[Villages Kahuna]

If the patient had been actually admitted, The Villages Regional Hospital is so badly understaffed that he could have gotten dressed, walked out, and not been missed for quite some time, maybe hours!

My own experience recently was having to wait in the ER for about 12 hours to get a 15-minute procedure ordered by my doctor. When they finally performed the procedure they got it wrong, apparently as the result of the incorrect entry of the written doctor’s order into the ER computer. Late at night the halls of the ER were lined with patients on gurneys, presumably waiting for admission to the hospital because of inadequate staffing.

What was even more aggravating was, after the completion of my ordered procedure at about 3:45 AM, they would not discharge me because there was no doctor to sign the discharge order until he arrived at the start of his shift at 5 AM. No doctor in the Emergency Room of a large hospital? Unbelievable!

My primary care physician told me that everyone had hoped that care at TVRH would improve with the ownership and management of UF Health, but that has not happened. In fact, it has gotten worse. With the obvious problems UF Health is having staffing both TVRH and Leesburg Regional Hospital, it’s hard to imagine how they could possibly consider building a new, larger teaching hospital south of route 44.