Florida Hospital Altamonte

Reviews 4

SH

Sharon Thompson

My son had been to an urgent care walk in clinic associated with Florida Hospital complaining of a bad stomach ache. The doctor there asked a few questions, pressed his stomach twice and said he likely had appendicitis & told us we had to take him to the ER right away!!! So we rushed him to Florida Hospital Altamonte ER, where we spent 6 hours getting an upset stomach diagnosed. They were insisting on starting an IV for contrast fluids for a CT scan, but he is needle phobic, and resisted. It was only after that fight that we found that we were able to accomplish the exact same goal by ingesting (drinking) the fluid, for much less money & stress. The CT showed a very clear picture of a perfectly healthy stomach & all associated organs, and he was pronounced fine and dismissed with no follow up. By the time all the service providers (CT tech, CT reader, Dr., nurse etc) weighed in, most of which we never saw or spoke to, the bill came out to $6,000, or about $1,000/hour, and he was never admitted or diagnosed with anything but possibly an upset stomach or gas. This much we knew at the walk in clinic! Our insurance covered all but $1,000 because of our deductible, but we could have had the same scan done at Cyrus Imaging for under $200, also covered by insurance. And we wonder why people complain about the extremely high cost of health care. I have also been a patient there myself, and found the care to be good, not consistently great, but I was definitely billed for Doctors I never saw. I had severe anemia, and I was billed by a hematologist, but never once did I speak to this Doctor, and this was confirmed later in follow up treatment by my new hematologist. They put me in a beautiful single room, when I cannot afford any such thing, and would have slept in the hall to save $$. So check your bills carefully, as there will be many bills from many different sources, and it is all very expensive and very confusing, especially when you are ill. Never do they ask what you can afford, they just do what they want and then have dozens of service providers call you all day to collect once you go home. I cant afford thousands of dollars to get blood and then require an outside doctor to prescribe me an iron supplement. Now the 800 number callers trying to collect more money than I can pay each month are giving me an ulcer.

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ST

Stephanie Cockfield

Contacting this hospital from a physicians office is a NIGHTMARE. The patient had already signed a release & half of the records we needed had been sent. I called, and after sitting on hold forever, some girl who already had an attitude picked up. I told her that we had not received all of the records, & she wouldnt even look up the patient. She told me that it doesnt matter, because as soon as they process a release they get rid of them. This is concerning, because discarding releases is a HUGE HIPAA problem. If they dont have a record of what theyre doing with patient records, then they arent doing their job. I was told the patient would have to sign another release, even though their release CLEARLY states that if an expiration date or event is not specified, it is valid for 1 year from the date of signature. UPDATE: The patient came in early to sign ANOTHER release. I called approx. 10 minutes after faxing to see if it was received and was told "faxes take at LEAST 20 minutes to come through." Apparently this hospital uses Morse Code. 45 mins later I call back (note: the patient has been waiting in our office this whole time). I receive a fax with the same records we already have. I explain that I need a disch summ & EKG (oh, I actually had to call back twice, since the first time I was disconnected when they put me back on hold.) I am now told that the patient didnt have an EKG (which is scary, since the pt went in for SOB & has previous cardiac problems) & that the only disch summ is a note from an RN. If the person I talked to last week had informed me of this, it wouldve saved both myself, the patient, and their dept lots of time. Seriously - get your act together.

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HE

Heather Beach

Honestly would never recommend anyone to come here unless it was life or death and the only closest place. About 10 months ago i went in their with terrible pain on 1 to 10 i would have said 20 it was like being in labor but worse. I sat in the emergancy room for about three hours as i watched people come in after me get taken back first. Once i finally got a "room" (which looked pretty much like a closet) i ended up getting forgotten about. My boyfriend kept going out there and asking for a doctor and nothing after being their since 9pm about 6am came around and finally a doctor came in and said she couldnt tell and follow up with my pcp prescribed me pain killers and said theyd be back then at 8am the finally released me with nothing to say. Mind you i didnt have insurance and after being billed i now owe 3grand just for taking up a room. Second about 3 weeks ago my boyfriend went in there for a back problem so bad he had to leave work surprisingly we got a room fairly quick but then a nurse came in asked about the pain and said a doctor would come in (mind you my boyfriend works in constuction for I-4 and lifts heavy things and bust his ass and never complains so this was serious) then a nurse practitioner came in not even a doctor and said it was sprained gave him a prescription and left us on our way. These people are quacks they are suppose to be on spot help when you cant get into a doctor but instead just give you medications and leave you on your way. Terrible service.. And will never go there again. I ended up having ovarian cyst that needed medical treatment and still waiting on results for my boyfriend. Never again! Save your self the trouble and go somewhere else!

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DR

Dr. MC

Came to FL hospital Altamonte Springs ER with acute abdominal pain and shock. Waited in lobby for 1+ hr. before moved into hospital hallway where we waited for 30 min before seeing the doctor and finally getting fluids and pain meds. Stayed in the open hallway, where everone could walk by and see us, on a stretcher the whole time (nearly 5 hours). Dr. Charnis was very quick/abrupt with her exam and did not communicate well in regards to treatment options and plan. After a couple of hours she diagnosed pancreatitis, and without discussing it or getting permission from us admitted for overnight hospitalization against our will. We asked to sign an against medical advice form to leave since signs were now stabile and we informed her that we did not want and could not afford hospitalization. The doctor was not empathetic nor willing to remove the overnight hospitalization charges according to staff (which again we declined). A month later after receiving the $8600+ bill (for 5 hours of treatment on a bed in the hallway, less than 30 min with a doctor, fluids, 2 meds, some bloodwork and an ultrasound) we had to request an itemized bill, and as expected the charge for the hospitalization that we declined was still there. They also charged a level 5 ER fee (over $3500), if it was truly considered "life threatening/level 5" they should have treated us differently because that cost was not worth the prolonged care. Nurses were nice though. Luckily we know our patient rights and filed an appeal with Florida Hospital billing department which can take up to 30 days, hope they fix these two incorrect super expensive charges!

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