Williamson Medical Center

Reviews 4

M

M And

Though I often read reviews, I rarely write them. In this case, I feel I have to. As a whole, our experience with Williamson County Medical Center was not impressive. With the exception of the main reason for this post, I would give 2 out of 5 stars. The real reason follows… My wife informed a nurse of dark green discharge while in labor, after her water had been broken. My wife’s words were “is it meconium?” In case you don’t know, meconium is the baby’s first bowel movement and, when made in utero, can cause aspiration that can lead to serious, even fatal, results. The nurse shrugged off the question and said “it’s just discharge, perfectly normal, don’t worry about it.” She did not retrieve or offer to retrieve a doctor. As a side note, this is our third child and we have never had any kind of dark green discharge and also told the nurse as much. As you might have guessed, our baby was born with meconium aspiration. What this means is that he had an APGAR of 1 (out of 10) and was pale white and not breathing or responding at birth. The four or five minutes it took for him to take his first breath were some of the longest minutes of my life. Hopefully, there won’t be any long term effects from this. As another side-note, no one really seemed to care about how incredibly stressful and worrisome those first few minutes were when we didn’t even know if our baby was alive. To say that lack of care is incredibly odd and disconcerting is an understatement. We casually mentioned to the attending doctor that we had mentioned the discharge and were told not to worry about it. She replied that “it could have happened at any time,” implying we couldn’t be sure that the mysterious dark green discharge (again, after water broke, what else is in there) had anything to do with the meconium aspiration. Uh, we weren’t really thinking malpractice here, just bringing it up. First, that response, as opposed to something like “I know that’s scary, I’m sorry for that, so glad the baby is ok” shows the lack of genuine care. Additionally, I don’t know of any dark green discharges that should be coming out after the water is broken. At the time, I was, and still am, grateful that they were able to revive our son. With some time to think about it, though, it dawned on me how outrageously unacceptable the situation was. Yes, they revived our son. That said, had the nurse acted when my wife told her she thought it was meconium and simply had a doctor take a closer look, the entire situation probably could have been avoided. Let me say this one more time for emphasis- our son almost died because a nurse didn’t feel like getting a doctor. Yes, that is stating it harshly, but it’s also true. Please, go somewhere else. Hopefully, this post doesn’t get deleted, though, obviously, they’re more likely to push for that than to follow up to make sure there are no long term effects from the several minutes our son went without oxygen.

---

AD

Adam Thrasher

Great hospital to have a baby! We were completely taken care of by the friendly staff. The only negative thing I have to say about the hospital is their arrangement with Bella Baby Photography. At first, my wife and I were excited that we could get professional photographs of our newborn. The photographer was very nice and took some great photos. I thought the prices were a little high (the package we chose was over $350 with tax and shipping), but we decided to order the full package. The online ordering process was clunky and time consuming. Once we placed the order, my wife got several phone calls over the next week or two saying we needed to change this or add that. 5 weeks later, we still didnt have our photos or birth announcements. My wife made several phone calls and sent emails asking what was taking so long. We even got an email notification that our photos had been overnighted, but still no photos. Finally, we got in touch with their head of customer service...her name is Sarah. What an unprofessional, rude individual. She actually yelled at my wife after she questioned why we got a notice of overnight shipment, but still no photos. Long story short, we still dont have the photos and birth announcements. Do yourself a favor...DO NOT USE BELLA BABY PHOTOGRAPHY! Save yourself time, money and frustration and hire a local photographer to take photos of your baby once you get home. You would think that a company like Bella Baby Photography, who has arranged to be a preferred vendor at this hospital and many local hospitals would have better customer service. After all, they have a captive audience...the photographer knocks on your door, comes in and gives this great pitch about their photos, blah blah and then you get jerked around after youve given them your hard earned money. I will be sure to tell everyone I know NOT to use Bella Baby Photography.

---

DE

Deepan Rajaratnam

Billing Dept. is awful. Would be really hard for busy families to deal with... The actual medical staff performed well, very courteous, and helpful. Internal medicine doctors were great. - 4 Billing department was awful. They send bills to collections after 6 week? In my case, the lab used the wrong billing code. Called the insurance, and they looked into the matter and said all they would need is an updated bill from WMC and they would cover the outstanding bill. Every time i called Vanderbilt billing, i had to wait on hold 15 minutes. I had talked to someone who was unable to help me. He sent my bill to be reviewed. I talked to them 3 more times. After 30 days and no review, my case was escalated to upper management and i should have gotten a call in 48 hours. No call. Few weeks later i got a notice from collections! Event though i had been working with Vanderbilt to resolve my issue, even though Vanderbilt messed up, they sent my bill to collections! Called again, they re-escalated my case, and still no call. Luckily im a young adult. I honestly think they just stall, send the bill to collections, and they get paid either way without dealing with their issues... I could only imagine being busy with a family schedule and dealing with this bs. WMC billing department - 1;

---

A

A Private User

The worst service I have ever seen in my life. I hope to NEVER be taken there in an emergency. I took my wife there today with severe stomach cramping, because primary physician was out of town. We sat in the waiting area for over two hours! I watched a lady from a car accident told to wait. A man whos son told the receptionist he was having a stroke..... pushed aside. I also watched three people who were waiting as long as us get up and leave the ER! This is definitely a poor excuse for a hospital. We finally left and went to the Vanderbilt walk-in clinic and were seen immediately. Let me remind this hospital of one thing....A promise made "TO RECKON all who have taught me this art equally dear to me as my parents and in the same spirit and dedication to impart a knowledge of the art of medicine to others. I will continue with diligence to keep abreast of advances in medicine. I will treat without exception all who seek my ministrations, so long as the treatment of others is not compromised thereby, and I will seek the counsel of particularly skilled physicians where indicated for the benefit of my patient"

---

---