Erlanger East Hospital: Emergency Room

"My after hours orthopedic on call Dr told me to go to hospital cause after a shot of steroids my knee pain got extremely worse. I go in I'm back in my car within 45minutes. The Dr said I'll give u something for pain. That's it. No scans nothing. Didn't even try to find out what's wrong with it. I treat my cat better than they did me. I was ashamed to call that man a Dr. He said it was my orthos job to find out what was wrong with me."

"I used to think this hospital was the best choice in the area. Every time I encounter the ER that opinion changes more and more. Today we were there for some severe issues for the 3rd time this week after following the suggestion of “follow up with you pcp” given at the second visit. So we did. The pcp was appalled that further tests were not conducted at the er and sent us back. We arrived around 10am. It’s now almost 1am. And the only reason we are discharged is per our request. Spent the past 15 hours sitting in the hall not allowed to eat or have anyone there due to not being in a room. At one point after someone called to check in on status the nurses station was overheard about how they “forgot” about our bed in the corner of the hall. That was at 9pm. If you’re having an actual emergency but it’s not an obvious one, find a different er. Unless it’s clear what’s wrong with you you’ll be here forever and they don’t care. On top of that they’re incredibly short with anyone who has questions and never have real answers."

"This hospital is just disturbing to say the least. In late May, my husband and I visited this emergency room because I was having some pelvic pain. After checking in with the front desk, I went to sit down in the waiting room. Immediately, I was surrounded by people who were literally hooked up to IV bags sitting next to me. It was disturbing. Then when I was finally called (3 hours later), I was not escorted to a room to allow simple privacy between me and whomever would be tending to me. Instead, I was sat in a chair and hooked up to an IV bag in the hallway, right next to the nurses station. There was absolutely no privacy during my visit. Then, after receiving my two test, I was told to go into the waiting room, still hooked up to an IV. My husband was mortified when he walked in and saw me in an unsanitary chair, with an IV stuck in my arm. Just about anyone that came into the waiting room could have contaminated my bag, sending just about anything directly into my bloodstream. When I was finally discharged, my husband was told that he couldn't come with me. The nurse led me, again with no privacy, to an open hall right next to the receptionist desk. There were three nurses and a security guard within five feet of me being discharged. The woman handed me my paperwork and then after I literally asked her what the doctor said, she decided to tell me my results. There was no explanation and she didn't answer any of my questions. I am absolutely appalled by the treatment of this emergency room. I really felt like an animal that they treated quickly to get through the night. Erlanger, do better!"

"I was shocked at the condition and treatment at Erlinger East. I went in with a traumatic injury and was left in a wheelchair in the back main hall way that they use as a nurses station. The place was run down like I would expect a free clinic to look like. There were caps, cotton bandage garbage on the hall floor. Patients were standing in the doorways and one kept coming onto me. A woman comes with her computer cart and out loud states my address while the man was 2 feet to her side a reading my information on her screen. I told her she need not share my address and private information with everyone in the narrow space. She argued and continued but I stopped her directing her to turn her screen towards me for my review, instead of the man over her shoulder. At that point she fought on that I didn’t want him to know my address. After that I sat there for several hours and was able to observe all the happenings. I listen to the staffs casual conversations, one being who was the oldest (answer 26) because I’m pretty sure that everyone of them were students or interns and they ran the entire department. I did not see one white coated doctor anywhere during the entire night. Half of their staff looked as though they likely road a skateboard in. Males with long shaggy hair not pulled up, everyone sharing in typical college type banter and conversations while typing on portable computers. After an hour a guy, again very young guy came to wheel me in for a cat scan. I am seriously injured and no ability to bend, straighten or control my leg. I’m at a 9 on a pain scale. There was another young guy with shaggy hair in the room. He orders me to get myself onto the table..which was hard so the guy that wheeled me in, started to try and help but didn’t really know what to do to get me up there. Regardless, I manage and lay down. I’m holding my knee in a bent position and cannot move it without excruciating pain. The 2nd guy tells me to scoot over but it couldn’t use my leg to lift my body to scoot so I tell him I can’t move my leg. He suddenly & aggressively grabs the front belt loops on my jeans, jerks my torso up in the air, and slams me back down into the table a couple inches over, so hard that it stung my lower back and hips. I gasp and am stunned and he immediately tells me that’s what happens when you don’t listen. He starts lecturing me in an angry tone, he’s shaking etc. I’m speechless. The 1st guy intervenes and redirects him and shares a compassionate eye contact with me. After being wheeled back I witnessed an elderly woman struggling to breathe for hours. Her daughter came out and asked when the breathing treatment would arrive because her mom was really struggling. The staff said they’d come in and check on her. I watched as he sat at his mobile computer for another 20 minutes before he got up and went in to check on her. He cracks her door open, pokes his head in, asks how she’s doing and she faintly replied it’s hard to breathe. He said the treatment should come soon, shut the door and went back to his computer. Another staff asked what was going on with her, he replied, she’s complaining that she can’t breathe but she was able to talk so she’s fine. He never called anyone to follow up on the treatment. Her treatment still had not come when I left hours later. The staff came and gave me 1 pain pill for the ride home and reported my knee was strained.i asked for a brace and then had to ask for crutches as if they had no understanding that I couldn’t walk. Turns out i ruptured the patella tendon and detached the quadricep muscle, and tore my meniscus and cartilage in a dozen places, requiring surgery. I will never go back to the ER and it was a complete waste of money to have even gone. It’s filthy, the staff behave like teenagers, there is no professionalism or even a real doctor there overseeing anyone. Terrible care considering the extensive price tag. Substandard. I’m scared to ever go to any Erlanger ER ever again and avoid medical care as if it’s more harmful to go than to just rot away."

"I feel as if Erlanger East’s campus is taking on more responsibility for their patients than they can handle not only in terms of staffing but also the facility itself not being used appropriately for the amount of patients that are being “treated” but also the lack of adequate care and proper treatment to the patients. My mother rushed to Chattanooga from Lenior City to be with me for whatever treatment/tests that were required and was denied by all nurses present as I listened to the entire conversation through the door of my room and my mother being told that visitors were only allowed for “normal” rooms and my nurse poked her head in my room to make sure to tell me that I was not in a room that was any different from the rest. My room had a chair in the corner and there was plenty of space to allow for one “visitor” who would have been there for the entirety of my visit but unfortunately had to travel due to work and the seriousness of my symptoms were not able to be left unchecked for long. Blood splatters in multiple areas, including the chair I was assigned to in the hallway of the ER while receiving IV fluids, my nurse taking more time to train the student shadowing her rather than teaching them how to properly attend to patients and pretend to care about them whether this was the case or not. Dropping the vials of blood samples on the floor that had obviously not been cleaned in some time. I will not be returning to this emergency room in the future and will highly encourage anyone I know to avoid this facility as well."