Olive View-UCLA Medical Center

Reviews 3

A

A Private User

People need to understand how healthcare works in America. Hospitals that operate ER are required by law to see anyone who shows up in the ER. And patients only get admitted to hospital if they have an acute medical condition that acquires hospitalization, as judged by the physician. Any patients with medical condition that can be treated as an outpatient will be stabilized and given initial treatment, and after discharge from the ER, they are supposed to seek definitive care with a primary care doctor. The emergency room takes care of emergencies. It does not exist to serve as a primary care physicians office to provide routine or subacute medical care. In another word, it is not meant to be used as a physicians office for people who have no health insurance or cannot pay for care. Unfortunately, people without insurance often have to resort to the emergency room as a physicians office because very few physicians will see patients for free. Olive View Medical Center is one of the few county hospitals in Los Angeles that serve as social safety net. It will see patients without insurance, underinsured, homeless, illegal immigrants, etc not only in the ER, but also in its regular clinics at the low or no-cost. Therefore, patients with no money or insurance gravitate toward Olive View. And there are lots of people without health insurance out there. Think of simple economics: as the price goes down, demand for a service goes up. County hospitals charge very little or nothing at all, so the demand for service goes up to infinity. When an emergency room is staffed with a limited number of physicians, and the number of patients is large, patients are seen starting from the sickest to the least sick. Hence, there is a long wait, up to 15 to 20 hours. Chances are if you are waiting this long, you probably didnt have a stroke or heart attack or respiratory failure, which physicians are busy dealing with while you are waiting. Now if you are dissatisfied with the service at Olive View that you are getting for little or no cost, you can decide to pay for medical care elsewhere and be seen sooner. Obviously, as the price goes up, the demand for a service goes down. With less demand, there are fewer patients to be seen, and therefore a shorter wait. There are a lot of reviewers here who complain about the quality of service and the wait time at Olive View. However, despite the long wait time, this hospital is always busy, and the reason is that it will see patients that pay so little that no other hospital would want to see. There are lots of patients who are satisfied with the service at Olive View, because with how little money they pay, they cannot find equivalent or better service elsewhere. The real problem is that there are a lot of people out there who cannot afford healthcare and yet need it. And right now, it appears that the American public is voting against increased health insurance coverage for everyone. That is the real problem. If you want some meaningful change, talk to your local congressman or senators to vote for the passage of health care bill. Olive View Medical Center is the temporary solution, and the symptom of how broken the American healthcare system is, and not the problem itself. For the kind of funding it receives and the number of physicians staffing the hospital, I believe it is doing a fantastic job taking care of huge number of patients.

A

A Private User

First, Andy you need to understand that the County requires people to go to the ER in order to get to the clinic. You also need to understand that if they take care of one problem, you have to return to the ER for the second one. Thats how Olive View works. Because it is government, it is owned by the taxpayers understand that! Now to the rating and why: In ER 11 hours. They focused on one issue and one issue only, which they felt was an immediate need, though one specialist told me the two other symptoms had nothing to do with the other. The attending doctor to ER told me it had everything to do with the problem they were "treating" me for. The staff was rude, lacked compassion, and bedside manner. Some staff that Ive had to deal with because I filed a formal complaint cant comprehend or speak English. There was a discrepancy in how to take a certain medication that I still cant get answered not to mention the side effects they dont tell you about. I looked it up myself. The attending doctor condoned the behavior of his staff, told me how wonderful they are. That also included a phlebotomist (in any other place would have been retrained and reminded on how to draw blood) who didnt listen to someone who told her about small veins. That should have been a clue to use a butterfly needle but no, not her. She used a regular needle and didnt stick it properly so it didnt draw out the blood. When she was reminded that the person had mentioned the small veins, she finally used a butterfly. Aside from that, when I didnt hit registration fast enough they had called someone else and I was told to sit down. Yet, two people were allowed to stand right in back of me through the registration process. These two people just happened to be of the same culture of the registration employee. Some immediate need? They called about a week and a day later and said they had an appointment for January 20th -- Yeah some immediate need my you know what. They overbooked the clinic (so how is that the patients fault?) but doing a little foot stomping and threatening to go to the press and the Board of Supervisors, they made the appointment for November 18th. Again, some immediate need yeah right. The attending doc even copped an attitude when he said what do you want? Do you want your bill written off? That would be nice but heres the rub of using government run healthcare. I have paid taxes for about 37 years in LA County but have fallen on some bad times. So all the taxes Ive paid into the system to be able to use if when I needed to do so, means nothing. They are going to charge me for using something that Ive paid taxes for during many years. How nice! The left hand does not know what the right hand told the patient. This hospital is horrible and if they can do this to someone who has given presentations on customer service and consulted in the healthcare industry how are they treating the others who have no insurance.

CL

Claudia Silva-Trigo

My sister was hospitalized at OVMC in October 2013 with multiple myeloma. She has been going weekly for her chemotherapy. The doctors in the hematology department are amazing! Dr. Omkar Marathe is her doctor and he is one of the most caring doctors I have ever met--and I am a nurse, so Ive known many of them. All the doctors who my sister has seen so far are not only extremely bright and knowledgeable, they are also caring. Once when Dr. Marathe was too busy with other patients to see my sister, another doctor walked in to see her. I immediately got worried because I thought he was not going to know about my sisters problems. I was very wrong. Dr. "K" (also in the hematology department) was so professional, knowledgeable, patient, and--above all--genuine and caring. Most of the nurses Ive met are also very nice and efficient. Its true, we do wait a long time before being seen but once my sister is in the examining room, the doctors and nurses give all their attention to her. The Patient Financial Workers who helped her with her insurance were great and very understanding. One employee at the front desk of the outpatient department--a middle aged, tall, thin man with glasses--left me speechless when both my sister and I walked in to the hospital looking for the outpatient surgical department because my sister was scheduled for an endoscopy and he actually walked us to the front door of the department--it was not very close either! I wish I had gotten his name so I could mention him here. Having been a nurse for almost 30 years, I am well aware of the fears that patients have when they dont understand what is going on with their health and when they are afraid of being denied medical attention because of their legal status or because they do not have medical insurance. So far, all the staff at OVMC treat my sister with dignity and compassion. Sure, there will be negative reviews with horror stories but those are the rare exceptions, I think. My sister has a long way to recover but I am confident the staff at OVMC will be there to help her.