Belmont Behavioral Health Hospital

Reviews 5

JE

Jeff Alexander

Unfortunately, my 14 year old daughter is there now. This place is horrible. Please do not allow your family to be transported there under any circumstance. #1 - At admission, they separated us and had her sign documents with out me present. This is allowed in Pa since consent is at the age of 14. The rules were not fully understood by my daughter who believed that she could say when she wants to leave. #2 - They did not have any history about her nor did they want me to provide it. I believe that this is rather critical in providing mental health care. Especially when you have had support from exceptional doctors at CHOP for the past 3 years. #3 - When we were finally able to talk to our daughter after about about 48 hours, we learned that they never provided her with her medication! This is absolutely astounding and borderline malpractice. Worse, we verbally told them the requirements at admission and we talked to the social worker at 24 hours. #4 - My daughter is terrified of needles. She requires a sedative and plenty of emotional support to get her through the process. Still, this is an ordeal for her. A social worker and a physician at Belmont were told this. It is in her records. No of that mattered. They drew blood with out her consent and no sedative provided. #5 - It took a day for them to figure out that we dropped off clothes for her. Those were only provided after she explicitly asked for them. #6 - After 36 hours, they have decided to change her diagnosis from one that was previously established over 3 years by extremely qualified doctors at Children’s Hospital. On top of that, they want to completely change her medications. See points #2 and #3 above. Again, this is extremely alarming. Many of you will read bad reviews about clinics. You may come to the conclusion that those who write them are former patients. The reviews may be foggy and come across as disgruntled. In this case, I am a very alarmed parent of a girl who needs help. I do not believe that this facility is helping her. Again, do not go there.

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MI

Michelle Kerr

I cant stress enough how much you should avoid placing your loved ones in the care of this horrific excuse for a hospital. My son (12) was placed here when he was in a bad way because there were no beds available at any other facility. It was his first hospitalization and he was terrified and hysterical. The staff were utterly devoid of compassion. They called him names. They fat-shamed him. When I questioned all of this after my sons first night, I was told the staff had a "tough love" approach. But that is nothing more than a blatant attempt to excuse the behavior of an unfit staff. They cursed at the children. They did nothing to stop other patients from verbal bullying or physical aggression. The staff did not get physical with my son directly but he reported they did with other children, even knocking down a disabled boy. They also got my sons meds wrong, or rather repeatedly omitted one, despite my insistence over several days. They didnt bother giving him the personal items we brought (even though they were allowed items). I confronted one of the nurses who had shamed him for crying and she gave me some B.S. excuse for her behavior and then gave me the silent treatment in order to end the conversation. It was beyond unacceptable. I could really go on and on. My troubled son left here after a week in far worse shape than he came in. He twitched like a PTSD survivor for days afterward. I believe the psychiatry staff to be well-meaning, but the staff on the unit floor had no business working with children, and especially not mentally unstable children. My son has since been hospitalized elsewhere, and several other children related that Belmont was the worst of every facility theyd been in. Arent there accrediting organizations governing such facilities? This one ought to have its accreditation revoked.

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GR

grace jones

Belmont was enough to get me back on my feet i.e. just enough. The food was horrible, the staff did the bare minimum, there was blatant unchecked homophobia, and there was discrimination and abuse towards the mentally retarded. I believe staff could have done much more to assist the clients. I almost got attacked by another patient, and it was not taken seriously. Over all I feel most of the workers, are in for a brutal reality check. Hopefully they will lose their jobs, to spare future patients the mental frustration over inept care. In my opinion I had a horrible psychiatrist that barely spent five minutes with me per day.Personally I think I was misdiagnosed. On top of that the mental health technicians, were rude, and got away with abusing the most vulnerable patients. The bathroom was not cleaned as it should be, and when I complained about urine on the floor and toilet seat, the response from the nurse on duty, was "just sit with it" no pun intended. To wrap it up, one of my worst experiences was the fact that I disclosed personal information to a student nurse, who was doing his clinicals, and instead of keeping my information personal, he went back and told his supervising nurse the information I had entrusted to him. Lastly, there was a lot of talk about the Christian faith, going on between the staff members, within earshot of the patients, which is inappropriate in a secular hospital. Their remarks could have been very offensive to many of the patients who practice different faiths. I hope my comments will cause people to think before seeking treatment from Belmont. The better hospital I have been told, when you are in a crisis situation, is the University of Pennsylvania. .

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BE

Benjamin Piven-Kehrle

I wish I could review their treatment, but I havent even been able to get an appointment. Ive called the outpatient referral number over a dozen times in the past two months. Turns out they dont actually have a receptionist for that line, just an answering machine. In theory theyre supposed to call you back within 24 hours to schedule an intake appointment. In practice, Ive gotten three or four voicemails 3-5 days after my messages (on days I specifically said I wouldnt be available during business hours due to my own work schedule), just telling me to call the same number again. The rest of my calls went completely unanswered. Eventually I tried calling the number for "urgent matters," and the receptionist there said they cant schedule outpatient appointments and forwarded me back to the same answering machine yet again. Ive even left messages asking them to just schedule me for any time on one of my days off in the next month and if they call while Im at work to leave a message telling me the date and time of the appointment. I just got the same canned message yet again telling me to call the number that doesnt connect to a real person. So I cant actually review their healthcare, but as somebody who works in a medical field myself, I can tell you that Belmont has 0-star scheduling service.

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ED

Edwin North

While There were a few good nurses and techs, sadly most are nasty, rude, dismissive, and disinterested in caring for patients. What ever training the techs had, it was not enough, or some didnt learn a thing. I saw money stolen from a fellow patent, saw techs who consistently treated distressed patients with body language and tone that only served to elevate the situation and blamed the patient. They do not listen to the people acting less like patient care techs and more like prison guards. Were I in charge Id be firing a lot of techs and nurses. Yes Angel, Terrilyn and Crystal..I am looking right at you three miserable b•••••s. Never go to or send anyone you love here. The few good people are not worth the foul bitter slugs.

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