Florida Hospital Waterman

Reviews 3

ME

Meredith Gibbs

If you have someone on the oncology floor, PLEASE stay with them. Be your loved ones advocate. We had both the BEST and WORST nursing care there. FH Waterman, Oncology floor nurses need to be your best. If you have complaints about nurses, please, for the sake of the patients and their families, move them. Or, ENSURE that they are pulled out for re-training. My Mom, who had a port for chemo, meds, blood retrieval, transfusions AND because her blood platelets were at 4,000. FOUR THOUSAND. Normal is 150,000 to 500,000 was a NO NEEDLE patient. That means a needle prick can make her bleed to death. A needle prick could make her bleed to death. A tech came in and tried to prick her finger for a blood sugar level. I had to physically stop her (I just moved between them) because she didnt listen to me when I gently told her that you cant prick her finger but they can use her port. WHAT? WE then find out she went to the wrong person. Why wasnt there a sign on the door that stated "no needles" Then they came to administer TWO antibiotics. One that a Dr. had written for the last time she was there. It wasnt even a current order. I wont even tell you the nightmare of her last night. Families and patients, YOU have to be in charge and THERE. Write down what the Dr. says for the nurses to do. Set your phone alarms for when they should be bringing in meds. DONT let them talk you out of in hospital Hospice. DONT. The nurses are too busy to take care of your precious family member adequately. Nurses at Waterman: If you know that your patient is dying soon, tell the family. You TOLD me afterwards that day shift knew and that you knew. WHY wouldnt you tell us to get in hospital hospice if you knew you would be too busy (or tired, or just unable to keep up with the med requirements)? Or, do your job and do it well. If you want to know what doing it well looks like, see the oncology Nurse, Allesandra. If you know you have a patient who is passing, you need to ensure that it is peaceful. Your job that night, for that patient, is to make sure it is peaceful or put someone in there who can. As for our visits to the ER, we were told on two occasions that they no longer give meds in the ER. For stage IV cancer patients, they should be treated as people who should not have to endure more pain. If it was their own mother, they wouldnt hesitate to ensure that their sweet loved one was comfortable. They are afraid that drug addicts come for meds. Hmmmmm. So, we had to go home and get her meds or get admitted. It sounds more like a $$ issue than a worry about addicts. When you see that someone has low oxygen stats AND has severely low blood platelets, you should also know that receiving oxygen via nasal cannula will dry out their noses ASAP, cause little cracks and bloody noses and again, they could bleed to death. It should be a standard of care that they get the "bubbler" oxygen. Im not a nurse, but my Mom was. She had to tell the nurses multiple times, and she did it with such care and grace, what should be done. The mistakes.....shouldnt have happened.

JO

Jonathan Renuart

Well... This hospital is pretty much as terrible as they come, and my family has a significant amount of experience dealing with hospitals as my mother is a stroke survivor. This latest case just takes the cake and deserves a review. Disclaimer: I should mention that my father died suddenly while under their care at the beginning of May 2016. My mother experienced a fall while at an Assisted Living Facility in the Taveres/Eustis area. She was transported to the Waterman ER for examination (routine). The assisted living contacted us and informed us of the transport to the ER. I immediately called and was told that she had not yet been seen. I informed the staff that I was power of attorney and health surrogate and gave my contact information telling them that I needed to be notified of all matters of her care as she could not advocate for herself. Was told that was "no problem". Pretty much the last I heard from anyone for about 36 hours despite my nearly constant phoning. During this time period, my mother was given a drug to counteract a condition that she had despite me repeatedly telling the nursing staff that while she wasnt allergic to it, caused her to get into a cycle that would prevent her from recovering. This information never made it past the first line of nurses and to the doctors, nor my requests for contact from the staff. I eventually got in touch with a nurse who made the request to have the doctor call me. At this point I should mention that my messages left on the confidential "patient advocate" line were never returned by anyone. Once in contact with the doctor she was apologictic for the miscommunication, which I corrected her to be no communication. I expressed my concerns regarding the level of care she was receiving. I eventually booked a flight and traveled to Florida to sort out the debacle that this hospital created. Once onsite it took me about an hour to clear up the mess (once someone began to listen) and told them to cancel tests that they themselves admitted were "long shots" and would have kept her in the hospital for another overnight since th "doctor was off today". We set on getting her discharged. That process then took 4 hours to get through. This is a ridiculous amount of time. I know its difficult to choose the place of care that you will go to in an emergency, that coupled with the limited amount of healthcare in the area,but I recommend not going to this hospital if you can avoid. The staff is rude, under trained, and do not understand the need for communication amongst themselves and to others. There is obviously no management support either so the staff that IS competent is left to fend for themselves against angry family members.

MI

Mike v.

Went in for a simple basic hernia repair, my second one. Within a week the area around the incision was pink as though irritated. I was not given post surgery antibiotics and less than two weeks out I had to be re-admitted through ER with a staph infection. Spent 5 more days in the hospital with IV antibiotics at an additional cost of over $60k. After my release a vacuum device was prescribed to drain the wound which had to be worn 24/7 along with a home health nursing service for over two months. Later the surgeon told me thay had about a 2% infection rate. From what I see in the internet the national average is slightly over 1/2 of a percent. So they are telling me their rate is three and a half times greater? The nurses were very nice but a couple of the techs were obviously under parented and verging on passive-agressive/dysfunctional. The only way they will see me again in that hospital for more than a test is in the morgue. Followup: In February of this year my LEFT leg seized without warning. The pain was equal to any cardiac or pancreatic pain I have ever experienced. A call for an ambulance was placed with 911 though I could barely speak. The ambulance attendant told me I would probably want to go to Waterman because of the pain. I had no choice. No one helped me from the gurney to the bed. I was seen not by a doctor, but by a physicians assistant who diagnosed the pain as sciatica, telling me he had it also. By then the pain had started to abate somewhat and one of the nurses gave me an injection in my RIGHT leg! I then left and called my wife to please pick me up. Since her cell phone was 407 area code the convenience phone in the ER lobby would not let me make the call and I was forced to ask to use a hospital phone. This was clearly an annoyance to the admitting nurse. My leg continued to have numbness and pain and it would be a month before an RN at my cardiologists office in Orlando would do a simple non invasive test for leg circulation with a microphone and high gain amplifier. I did not have sciatica. The femoral artery in the leg was 95% blocked! I nearly lost my leg! From now on I will maintain a home supply of injectable narcotic pain medication and self clotting pressure bandages so I can make it to a hospital in ORANGE county!