St. Joseph Hospital

"I have had a horrible, experience with St. Joe's. It began with severe headache and other symptoms which left me incapacitated for 3 weeks, unable to leave the house, in agony. I went to the ER three times due to the severity, I tried to follow up with my PCP, and all insisted it was a migraine and dismissed my concerns that I had giant cell arteritis, as I met the criteria and had several symptoms. GCA is a rheumatologic emergency and needs to be treated on an emergency basis. I had five months of absolute misery, during which time I had a hard time walking, among other ongoing and worsening symptoms, I was laughed at by an ER provider ("you're not in enough pain for GCA" - while I was at the ER for severe pain), my PCP ghosted me - he literally would not see me, nor would he return my calls, he didn't make referrals he told me he would make, he didn't communicate with other providers after telling me he would do so. I begged for help, which left me feeling so small, and in such a hopeless, dark place. Long story short, after five months, I insisted on the biopsy and sure enough, bilateral giant cell arteritis with known extracranial involvement in my larger arteries. And yet, my nightmare did not end here. No one called me with my biopsy results, rheumatologist was out on leave and no one was covering. It took me 30+ days to get in to see him after the diagnosis, which is outside of the American College of Rheumatology Guidelines; he had no treatment plan, was angry (very angry) with me when my disease did not follow the path he thought it should, nothing good to say except how horrible the drugs to treat this are and they were going to cause me so many health problems. My new PCP, whom my old PCP transferred me to in what he called a "safe hand off", was no help, and, when I filed a complaint with patient relations about the awful rheumatologist, the PCP office discharged me, as they said "due to your most recent complaint". I was left scared, alone, with no provider. Patient relations was no help, and instead risk management got involved, a very rude woman. And it doesn't end...I requested my records and they did not provide them. I called, and they did not provide them. Over and over. I was told I would get a call back, and I did not. One year later, they have yet to provide all of the records I requested. And on it goes...I disputed a bill, I was told someone would follow up with me...no one has...now they have sent this bill to two collection agencies. I was given an MRI for a kidney issue (???) with absolutely no indication that I had a kidney problem. Good lord. They should have done the cheaper MRI, which leads me to wonder if they were ordering unnecessary testing. I just want out of this nightmare experience. From the belittling attitude of the emergency providers and both PCPs, who treated me as though I was a difficult person, as though my concerns were not legitimate, as though I were seeking attention, even after I had the biopsy proven diagnosis. I am still battling this, and I have to wonder how the delay in treatment affected my ability to ever conquer this horrible disease, as I now know I will have the damage it caused for the rest of my life. I suffer from medical anxiety, I have no trust in medical providers, I have PTSD symptoms from what was the lowest, darkest and most demeaning time of my life, when I was sure I was going to die and not one physician would help me. These are new experiences for me and have left me feeling weak and fragile. I'm sure some people have had wonderful care, my former PCP was voted best of...and this left me so sad, because I had to switch to someone else due to his dismissive and demeaning treatment of me. It hurt to be treated this way by someone I once trusted so very much. Please St. Joseph's, do what you can to fix this. You have that power, you have all of the power, I just want to have this done and over with. The bill, the records, I need to move on from you. I am so tired and I still have a battle ahead of me."

"If you have other choices, do yourself a favor, and go somewhere else rather than here. The nursing staff is rude and uninformative. My sickly elderly dad is there and unfortunately I am an hour and a half away from him. I called in at 8 o’clock this morning to see how he was doing. Not sure who answered but she said you can’t talk to anyone they’re doing report. Doing report still at 8 AM when the shifts turn at 7 AM?? She said they’re still taking report and no one can tell you anything I said let me speak to the night nurse so I can see how his night went. She rudely and loudly said I told you they’re busy. Unnecessary!! Oh, another little tidbit. Yesterday when I was there the morning nurse was hanging and IV antibiotic. I asked her what it was for. She stated that on December 7th he had a chest x-ray and showed pneumonia. So on December 11 you just now hanging an antibiotic when he was diagnosed on the 7th!!!!! I do not believe he is safe there, and I am currently looking to transfer him somewhere else before he doesn’t walk out of there on his own"

"Came in with symptoms of a stroke or heart attack. Waited 10-15 minutes in waiting room. But once meet with nurses and doctors GREAT care, ran all test kept me for observation, food was good, nurses the best. Doctors professional, room spectacular. Got answers, called in any needed meds, contacted my doctor, set up follow up doctor appointment. Rate 10"

"Horrible hospital. My mom went for years complaining of stomach pains ended up finding out last year she had c diff the whole time made her look like she was crazy!!!! She had cancer and had sepsis (from radiation) or (possible c diff which she still had at the time of death) went to hospital complaining of her blood pressure they didn't find nothing week later she passed away in the icu. This hospital Doctors and nurses are lazy and just don't care. Same happened to my grandpa passing away!!! they left my son 3 hours with an huge open wound on his eye brow bleeding bad I was the one cleaning him up there, not them!!!! I got so much to say about this hospital. Southern is your best bet if you need actual care from people who care."

"My 80 yr old father was brought in by ambulance after falling, hitting his head, being knocked unconscious, resulting in an unstable fracture of his T6 vertebrae. They didn’t have the necessary MRI machine to accommodate the stimulator in his back. Bc of this they wouldn’t admit him and were keeping him in the ED until a room opened up at a hospital that had the MRI machine he needed. Today is his second day here and in the 8 hours I’ve been here not one nurse has come in to check on him wo being requested. We asked if we could give him his daily meds which were brought from home (high blood pressure and blood thinner). They said no bc they were going to order them from their pharmacy and didn’t want him double dosed. 4 times I asked for those meds and he never received them. Has not had his bedding changed and no one has checked to see if he needed to use the bathroom and no pain meds were given unless we asked. The majority of nurses were annoyed by our questions. )Nurse Stacy on his first morning was WONDERFUL). Other than that just terrible care!!"