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This hospital is rife with incompetence
Every single person that interacted with my care failed miserably at their jobs. I went here while I was on vacation and having difficulty swallowing. I went in around 5 pm the first evening, they said in order to do a scope, I would have to stay overnight to “hold my place in line”. The ER doctor - Dr. Jerry - said they would “definitely” get me in the next day. They couldn’t give me a quote on how much it would cost because “Blue Cross Blue Shield (who I am insured under) always gives them fits on Sundays” for estimates. I decided to stay because it had been two days since I’d eaten solid food and I was struggling even with liquids, which was more concerning, otherwise I wouldn’t have gone at all. They finally got me into a room, and my night nurse told me they would get me in first thing in the morning for a scope. Apparently, she was mistaken. The day nurse informed me that the doctors had 24 hours to respond to an order. Once again - I don’t live there, and I also didn’t want to stay two nights in a hospital because it’s going to be ridiculously expensive. In the morning, someone brings me food - juice and jello. I didn’t touch it because even with my limited medical knowledge, I know that the usual protocol is no food and drink for 8ish hours before anesthesia. The nurse came in and asked if I’d been able to eat AND gave me a stool softener in juice (that I did not express a need for). It felt like a prompt, so I tried. I stupidly trusted that they knew what was best as it is their literal job. I didn’t have much (obviously, as I was struggling with swallowing) - a few sips of apple juice and probably less than a teaspoon of jello. I figured maybe since it was clear liquids it must be okay, and they wouldn’t be offering it to me if I wasn’t supposed to have it, right? My grandmother called the charge nurse to check in on things because she was concerned for me being there all by myself, and after that, THEN they told me not to take anything else by mouth. EVERYONE that interacted with my care verbally acknowledged & knew that the plan was for me to be scoped from the minute I got there, and yet they allowed food to be delivered to me. They said they couldn’t scope me after that as I was an aspiration risk. My GI doctor when I got back home said for clear liquids, they only would’ve had to wait 4 hours, and I’d stopped ingesting anything around noon. And on top of that, the day nurse almost gave me blood thinners because a vial had been left on his cart before he asked where they usually give it to me and I said they didn’t. He said “oh, they must have just ordered it”, (for an ENDOSCOPY? And when all my blood work looked normal?) and then looked at my profile and realized it wasn’t for me. I consider myself a pretty reasonable person - I do understand that hospitals are busy, and more severe situations take precedence. I wasn’t asking to be treated like a priority, just simply for clearer, more honest communication, so that I could have measured expectations and made decisions accordingly. I wasted time there that I could have been spending with the people I was on vacation with, or simply gotten an earlier flight home to be seen, which is what I ended up doing after it was all said and done.
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