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Suburban is a John Hopkins Hospital and a horrible, capitalist, leader of racially inequitable care
Suburban is a John Hopkins Hospital that looks shiny & new. It's mostly a horrible, capitalist, leader of racially inequitable care. Especially for people like my sister, who are Black, poor & disabled. Some doctors & administration, primarily the white, female head of psychiatry, are arrogant & act like they are beyond reproach. They treated us as if we are stupid & have no right to be asking questions about her care/treatment. The nursing care varied, great to not very good. There was consistent lack of hygiene. I routinely observed nurses not changing their gloves after wiping urine & feces from the skin. I saw them attempting to put down fresh chucks, linens, & to touch the bed or my sister with the same, soiled gloves. I observed even the nurse supervisor doing this & asked her to change out her gloves! Infectious disease protocols were consistently not being followed. This kind of institutionalized carelessness & disregard for one's safety/wellness leads to a spread of sepsis! It's scary when those who are bed-ridden are subject to practices that may infect them with their own feces & they are not able to stop that from happening. Aside from this issue, communication with hospital staff was fine except for those with the case management supervisor, a few doctors & psychiatry. The psychiatry team forced orders of medications, through a G-tube, that made our loved one very disoriented, delirious, unable to speak or function! They did not gain our consent as legal guardians. We asked them several times to stop those meds & restart the medication regime that historically worked. They refused. The head of psychiatry was emotionally fragile. She was in tears, on the phone, during a treatment meeting and said that she been working overtime and had to keep everyone safe. I was shocked that she was centering her emotions during a treatment team meeting for my sister's care. I asked if we could schedule a meeting when she could regain composure. Later I was blamed for the psychiatrist's outburst because it happened when I was asking her about why she changed my sister's medications, especially without discussing with me, as legal guardian & without getting consent. After the crying spell her "power flexing" continued to harm my sister. It took away months of my sister's life that she won't ever get back and it extended her stay in the hospital 6 months longer. It was devastating and inexcusable. The psychiatrist directed & led a team that overmedicated my sister & placed her on the wrong meds for over 6 months! Doctors forced her to get food through a feeding tube against her/our wishes. Eventually we got them to change the medications and stop the forced food feedings through a tube. It was an extremely stressful time for my sister & for our family. The hospital administration later took us to court because we wouldn't permit discharge to a Medicare rated, 2- star, severely-understaffed & under-functioning nursing home. (My sister is incontinent & needs frequent changes that better staffed, better rated facilities offer.) The proposed nursing home was nearly 3 hours away from our family, her emotional support system. An apathetic judge made a decision to block us from preventing discharge to any nursing home the hospital chose as long as it was in closer proximity. The white case management supervisor discharged my sister to a local nursing home that provided horribly, inadequate care. Incidentally, the DC attorney's office, for John Hopkins, sent us legal documents & medical information of several other patients they took to court to force discharge. When Medicaid threatens to stop paying, hospitals don't care where they discharge patients to. Hospitals want to fill their beds with private insurance patients because hospitals make more money for those beds. If your loved one is a patient at Suburban/John Hopkins be prepared to fight for your loved ones especially if they are Black, poor and disabled. This hospital does not care for people, they are not in the business of caring.
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