[Villages Kahuna]

I was told by a local doctor that if I ever found myself in TVRH, the first thing I should do is call a taxi and go to another hospital. “Those people will kill you.”, he advised.

My recent personal experience in TVRH ER confirms that advice. My doctor sent me to TVRH and ordered the infusion of two units of a blood component. I decided to go to TVRH thinking, how could they screw up a simple blood infusion?

I arrived at about 4:15 PM. After admission, I waited in the ER waiting room about 3 hours to be called for a ‘cross and match” blood test. I was then returned to the waiting room, where I waited until about 1 AM before being called into the ER itself (where the halls were lined with patients on beds, apparently waiting for a room in the hospital itself). I then waited until 3 AM before the 15 minute infusion began. As the nurse began to disconnect me, I asked if she had administered two units as my doctor had ordered. No she replied, she thought I was supposed to get only one unit. She then scrambled to get me re-hooked up and administered another unit, as my doctor had ordered. By then it was 3:30 AM and very quiet, because there had been a shift change in the ER. When I finally was disconnected from the tubing, they left the needle in my arm and said a doctor would have to approve my discharge. But, it was explained, the ER doctor who had to discharge me didn’t start his shift until 5 AM. I finally walked out the front door of the ER, where my wife had been waiting for almost two hours, at 5:15 AM.

So The Villages Regional Hospital made me wait 13 hours to get a 15-minute procedure, and then made a mistake following the doctors order!
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Having said that about TVRH, I had an excellent, prompt and thorough experience in the Leesburg Regional Hospital ER only weeks later. I have also been told by a friend who is a cardiologist at John’s Hopkins hospital, that based on his experience when he needed a heart procedure while visiting, that “I’m a cardiologist and I know a good cardiology department when I see one and Leesburg Hospital has a first class cardiology department.
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Should I need hospitalization in the future on an emergency basis, I’ll choose Leesburg Regional. If the care I need is not emergency, I’ll drive 45 minutes to Advent Waterman or an hour or so to Shands in Gainesville.