Presbyterian Downtown Hospital 156 William Street, Manhattan, New York 10038

"The emergency room is obstruction. Patients are left unattended. Kept for observation, but not one check on them and you have to call for the doctor, because of the long wait, instead of being taken care of."

"I accompanied my husband to NY Presbyterian Downtown Hospital ER on a recent Wed evening. We were amazed how professional the medical staff was! We were treated wonderfully and were truly impressed with this Hospital!"

"Being it’s during COVID, there were minimal people at the ER Dept. I arrived, triage and into a bed very quickly to address my emergency situation. Note that there was only one person ahead of me when I arrived in the waiting area. I was placed into an room with curtains as door and all the procedure was done very efficiently and was seen my a doctor very soon. The was very attentive, asked all the necessary question and address my concern effective. MRI was done and amazes me the advancement on medical tech. I did not need to get out of bed or move as they brought a portable X-ray machine to do my X-ray. I didn’t even have to move as they did everything whilst I was in bed. Absolutely awesome. Eventually, I was administer for emergency surgery. I was brought up to my room. It wasn’t a shared room. I either was lucky or it’s the COVID protocol. The room was very clean, comfortable. Heated bathroom floor and even come with a toiletries kit that have sleep mask, ear plus, hair brush, body wash, shampoo, conditioner, body lotion and alcohol free mouth wash! My bed was fully adjustable. The bed was like being on a Biz class seat on a plane but more comfortable and wider. The nurses and pre-op team were all amazing. Especially double kudos to the whole nursing team as well as the patient services team and managers. I am not sure if I got extra attention or it’s just how good they are. On the 1st night there was some difficulty in getting my med and possible confusion or communication error. It became a big issue that got elevated to the Chief of Operation on that shift due to an on duty doc not calling in my required med when needed rather he would do it the next morning. The whole debacle had patient services checkin in on me twice a day for the remaining 5 days I was there to make sure any needs is taken care off and expediently. Regardless, I really appreciate the effort everyone took to make me feel comfortable. Since there were a lot of staff that attended to me, and I was on heavy medication, I couldn’t remember everyone’s name. I will at my best name a few to say a huge thank you to them and those whose name is not listed below, know that you are included. Thank you to Karla, Wanda, Jamel, Ogeeda, Patrick, Christina, Tanya Amanda, Andreater, Caroline (PT) the Patient Services, Anesthesia and PT team, David Paul, last but not least Dr. Brisson. Food- may not be Michele level taste but the variety was awesome and presentation was good. I would say it was decent. Include are pictures I manage to take in my condition."

"I was a patient here two years ago (COVID plus other issues) for ten days and I got Great care from nurses and doctors, and especially good follow up at their center for special studies. I'm a fan. However, six months after I was a patient there, I had to call an ambulance for a friend who was seriously Ill, having suffered a stroke at my place. This cerebral incident made my friend confused and a bit angry when paramedics arrived to get him to NY PRESBYTERIAN downtown. The paramedics (a 20-30;something man and woman) didn't seem interested in calming my friend down, if anything they exacerbated the situation by their dismissive tone, and ultimately when he refused to go with them, the police were called by paramedics. At that point he settled down and went with them, tho he would have responded to some quiet conversation. That was the first bad experience. Fast forward several months and my friend is back at my place, sick with what turned out to be a brain infection that required surgery from NY PRESBYTERIAN's awesome staff (thank you Dr. Mary Voegler for saving my friends life). After calling 911 (and hoping I would get a different pair of paramedics) I went downstairs to wait on the sidewalk. Within minutes an ambulance pulls up, the window rolls down and just our luck it's the same duo as last time, with one of them actually saying out loud "oh great it's him again." They were equally rude to my friend as the previous visit. Admittedly he is a difficult patient and refused to let me call an ambulance for three days during which he wasn't bathing or dealing with personal appearances, so he looked like he was possibly a street person, which he isn't, but even if he was , he didn't deserve the treatment he got. I had to pull him by him arms over the saddle of the door to my room and out into the area by the front desk before they would take him. One good thing is the female paramedic did take the notes I passed to her on his name, dob, previous hospitalizations and medications he was on. But overall my cat was treated with more compassion at the ASPCA than my friend received from this pair of paramedics. I have sat with these thoughts for almost two years now and hesitated to share them because overall my opinion of NY PRESBYTERIAN is so high, but I decided to air my views in hopes others can avoid this kind of dehumanizing treatment."

"There are good staffs and horrendous staffs. The good ones (2 out of 25 people we spoke to) put on a fake smile but still provided terrible medical care as a team (yes, I can see your dirty looks even under a mask). Grandma went in with a stroke, once they realize it’s not a level 1, they immediately give up. They do not care. They do not care about the patient’s well being and recovery. Emergency toss grandma to medicine team, and the medicine team is just completely unresponsive. Every consulted team comes to ask the same questions, do the same tests at least 5 times over, then they are never heard from again. Asked for pain medication for hours, none given, not even Tylenol. TRANSPORT team is completely out of their minds, we waited for hours to rule out stroke/TIA. I certainly don’t run hospitals but I wonder what other diagnosis is more urgent when there is no trauma happening in the ER. I asked the nurse what diagnosis is my grandma admitted under, the answer was “fall”, which was completely inaccurate because we never said she fell, and she did not come in because of a fall. By the time the scan is done, doctor said patient is out of the window to be considered for TPA treatment, of course. Grandma was told to be admitted since 2pm, waited until 8pm while supervising physicians are no where to be found. Since grandma was under a “different team”, ER physician said they could not do anything, even the patient was on a stretcher with a stroke, even the patient was physically in the ER 6 more hours. Soon after grandma was transferred to medicine, someone sent security to kick me out. He literally just said “yo, yo, yo” and tap on his wrist, “time to go”. I said okay I’m leaving. This guys said “now.” Presbyterian, where is your manners? Where is your compassion? What kind of medical care are you providing in 2022? This review could go on and on but I’m sure whoever is reading gets the idea."