Disgraceful

Waterman in Eustis.

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.

Would it do any good for these hospitals to read some of these horror story's posted here?
I'm sure the ER people if given a choice would not like to be treated like animals in the a.m. hours.

And hearing these story's, how much do people just by avoiding the village hospital to a point where the must ask, "Why has business been down so much lately?"

Just don't make sense

What's the link to TVRH? - so I don't go there...

Not really, it takes years for these ratings to change. Also, I need to know what goes into these "ratings", some are very heavily skewed against and aging population.

That being said, we have nearly 150,000 residents in peak season, ALMOST ALL of whom are 55+. When you compare that with the average demographics of the US from the 2020 census in which 29% of the population is over 55, it essentially gives us the age and medical problems of a city of 517,000, and only TWO hospitals both of which have staffing shortages.

Tucson:There are 25 Hospitals in Tucson, Arizona, serving a population of 530,905 people in an area of 231 square miles. There is 1 Hospital per 21,236 people, and 1 Hospital per 9 square miles.

I'm not saying we need 25 hospitals (nor does Tuscon), but probably 4 or 5 is a realistic number. The problem is there is no good way to get doctors and nurses to staff them, there is no great attraction here for younger professionals. As a result, we often end up with "B" players, locum tenens and out of area ER physician groups, none of which care for our community as much as a doctor or nurse that lives here would, and from what I've seen are more interested in watching the clock than moving patients through the ER. I used to say 2 of my friends and I could straighten out the ER at TVRH in 3 months, I now retract that statement. The "culture" of drag your heels and everyone can wait is so entrenched that you would have to fire everyone and start over, which is just not feasible with a healthcare personnel shortage

I'm a tax-paying resident of Florida and Ohio, I don't pay a cent to one of the best hospitals in the country, Cleveland Clinic.

Thank you.

My husband spent a week at Villages Regional near Spanish last January. Care was excellent. Doctor was fantastic, no complaints until it was time to release him — after a week
we were ready to have him home, but the nursing staff seemed too busy and he was released about 3 hours after he should have been. Otherwise, very positive experience.

Village regional Hospital ER poorly run
 

Village regional Hospital ER poorly run. I spent five hours in the ER no one did triage on me and I spoke to others that have been there eight hours with no triage. They need to board up and close the village ER they don’t even know how to triage

Patient experience data lags about 6 months to 1 year, which is based on the date of patient discharge.
That's relatively recent with survey data, which takes time to compile and review.

Surveys are about a year long, so the surveys were done from patients discharged from two years to one year ago.

So there is time to fix the particular hospital, however, there is a huge medical staffing shortage right now, due to illness, retirement, and personal beliefs differing from their employer. So not sure that you are going to get much better without going to a UF Shands in Gainesville, Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, or Cleveland Clinic in Boca, where standards are very high.

Hospital solvency is also a big issue if there isn't a local source of staffing, and traveling staff are used at 2x or 3x the local going rate for employment.

So be careful out there, and there are other areas of FL which have good local healthcare if that is important to you

I think the OP has put their finger on the biggest single issue for the Villages - the lack of great medical care and choices in close proximity to the Villages. Who would have thought! Strictly my opinion.

Well, all I can say is that if "great medical care" is a priority for some, don't move here. Boston and NYC should be your first choice.

PS: You could move to Luxemburg, which the communist/socialist group titled "The World Health Organization" ranks #1 for health care in the world. However, you might be lonely since no one who knows anything about medicine would ever go to Luxemburg for health care. Personally, I think we should just "defund" the WHO since we supply the majority of it's funding and get nothing but denigration and BS in return.