May 2010: I went to the hospital for pain from a gallstone--a simple thing to diagnose and treat, but Alameda Hospital almost killed me. Hospital management told me--and I quote: "You should have died. We don't know why you did not."
I was admitted to the Alameda ER summer for extreme abdominal pain. They ushered me into an operatory type room and pointed at a bed for me to get onto. It was dirty. Hair, etc. (FAIL #1) I was in such intense pain, however, that I simply put it out of my mind--I wanted to be seen! This is the same reason I went to Alameda Hospital in the first place---it's closer than Summit or Alta Bates and I couldn't imagine being driven any further in that pain! Despite almost hurling onto the ER doctor's chest as I pushed him out of the way to get to the sink, no one ever game me something to vomit into. (FAIL #2). Same doctor prescribed an overdose of a narcotic that is 10 times stronger than morphine (FAIL #3). Once stoned out of my head, I asked questions about the diagnostics they intended to do (CT Scan), whereupon the nurse lied to me about the radiation dosage (FAIL #4 [Alta Bates later confirmed the information as inaccurate]). When headed to and from the ER bed via gurney to the CT, no nurse assisted me in getting off or onto the gurney: I was left to flop on and off on my own (FAIL #5). The nurse who administered the overdose (FAL #6) left me to languish. Same nurse left me unobserved for hours, languishing (Fail #7). When a new nurse arrived for the next shift, she took one look at my stats and went into emergency mode to revive me yet the drug was wearing off and I was back in excruciating pain again---she was unable to give me more pain meds and I had to lie there for an hour in complete agony---worse than what I arrived with---while they pumped me and my blood pressure up with IV fluids (MASSIVE FAIL #8). The ER doctor sent me home with such an inadequate and wrong prescription that when the drugs administered in the ER wore off, my symptoms spiked worse than they had been before going to Alameda Hospital in the first place (FAIL #9). I was even more desperate for medical care and forced to return to an ER (FAIL #10). I chose Alta Bates---between leaving Alameda ER and getting seen at Alta Bates, I was in another 6 hours of excruciating pain which culminated in losing all my bodily functions while in public in the ER waiting room: 100% unnecessary pain, suffering, embarrassment and humiliation caused by Alameda Hospital's failures (FAIL #11). I was treated appropriately at Alta Bates whose staff was caring, cautious, and thorough, and whose facility was spotlessly clean; I was sent home with the information and correct meds to manage on my own until seeing my primary care physician at Alameda Family Practice. When I was seen by the AFP physician the next day, I reported my complaints about Alameda Hospital: he told me I was making him 'feel bad' about his hospital and he failed to report my complaints to the hospital (FAIL #12---he is legally obligated to report any complaint). I was sent for follow up diagnostics at Alameda Hospital: radiology screwed up the ultrasounds so badly that no one could read them; worse, no one told me they couldn't read them and asked me to return to get them redone, read, and diagnosed (FAIL#13). And finally: upon getting a copy of the ER report that day, the ER doctor's report was full of errors, even describing me as a child who arrived with my parent (I'm an adult who was with my husband)! I met with the head of the ER physicians and the head of the ER nurses; they confirmed all of these errors, and more. The quality assurance management person told me over the phone "you should have died; we don't know why you didn't". She also comped the entirely of my $10,000 bill.
When every interdependent team fails in an organization, it means the dysfunction is systemic, filtering down from the top. The confluence of multiple-team failures adds up to real risk to patients. AVOID ALAMEDA HOSPITAL AT ALL COSTS! read more