Valley Hospital

Reviews 3

JO

joAnn Cannon

Words fail me. Entering a facility such as this is such an uncertain and frightening time. I am reminded of the immortal words of Forest Gump, "You never know what you are going to get". As a three-peat "offender (ha-ha-ha), I thought I finally understood what to expect. I have to say that this facility blew all of that away. The quality of care and compassion I received, thoroughly stunned me. As a woman who has battled the demons of mental illness for 20+ years, I know a thing or two about how my mind works. I see the signs of potential devastation in the distance and begin walking that tight rope between seeking help and hiding it from loved ones. No one knows of your furtive plans hatched in the dark of night. How you plan who will find you, when, how you will look, the clean up. And finally you reach the tipping point. You know you need help, but you dont want to be labeled as the one looking for "attention" so you wait. Further and further down the rabbit hole you go, until one day you realize that the world has turned upside down and you cant find your way without the Queen of Hearts. And tentatively, you step out into the sunlight; naked, afraid. Bare for the world to see your imperfections. Your faults. Your short comings. With magnificent effort, you swallow your pride and ask for help. Those who love and care for you, valiantly answer the call and jump to action. They search high and low to find the care you need. And so, I found myself at Valley Hospital. The last rest stop for miles. A desperate attempt to get me home. I pulled into the station and waited for the attendant. And I waited. No one came to clean the windshield. No man with a greasy rag to check the oil. I sat at that pump for over a week, feeling a rush of hope every time the station door opened and a marked sense of disappointment when there was no one there to help me. Ive never been the person to beep for attention so I sat quietly in my car. Surely, at some point, someone would recognize I needed help and come to my aid. Nothing. I occasionally poked my head into the small room that passed for a convenience shop to verify there were, in fact, people working. Seeing their smiling faces, acknowledge my own, filled me with hope and I returned to my car to wait. And wait. And wait. Concerned phone calls came flooding in from family wondering when I would reach my destination, but I could give them no clear answer. This was a journey I could not continue without assistance. And finally, after days of waiting, a timid head poked around the corner and asked what I needed. I needed tires. I needed a new radiator. I needed a new transmission to get me home. But in that moment of relief at having a person in a position to help, actually look my way, I gave them the basest of answers. I need fuel. Enough to get me another 100 miles. And so, Valley Hospital filled my most basic of needs. They never told me what octane of fuel I got, or even how much they put in. They tapped my rear fender and sent me back out into the world. Thank you Valley Hospital for not complicating my stay with doctors visits or therapy appointments. That stuff probably would have gotten in the way of my final goal....to get out of that facility and return to a place where people cared. Thank you for the reminder that, though they might not have a degree, the people who live in my world will look out for me until the bitter end.

LE

Lee B

I took my wife to Valley hospital when she was going through a change of medication for bi polar disorder. When we arrived, the lobby wasn t busy yet it took over 4.5 hrs to get her admitted.i [ts MUCH harder to get out] most of that time was spent in a small room reminiscent of a police interrogation room you d see in a movie. I didn t take her to a real hospital [big mistake!] because I thought the emergency room wait would be to long. The staff are incompetent and are rarely on the same page.We were told that since she was there voluntarily, she could leave voluntarily. its not that easy at all. We both tried for 3 days to get her released or transferred to another hospital but the staff made this very difficult, a social worked threatened her with going to state hospital if she tried to get released even though she has never tried to harm herself or anyone else. She was in a somewhat fragile emotional state and this threat scared her very badly, it did what is was intended to do. The little bald guy that watches over visitation acts more like a wannabe prison guard, trying to look intimidating while walking around the room, eavesdropping on conversation between patients and family, and treating people like jail inmates, instead of paying clients who come voluntarily for help. The Dr. my wife saw was helpful but didn t have a lot of time. He requested that she be put in the woman s support group but was mistakenly put into a group of people who were just out of jail, had bad drug problems, attempted suicide or all of the above. She told them for 4 days she was in the wrong group, but inept staff wouldn t listen to her. Her DR. finally got the problem corrected and she spent her last 2 days in the right group which she found helpful. One of the staff made a mistake with her medication dosage but she had the presence of mind to ask him to look at the bottle for the prescribed amount so she wouldn t take the double dose he tried to give her. She finally lied to them about the thought she was having so she could just get out of this place and we took her somewhere else and she got the help she needed and is is doing fine. We are getting bills for our copay from Valley Hospital which we are not disputing but she has asked twice starting a mouth ago for an itemized statement which they cant seem to produce.One of her calls was returned today and was treated very rudely on the phone. We are going to try to get copy s of her records from them which i suspect will be another battle. we will also file a complaint with our insurance carrier and hopefully, if they get enough, they will drop Valley Hospital from there plan. I really hope no one else has to go through what she did. The spirit of Nurse Ratchet is alive at Valley Hospital.....

DA

Dawn Rud

Everything about this hospital is bad.My husband was told to come on in because the had a unit for active military and vets to address PTSD and other things that go along with it. After we check in and they admit him they tell us the unit is only for active duty. All literature tells us thay had a Vets unit. Then they put my husband in a drug dependency unit. My husbands problem is the opposite. I can not get him to take even prescribed drugs for his issues. While my husband was in his crissis mode, they presented him a bill for over 2K. He was not even discharged and was not discharged for another week and a half. While there for a visit a mother and a daughter ( daughter was admitted) get into a screaming match and no one did anything. They employees just acted like they never heard anything going on, until I said something because I was afraid it was going to end up in a slapping match. This was really good trigger for my husbands PTSD . They never let him outside but they took the smokers out 4 to 5 times a day. My husband finally went to a group meeting to satisfy them and he ended up leading the group and the counselor ended up trying to make the group meeting about their problems. My husband walked out of the group and everyone else followed. The patients ended up asking my husband to lead group as they stated that they got more out of what he had to say then they ever got out of the counselors there. My husband was a nurse and had some training in this during school. There was so much more that it would take most of this page to write. Beware if you are entering this place. There are other facilities that are so much better and offer real solutions to the problem