Wife was brought to TVRH ER by ambulance at 9:30 PM recently. Elevated BP and complaining of same symptoms of congestive heart failure that she had experienced in past. She was left on a gurney in a hallway in the ER. Tests were ordered and about midnight she was brought to a ER room. More tests were ordered and a doctor came in and before she said much she said she had to take a call. At 2:30 AM I started asking when the doctor would return. At 4:30 AM a nurse came in and stated my wife had CHF and was being admitted. She then suggested that I could leave. It wasn't until noon that my wife was finally brought to a room. She spent several days on 4th floor in observation room before being discharged and sent to a skilled nursing facility for continued treatment. During her stay in the hospital I noticed that there are several corridors in hospital that have all empty rooms. I have now been told that while the hospital has been expanded they have not added staff adequate to meet demand and the result is that folks spend longer periods in the ER and because of that, many folks spend added time in the waiting room. She was seen by cardiologist and internist in the ER while waiting to be sent to a room. As far as I know the ER doctor never returned to see my wife but ordered tests. My disappointment about the hospital is now based on reality that all the expansion has not improved the long ER waits because there does not seem to be enough staff to handle the volume of patients waiting to be admitted.
I agree with other posts that the entire ER department is in real need of a makeover and at a minimum, a good cleaning because it is starting to look like some of the third world hospitals we seen on TV news.
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