest one, P__ drove me there. As soon as I signed in, I told the triage nurse that I was having chest pain.
"Okay. Go have a seat. We'll call you."
"But I think I may be having a heart attack."
Not even a look up as the nurse reiterated, "Fine. Now, go sit down. We'll call you."
Several minutes later, a young man on crutches was called in. I looked at P__ quizzically. Someone on crutches called in before a possible heart attack?
An hour passed, during which time, P__ and I talked to the triage nurse several times; we were told we had to "wait your turn." One woman, who'd arrived before us, mentioned that an elderly woman had waited an hour and had been taken in just before we arrived. The elderly woman had been brought in by ambulance for a heart attack. "According to someone who was here when she came in, she only had to wait an hour before being brought back," the woman told me. The elderly woman later died. Did the wait kill her? Possibly; we'll never know.
In the end, I waited an hour-and-a-half. It might have been longer, but several people ahead of me, angry that a possible heart attack had to "sit down and wait", told the triage nurse to take me next. Pathetic that several lay-people had more medical common sense than a triage nurse in an Emergency Room.
At the other end of the spectrum, I brought P__ to Bayfront Medical Center for a heart attack in early 2005. I took P__ by cab, as I didn't want him/her to wait forever in Northside. From the time I signed him/her in and the time s/he was brought back was less than five minutes. Was Bayfront's ER empty? Hardly. There were probably 10-15 people waiting to be seen. But while Northside ER's protocal seems to be a "what-your-turn" attitude, Bayfront's is truly one of Triage: critical patients are seen ahead of less critical ones; chest pain trumps sprained ankles any day of the week, any time of day.
Since what turned out to be my non-heart attack, I have become a magnet for horror stories about Northside.
1. Jack P., one of my neighbors, went to Northside by ambulance for a heart attack. He went into full cardiac arrest twice on the way to the ER. There, a nurse put a shunt into Jack's arm and gave him some morphine. "As soon as you wake up from this, we'll take care of you," she told him. When he woke up an hour later, he was laying in a pool of his own blood; the nurse had forgotten to cap the shunt. When he managed to get her attention, she came over and stated, "Oh, it's a good thing I saw this. A little while longer, you might've died!" It was another hour before they started work on him. This, on someone who had two cardiac incidents on the way to the hospital!
2. Jack's mother also was a patient in Northside. She went in for relatively minor problems and came out with, among other problems, a systemic staph infection and pneumonia.
3. A cab driver who picked my son and me up a year ago stated he was back after being in the hospital for several weeks. "My doctor sent me to Northside. I guess they were okay. Of course, I did have to wait six hours in the ER." What was he in for, I wondered. "I was throwing up blood. They had to empty one of their trash cans a couple of times while I waited in the ER because of the blood." While he waited six hours!!!
4. Another driver who knew both P__ and me told me last week that his father went into Northside with breathing problems; N.side's incompetence nearly killed his dad.
Little wonder that I wanted to take P__ to Bayfront instead of Northside.
I did contact the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration. They were able to confirm most of my complaints from P__'s stay there. On one of the two complaints that they could not confirm, I have witnesses: the cab driver who came to pick us up when P__ was discharged, and the run sheet from the responding Fire Department (as a result of calling 911 when P__ collapsed).
I will not be silenced. I will be heard. And I will do so legally, as that is the way to see a moral win here.
But then, I'm sure that, as a for-profit HCA hospital, Northside knows nothing about morals.
"How 'bout we go to the ER?" P__ asked. I agreed and told my younger two, both in their 20s, that they shouldgo ahead and fix themselves something to eat.
Since Northside Hospital was the closest one, P__ drove me there. As soon as I signed in, I told the triage nurse that I was having chest pain.
"Okay. Go have a seat. We'll call you."
"But I think I may be having a heart attack."
Not even a look up as the nurse reiterated, "Fine. Now, go sit down. We'll call you."
Several minutes later, a young man on crutches was called in. I looked at P__ quizzically. Someone on crutches called in before a possible heart attack?
An hour passed, during which time, P__ and I talked to the triage nurse several times; we were told we had to "wait your turn." One woman, who'd arrived before us, mentioned that an elderly woman had waited an hour and had been taken in just before we arrived. The elderly woman had been brought in by ambulance for a heart attack. "According to someone who was here when she came in, she only had to wait an hour before being brought back," the woman told me. The elderly woman later died. Did the wait kill her? Possibly; we'll never know.
In the end, I waited an hour-and-a-half. It might have been longer, but several people ahead of me, angry that a possible heart attack had to "sit down and wait", told the triage nurse to take me next. Pathetic that several lay-people had more medical common sense than a triage nurse in an Emergency Room.
At the other end of the spectrum, I brought P__ to Bayfront Medical Center for a heart attack in early 2005. I took P__ by cab, as I didn't want him/her to wait forever in Northside. From the time I signed him/her in and the time s/he was brought back was less than five minutes. Was Bayfront's ER empty? Hardly. There were probably 10-15 people waiting to be seen. But while Northside ER's protocal seems to be a "what-your-turn" attitude, Bayfront's is truly one of Triage: critical patients are seen ahead of less critical ones; chest pain trumps sprained ankles any day of the week, any time of day.
Since what turned out to be my non-heart attack, I have become a magnet for horror stories about Northside.
1. Jack P., one of my neighbors, went to Northside by ambulance for a heart attack. He went into full cardiac arrest twice on the way to the ER. There, a nurse put a shunt into Jack's arm and gave him some morphine. "As soon as you wake up from this, we'll take care of you," she told him. When he woke up an hour later, he was laying in a pool of his own blood; the nurse had forgotten to cap the shunt. When he managed to get her attention, she came over and stated, "Oh, it's a good thing I saw this. A little while longer, you might've died!" It was another hour before they started work on him. This, on someone who had two cardiac incidents on the way to the hospital!
2. Jack's mother also was a patient in Northside. She went in for relatively minor problems and came out with, among other problems, a systemic staph infection and pneumonia.
3. A cab driver who picked my son and me up a year ago stated he was back after being in the hospital for several weeks. "My doctor sent me to Northside. I guess they were okay. Of course, I did have to wait six hours in the ER." What was he in for, I wondered. "I was throwing up blood. They had to empty one of their trash cans a couple of times while I waited in the ER because of the blood." While he waited six hours!!!
4. Another driver who knew both P__ and me told me last week that his father went into Northside with breathing problems; N.side's incompetence nearly killed his dad.
Little wonder that I wanted to take P__ to Bayfront instead of Northside.
I did contact the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration. They were able to confirm most of my complaints from P__'s stay there. On one of the two complaints that they could not confirm, I have witnesses: the cab driver who came to pick us up when P__ was discharged, and the run sheet from the responding Fire Department (as a result of calling 911 when P__ collapsed).
I will not be silenced. I will be heard. And I will do so legally, as that is the way to see a moral win here.
But then, I'm sure that, as a for-profit HCA hospital, Northside knows nothing about morals.
Labels: Horrible Hospitals, hospitals to steer clear of, Northside Hospital (Tampa Bay), Northside Hospital Problems, Problem Tampa Bay Hospitals
posted by feminist writer - Robin Shwedo | 3:33 PM
1 Comments:
My brother had colon cancer and had surgery at Northside. The second night after his surgery they placed a man in his room who had not had a bowel movement for days. They gave the patient an enema and the patient went all over the room. My brother told me there was feces on the curtain the floor everywhere.
I'm sorry to say that he ended up with an infection and pockets of puss throughout his body. So much for a clean room after surgery. He never improved, he was definitely in a weakened state after that and passed away.
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