Fairview Southdale Hospital

Reviews 3

A

A Private User

I had an abdominal surgery at Fairview Southdale hospital and then stayed there for 2 days and 2 nights for post-surgical care and recovery. I found the quality of nursing care at this hospital disappointingly low. In fact in the future I would never consider Southdale Fairview as my hospital of choice, neither would recommend it to anybody I know. While I definitely met a few genuinely caring and considerate nurses and nurse assistants, I also found that many in the medical personnel of the hospital carry out their responsibilities with inappropriate attitudes toward their patients. My pain was poorly managed: after the surgery I was declined adequate pain medication, even though I was in a great deal of pain. I’ve had nurses snapping at me with irritation for not picking up the phone, for asking questions about medications, and for not maintaining clean enough room (while I was drugged and not able to move much!), etc. It was unbelievable… Later I also found out that some medical procedures were not followed: I didn’t receive some shots I was supposed to. I found rooms to be small and cramped. I don’t know if the nurses at Fairview Southdale are overworked, tired and just snap at patients who are helpless in their post-surgical condition, or there is a severe lack of management and supervision. My family brought me a big home cooked meal in non-disposable containers. Next morning all my food disappeared, and after a long investigation we had to conclude that it was thrown away. Somebody informed us that hospital has a policy of disposing all foods from the refrigerators every morning. But nobody on the staff knew about this policy… This hospital seems to be in a state of chaos on all levels! We complained, but it seemed like nobody cared about anything in there! So I had to run home after just two days of recovery at this place. But I had another surpise when I was reading my hospital’s release papers at home. The surgery that I had is called myomectomy, which is a name for surgical removal of fibroids from the uterus, while leaving the uterus and all other female organs intact and in place. But my release papers stated that the procedure performed on me was: Total Abdominal Hysterectomy. (Which in medical terms means complete removal of all female internal organs). I can’t describe the state of panic I’ve been in for more than an hour until I could reach my surgeon and hospital records, and clarify that the mistake is in their recording of the procedure, and not that I’ve received a wrong procedure. My doctor recommended me to contact hospital’s patient representative and let them know of this incident since in his practice it is not all that unusual at this place, and he hopes that if they get more complaints maybe it will improve!!! By the way a few years ago, I stayed at the Abbott Hospital in Minneapolis after a cesarean section and also spent a lot of time there taking care of my grandfather. I have to say that the nursing care at Abbott had been consistently helpful and considerate, the food always stayed in the fridge, medical procedures were followed, and generally I left very happy. So I would recommend Abbott over Fairview Southdale any minute.

HE

Heather Owens

Went to their ER the day of New Years Eve with very bad symptoms. I felt something strange in my head around 4am and woke up again around 9am not feeling right. I thought Id try to sleep as maybe I was just tired from the busy holidays. Woke up again around 11am and the whole room was spinning. I was vomiting and couldnt stand, not just because of the dizziness but because there was some very obvious weakness on my right side. I couldnt even hold myself up with my right leg. We went to Fairview as it was the closest ER. My fiancé told them all of my symptoms (as I was way too sick to try to explain myself) and told them about the congenital heart defect I have which caused me to be on a very low dose blood thinner. Upon hearing my current condition the nurse made a confused face and just said "whats that?" which is fine but it didnt seem to phase her to maybe to a little research to let the Dr. know what was going on. After a CT they said nothing was wrong with me. That I just had a viral infection and that I needed to sleep it off. They then sent me home without another word. Two weeks later all of my symptoms were gone but the right side still wasnt working properly at all. I could hardly walk and couldnt use my right hand for anything. We went to my regular care provider who I had an argument with because she wouldnt believe me AND my fiancé when we said I was having issues with my right side, because Fairview left it out of the notes! (Obviously she has issues as well since she was believing notes over obvious physical evidence, but thats neither here nor there). She finally sent me to a neurologist who did actual full testing, including an MRI and found a mini stroke in my right cerebellum. Ive now been back to the hospital (a different hospital) and was actually amitted and had multiple test done. Im now on a stronger blood thinner and have to be in physical and occupational therepy to get walking and the motor skills back. Its been 3 months and Im just now getting back to sort of normal. If Fairview wouldve admitted me and ran some tests they probably wouldve caught the issue a lot sooner and I could be much further along in the healing process. But maybe it was a blessing because I was able to get help from a better hospital anyway. What really irks me is that if it was a bigger stroke than it was, I couldve been sent home and died. Fairviews negligence couldve literally killed me. I plan on taking this issue up with Fairview directly because this is UNACCEPTABLE.

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Andraya Ashmead

For years, this was the hospital we went to. Ive had a few problems here before but this was the most recent. I slipped on ice and was in a lot of pain. Drove myself (as I had no other option at the time) to the FS hospital. Parked my car and proceeded to try and get into the ER. I have MULTIPLE hospital workers (in scrubs) walk by and ignore the fact I was hurt, crying and needed help. A stranger walking to his car asked if there was anything he could do. He ran back into the ER, grabbed a wheel chair and wheeled me into the ER. The ER front desk (which they were the most helpful) got my information wheeled me in the back to a room. I was rushed to x-ray for them to check to make sure my knee was not broken. The x-ray technicians did a good job trying to do what they needed to do. Once I was finished I was wheel back into my designated ER room. I had a nurse ask me a bunch of questions, registration take all my information and finally the doctor. The doctor came in looked at me, moved my knee and said it wasnt broken but sprained. Another nurse came in and finally gave me pain medicine and fitted my with a knee immobilizer and crutches. Once I was fitted (still in excruciating pain) they all left the room and handed me a bunch of papers. I took a few minutes to try and calm down. My husband wheeled me into the hallway. We were asked to move (even though we werent sure if we were finished) He had to go find someone to make sure I had a note for work, since it was not in all the paperwork they threw at me. No one explained the pain meds, no one explained how long I would be laid up, no one said go to an orthopedic specialist after XYZ days. We were left awe struck. I finally told my husband to get my car and wheel me out the door. I was done! I was in such terrible pain, crying and screaming out in pain. No nurses or doctors assisted me or my husband to get me in the car. There were nurses standing there watching, again no assistance. Strangers walking into the hospital asked if they could assist. AGAIN STRANGERS. Not the people who just got paid to tell me I sprained my knee. Needless to say, I NEVER want to return to this hospital. This was the last straw.