Craig Hospital

"I cannot, in good conscience, recommend Hospital Craig, located in Colorado. My experience there was marked by insincerity, disrespect, and a lack of genuine care from the staff. From dismissive attitudes to misleading gestures, it's clear that patient and patient family needs is not a priority at this establishment."

"I am currently on the road to recovery and am on the mend from the oppression that I experienced from working here . I am very thankful that I am now working in a healthy work environment who respects all of their nurses, does not allow oppression in the workplace and teaches classes on inclusivity and equity. Now after this education, I am realizing how oppressive Craig hospital nursing department has become. The nursing department does not allow their nurses to have a break every 90 minutes when they are doing TPC with aggressive behavioral patients. That is what I received in an email from HR which came directly from the new nursing leadership. We are not allowed to turn down patents like we used to who we do not feel safe to work with doing TPC which is essentially, you are doing two jobs as the nurse and the tech with an aggressive TBI patient who most of the time are very strong male patients who have a history of punching a lot which is too much for anyone to do. We have had nurses and techs really hurt doing TPC and BA with not enough adequate support and Craig does nothing to change it or support their staff when they are hurt. This is not a safe place to work and they overwork the nurses which can put the patient in danger. Craig hospital used to not be like this and now they have new leadership which is very oppressive, not honest and is not safe. I was judged for practicing Hinduism and was told as a nurse by the new nursing leadership VP Derrek Hidalgo that I was a nurse and only a nurse and my job was to give meds and chart. That I thought I was better than everyone else and to go take my holistic nursing elsewhere when I spoke up for my patients and nurse staff safety. Craig used to be more diverse and empowered me when I was a young new nurse and it is sad to see that it has changed and is no longer like this. The doctors are absolutely wonderful and so are the OT. PT and ST. It is the nursing leadership that is the driving force of the hospital and it is sad to see how powerless and disempowering it has become. I am so thankful that I got out and am learning that there was nothing wrong with when I spoke up for my safety and the safety for the patients and for speaking up when I did. I am on the road to recovery. I am now with people who support me and empower me so that I can empower the people that I serve."

"A person walked in next to me asking if he could use the restroom and the person at the front desk wearing a maroon shirt with brown hair in a bun and tan skin tried to deny the man who had came in next to me the right to use the restroom, and as the man looked for the restroom she had rudely said to me. " I hope he's not homeless" It's very disgraceful to discriminate against people based on either their background or their financial situation . Furthermore I hope that she knows that it's a human right to use a restroom and It is against those human rights to deny any type of toiletry usage. If I was the homeless man, I would probably file a lawsuit, I expected better from this place and that they hold higher standards but it appears that my standards were too high It saddens me that she could be on a cell phone, not even paying attention to doing her job Yet she can judge so quickly"

"A top notch inpatient SCI rehab facility... BUT you must understand the nature of SCI and you must be polite to the incredibly hard-working staff. A few bits of advice if you're headed to Craig: 1. Try to make friends with other patients and their families 2. It's tough, but try not to fixate too much on regaining mobility 3. Try to get outside, even just to the roundabout/courtyard, every day 4. As a family member/caregiver, try to attend as many therapies as possible so you can learn, too 5. Set several SMALL goals and share them with the therapists-- write them on the whiteboard on your room 6. As a patient, push as hard as you can in therapies, but don't be afraid to take a rest day (even if the staff teases you for it) 7. Get the TSA cares information for any time you may need to fly 8. Take the secret tunnel to Swedish Hospital if you're not feeling the Craig cafeteria food 9. Try and do pool therapy ASAP 10. Join the (not Craig-affiliated) SCI discord (found through reddit on r/spinalcordinjuries) for patients and follow WAGS for caregivers The focus of Craig's SCI program is to prepare patients to live as independently as possible with their CURRENT level of ability. Therapies will focus on finding the right assistive technology, strengthening and stretching the muscles that are in voluntary control, and performing daily tasks despite new mobility restrictions. I will admit I don't have any other facilities to compare Craig to, but they negotiated with our insurance to make sure we were able to stay in their care until we were prepared enough and stable enough to leave. The expertise of the staff there is incredible, but the negotiation our social worker did was enough alone to make our stay worthwhile. Family members should try and attend therapies as much as possible (unless the patient requests otherwise). Being able to get guidance from the therapists and practice important skills together is absolutely invaluable. Be kind to the techs and nurses! Well, be kind to everyone. But the techs and nurses have all kinds of tips and tricks that they'll share if you express interest and haven't been giving them a hard time. The only faults of Craig are because of the constraints of our healthcare system. In a perfect world, patients would be able to get more sleep, take fewer laxatives, and stay in inpatient for longer. Because everyone on the team wants to maximize the patient's time in inpatient while insurance companies are trying to cut things short, that's not always possible. I sincerely hope that we find a way to restore full mobility, somehow, for everyone with an SCI in the near future. Until then, Craig will do everything they can to send you back home able to live as independently as possible."