Seriously, there must be someplace, in our area, which is better then this "nightmare" on Earth.
With elderly parents, every couple of years, or so, it seems I have to bring one my loved ones to this facility. On every visit, it just get worse.
I must tell you that when you enter this place, you are entering at your own risk.
With that knowledge, please know, that you will be thought of as the enemy, by many, including an "uncaring, uninterested, hospitalist" , who, with ice cold formic acid, running through her veins, is attempting to mold young doctors, some still with impressionable beating hearts - into soulless mutants. (I was told this is a training hospital - which is incomprehensible.) Our hospitalist was Dr. S. (Personally, I would choose my mechanic over her to treat me, if I could. He is a diagnostician but he, unlike she, has sympathy an empathy for the one in need. My mechanic treats my old car with respect, Dr. S. did not offer that to my elderly family member.)
While are St. John's, you will have to deal with the underhanded social workers who will try to obscure your rights are a patient, while attempting to indicate that they have your family member's best interest at heart. In reality, they, like the hospitalist, only care about the hospital's agenda, which is to make money. Your loved one's health and safety is not a priority, and if anything good comes out of your experience at St. John's, you will have beat the odds and you should seriously consider playing Lotto- ASAP- you are the lucky one!
At St. John's you will have to deal with the whole infection epidemic in our hospitals. Now, I am not an epidemiologist but watching nurses, with ungloved hands, dispense and handling medications, made me think of a sick game of "Infection Roulette." I cringed when I saw an aide attempting to reuse a bed pan that sat on the bathroom floor, face down, - a certain way to create a UTI in a patient. I saw some very creepy ways to transmit infections, very preventable. If people in the healthcare industry can not use common sense, and want to put peoples lives unnecessarily at risk, then please Medical Industry stop blaming the antibiotics.
In closing, my family member and I barely survived our most recent experience at St. John's Riverside Hospital. The "discharge planning" portion of this event was very stressful. We were told at 1:15 on the day out our dismissal that our stay was over. No heads up, no real planning, no discussion of how the patient actually feels. We were told it was time to leave, our stay was over. My family member was not ok but they did not care. (Still since we were both still alive, I thought we should get out while we still could........)
I have never had a good experience at this St John's Riverside Hospital, but somehow, I wound up back there again. I will try to never go back again. (I will handwrite this sentence - 100 times over, just as a reminder.) It is not the Mayo Clinic.
PS: In defense of the hospital, some very decent, hardworking, nurses and aides. (Very understaffed.)
PSS: I couldn't write about our ER experience....it's still too painful! read more
