The only reason I'm not leaving one star is because their care in the past has been good. That…read moresaid, if you have mental health issues, be prepared for it not to be taken into account when creating a care plan.
I was at St. Luke's in August of 2025, due to kicking a tile (unintentionally). It broke my toe, and required my entire nail to be removed. At the time, I was struggling through a major depressive episode and I missed my follow-ups, and it took me almost 15 days to finish a course of 10 days of antibiotics, largely due to them prescribing something that needed to be taken four times a day to someone with severe, well-documented memory issues due to Electroconvulsive Therapy.
My failure to follow the plan led to me getting the bone infected and amputation of the distal toe bone. I accept that it's largely my fault for not speaking up for myself, and advocating for myself. To this point, I didn't really have any major issues, despite the choice of QiD antibiotics.
When I was readmitted, my surgery was done on Thursday, September 11th, 2025. The very next morning, I was told I would be going home that day. I was stunned. No culture had come back on my toe (it eventually did come back with 5 strains, including MRSA), and I didn't really have a plan in place.
I expressed my concerns to the staff: depression and memory issues are what landed me in this situation, and I was asking for a few days more, or transfer to a SNF, or home visits from a nurse, or trips to a wound clinic, or literally any intervention that involved the presence of a healthcare professional.
At that time, the staff made me feel 10 inches tall, treating me like an invalid for being hesitant to go home, despite the risk I felt would cost me the rest of my toe/foot. Not one member of the staff was actually willing to go to bat for me, preferring to tell me there was zero chance insurance would accept, rather than even try.
I called my insurance (Wellpoint DSNP), and explained the situation. They told me that given my history, I absolutely would have been approved for some accommodation, if the doctors had taken the time to ask. According to my insurance's employee, my past history showed that not having an accommodation would potentially cost more.
My post-surgery instructions were to take my antibiotics, and rest it. No instructions on wrapping it up, or putting antibiotic ointment on it, or even instructions on how to rebandage to protect it from the 30 pets' (no, I'm not joking, we have 30 pets, all rescues) hair that could easily get into the wound and reinfect. A fact I made very clear to the staff.
I want to make sure that I put this all in one place like I did for the staff: My memory and depression are the reason my original plan failed. I live in an environment where I am surrounded by pet hair... even if our home is generally well-kept. I have family members at home, but they're disabled, and one of them is actually blind (my fiancé). As much as I love him, he would have no valuable input on the status of my toe, or even be able to assist with care.
Now we are to September 22nd. I had a visit with a doctor to look at the status of my toe on Friday the 19th, and during that visit, I was told that they do not remove the stitches in that office. THEY LET ME LEAVE THE HOSPITAL WITHOUT A PLAN TO GET THE STITCHES OUT. Reread that again. I could be another two weeks with the stitches and not one person from the hospital staff would have set up an appointment.
Thankfully, the University of Iowa exists. My doctors at the University will get me seen and take care of what St. Luke's was too lazy to set up.
Long story short: if you have mental health issues or need accommodations, find yourself another hospital. If you're in an emergency and have no other choice, don't tell them about your mental health, as you'll just be talked down to for it.
