[christine J Toft]

Originally Posted by ScottS

I recently had the misfortune of having to use the Villages ER. Absolute worst experience of my life. We arrived at apx 5:15 pm. We were treated extremely rudely by the elderly gentleman registering patients. We first had to ask if that was the line, as there really was no formal line. His tone and customer service were appalling. And yes he was a paid employee and not a volunteer. We then were directed to the billing person, who was also untrained and very rude. She asked for my insurance information. I handed her the workman’s comp form which had all the info needed. She handed it back and said she needed my insurance card. After pointing out this was a workman’s comp claim and this was not going on my personal insurance, she snatched the papers back out of my hand and complained that she did not know how to file a workman’s comp claim. My wife quickly took me to a seat as she could tell I was about to snap. So 2 hours later we are taken back to get an X-ray on my injured right knee. After completing the X-rays we are taken back to the waiting room. After 3 more hours apx 11:00, the ER doctor makes an appearance, he starts sitting with the 8 or 9 people in the waiting room and discussing all of their medical issues right there in the waiting room amongst everyone there. They use to have this thing called Hipaa, apparently that doesn’t exist here in the Villages. By midnight it was finally my turn to have my medical issues discussed aloud in front of everyone. He diagnosed me with a bad knee sprain, ordered me some pain killers, a knee brace and crutches. At 1:30 my wife was tired of waiting and went to check on the above items. 3 times I was asked my height. 3 times they were told 5’9”. They brought out crutches and a knee brace that the lowest adjustment was for someone 6’2”. At 2 am I stormed out the front door with nothing that fit, and no pain meds as all the pharmacy’s are closed and they don’t give medications out at that ER. What a joke! Turns out, after going to a real doctor the next day, that I had a completely torn in half ACL. NOT A BAD SPRAIN! If anyone knows of a good lawyer I would love their name, as hipaa laws were broken, the misdiagnosis without out even doing an MRI was reckless. I even asked him why they weren’t doing an MRI, to which he responded we don’t do those here. What??? Are you kidding me? So after being there for about nine hours, we were worse off than when we got there, and the sad part is they will still get paid.

I had a similar experience with my then 91 year old mother. They completely misdiagnosed her injuries after a fall. Had her moved to Ocala where they treated her properly. Go to Leesburg or Ocala if possible. It's a sad situation to have such inept people in a hospital "bragged" about.