Presence Saint Joseph Hospital, Chicago

Reviews 3

JA

Janet Baker

I had a heart attack and was admitted to the hospital following the placement of two stents through the angiogram procedure. I came onto the floor of the cardiac unit about four oclock. I have had two other stent procedures and have gone home the same day, but not this time, although the reason for the admission to the hospital was not explained to me. It was downhill from the first hour. I was all sticky from the orange antibacterial stuff they coat you with for the angiogram, and then I threw up, probably from the anesthetic. The staff handed me the basin for vomit, and collected it, but no one offered me a washcloth for my vomity face or a sip of water to rinse my mouth, and no one asked if I would like to bathe that day nor any other day of my four day stay. (I did later ask if I was to take a shower or what, and someone gave me a sponge bath--once. It is apparently not on the patients schedule.) Dinner time came and went and no one mentioned food. I concluded that something in my condition precluded dinner. The night time was torturous, since no one turns off any lights nor mitigates the noise levels. I had no call button. When I finally got someones attention regarding needing to go to the bathroom, I was put in an adult diaper, and that was torture as well. Apparently they have figured out that those diapers hold a lot of urine and can be left on for quite a while. I had that one on for two days. I asked once if someone might please change it, but they were busy, theyd get back to me, but they didnt, and I did not ask again. I did not have anything to eat until the next afternoon, having fasted from early morning of the day before, and that was only because I had the strength to inquire. You are supposed to order from a menu after calling the cafeteria , but no one had explained that to me, and besides, the menu, and the phone, and the call button, were all out of reach and behind my line of vision in any case. So they took blood and found I had low blood sugar--not a surprise if you dont eat for two days--and then they put a six inch tube of sugar water into the IV, and later took a blood test that revealed HIGH blood sugar (duh) and that caused endless complications with care, when the explanation that I hadnt eaten and then was injected with pure sugar was ignored. They give you your regular medications when you are in the hospital (you dont bring them from home, that is) and they made two serious mistakes that have caused me grief in the months since, doubling two medications evidently because of misreading the notes. I found this out by asking, when I was feeling better and able to do so. and discovered the doubled dosage. The nurse had apparently followed directions that had been changed years earlier but not removed from the system and it caused her to double the dosage! Even though every single person who enters the room goes over the list of current medications! But no one changes anything in the system. One has to wonder about the quality of the software they are using because every staff person who enters the room stands for long moments staring fixedly at the computer screen with a frown, apparently unable to locate whatever information they are looking for. This must prevent them from looking around the room and straightening a sheet or taking away the tall styrofoam cups that mount up because the aids bring one every hour or so but never ever take one away. God forbid anyone should ask if you need anything. I have never been so sick and gotten so little care, and it was not because I was rude or uncooperative, I think rather the opposite. It is not that the staff isnt kind (and I did have one outstanding nurse), but something must be profoundly wrong with management at St.. Josephs because the staff seems quite defeated. They are not focused on making sick people comfortable, at least the cardiac unit. I will not go back to St. Josephs even if it means changing doctors.

AL

Alex Alemayehu

The worst of the worst hospital I have ever seen in my life so far! I took my 1 year old baby to this hospital ER on 9/23/16 @9:30pm because he was having extreme fever and vomiting. They gave us room in the ER, assessed the baby vitals and his feelings. His temp was 102.1 The so-called doctor checked his ears with othoscope and said his ears are okay and he has no ear infection. Knowing that he is having extreme fever and vomiting, nobody came back to the room for 1 hour and 45 minutes. I called the nurse and she came with tylenol suppository and said they Were waiting for the pharmacy to send the Tylenol. Then they disappearred again for at Least 75 minutes. I called them again and asked the nurse kindly whats the next plan! She said none but to watch him for another couple of hours to see if the temp goes down! Iasked her if any blood lab is going to be done to rule out what kind of infection causes the fever and vomiting. She said they are not going to poke him with that big nidle and hurt him. They just gonna watch him and give him zofran later for vomiting. I asked the nurse if i can talk to the doctor! She went out for a moment and came back and told us that the doctor is busy with another patient. Now we know that this people are not going to do anything to help my baby! As we got out of the room to leave, we saw the doctor sitting in the nursing station very relaxed with another staff. We went to Swidish Covenant hospital Emergency Room and they gave us room right away. Nurse and Dr. came right away andassessed my baby and Dr. found out that baby is having ear infection. They gave him anti nausea & 30 min later they gave him motrin and baby went to sleep. The fever went down and no more nausea. The Dr. gave him first dose of ABT and wrote us prescrepsion to finish the cycle. My baby is ok now thank to God! Never Ever Recommend this hospital even to my enemy!

A

A Private User

i had an experience in the st. josephs emergency room that i feel an obligation to make public. two nights ago, on the evening of july 28th, i was admitted to the ER at st. josephs for an overdose of advil pm i took in a half-hearted suicide attempt, probably brought on by a recent increase of dosage of my anti-depressants. the nurse attending to me refused to change the position, or even look at the iv in my arm which was causing my skin and vein considerable irritation, (he would not remove it even once my vitals were normal, although there was no medicine administered through it at any point.) he called me a liar, saying i had too much bennydril in my system to possibly feel irritated, said if i so much as touched the iv again he would strap me in restraints, and told me i did not deserve his compassion because it was my own fault i was there. i asked his name, having failed to look at his nametag, and he told me it was "steve." in the morning when the er staff switched shifts, a female nurse came in and said she was there to replace "ed." a bit confused, i asked if the nurse taking care of me the night before was ed. she told me yes, and that the intake worker was brian. so this nurse falsely identified himself after neglecting and emotionally abusing me in a most judgmental and unprofessional manner, presumably to avoid liability. this is an unethical and illegal way for a medical professional to behave, and i want to publicize this abuse in a hope to mitigate other psychiatric patient abuse in this hospital. there were other people there who could corroborate my story, specifically a security guard who had first noticed my iv was visibly irritating me and informed "ed."