[Sunny923!]

Originally Posted by Stu from NYC

Wonder why they do not? Hit them in their pocketbooks would be a great incentive to improve

Oh they do. Dont worry, their reimbursements are based in their ratings. Bad ratings means fewer dollars coming in.

[eeroger]

I believe one of the reasons The Villages hospital ER is so bad is they do not have ER certified docs on staff. This was confirmed by a question & answer forum by one of the execs. Can't remember her name. Who knows what qualifications these docs have.

[mikreb]

I used UF Urgent Care and received awesome care. It's the people that make it work not the medicare ratings.

[Topspinmo]

Originally Posted by Stu from NYC

We should do a better job taking care of people but do not trust the govt to do a good job in this regard.

IMO all insurance does it might a pay bill. The government can do that.

[BEETHOVENMIKEY]

My wife and I have both had inpatient and outpatient surgeries and tests at West Marion and love the staff and facility. Easy to get to and usually only 20 - 30 minutes away, from here in the north side of TVs. Where we came from, in central Maryland, it was 20 - 60 minutes to hospitals, so going to W. Marion is nothing.
We had very bad experiences at both Villages and Leesburg hospitals, the latter, father-in-law died following a successful shoulder replacement. Hospital staff allowed him to eat a meal immediately following surgery, before he was out from anesthesia. He didn't even know where he was yet, due to the drugs. He vomited, inhaled and dead 2 hours later.
We've got medical cards in our wallets, car and on the refrigerator instructing that if requiring hospitalization, we should be transported to West Marion. Our experience: 4.5 stars

[larcha]

On the Medicare ratings site the following caution is made:

"How should I use the hospital star ratings?
Star ratings can give you information and help you compare hospitals locally and nationwide, but you should consider a variety of factors when choosing a hospital, like physician guidance about your care plan. Along with the overall rating, you should look at other aspects of hospital quality like rates of infection and complications, and patients' experience of care based on survey results."

Many factors go into quality of care. All patient experiences are different but ultimately it's your experience that matters. That said, I think the patients' survey results are for me the best measure.

[starkk]

We go to Shands because of the past ratings and past family experiences

[tophcfa]

Originally Posted by ThirdOfFive

Quite the rainbows-and-unicorns article on VRH in today's Daily Sun...

The article was partially correct, but incomplete. It states VRH is “fostering unmatched medical care for retirees”. What the article fails to mention is the health care is unmatched because it’s unimaginable anyplace else could be any worse.

[Ramone]

Originally Posted by tophcfa

Hmmm, specifics. Try having a serious life threatening illness (not Covid), being in the worst possible agony imaginable, spending approximately 12 1/2 hours in a filthy ER, finally being totally misdiagnosed and sent packing (should have been admitted to ICU) to drive myself home to die, in a golf cart after midnight when I could barely walk or talk. When my wife arrived to save my life and got me to a real hospital in Gainesville (I couldn’t possibly drive myself), the triage team quickly evaluated me and rushed me to critical care. There isn’t a low enough grade possible for the ER at the Villages hospital.

I Agee, went to same ER on a Monday 4PM in Mid May, 20-30 others lined up. Checked in for blood clot on eye (per eye doctors) and waited till 7:30PM and left. Came back 8AM next day, waited hour and taken to ER exam room. Waited 1 hour for doc, routine exam, told to wait for some test he wants, CT Scan, Blood, MRI. Waited 3 hours got blood test. Now late afternoon, no food and little water. Late afternoon Nerologist (spelling) seen, told I was being admitted. For what I asked, observation they said. Put in room to wait for further test, told they were busy and short of staff. Got CT Scan. Got a sandwich and applesauce for dinner. I.V.s in and heart monitor on. Nurse tried to get me first on list for MRI, she succeeded on getting me in at 6:30 am, where tech said they were not busy yesterday. Oh!
No waited for some food, new un caring nurse asked for some food, she sniffled and half hour later got some cereal. 1PM Neorologist asst came in and wanted to keep me another day. Would not adjust meds or anything. I said I wanted out, she said no, I ripped the IV out of arm and heart monitor off and left. Fine ever since

[tophcfa]

Originally Posted by Ramone

I Agee, went to same ER on a Monday 4PM in Mid May, 20-30 others lined up. Checked in for blood clot on eye (per eye doctors) and waited till 7:30PM and left. Came back 8AM next day, waited hour and taken to ER exam room. Waited 1 hour for doc, routine exam, told to wait for some test he wants, CT Scan, Blood, MRI. Waited 3 hours got blood test. Now late afternoon, no food and little water. Late afternoon Nerologist (spelling) seen, told I was being admitted. For what I asked, observation they said. Put in room to wait for further test, told they were busy and short of staff. Got CT Scan. Got a sandwich and applesauce for dinner. I.V.s in and heart monitor on. Nurse tried to get me first on list for MRI, she succeeded on getting me in at 6:30 am, where tech said they were not busy yesterday. Oh!
No waited for some food, new un caring nurse asked for some food, she sniffled and half hour later got some cereal. 1PM Neorologist asst came in and wanted to keep me another day. Would not adjust meds or anything. I said I wanted out, she said no, I ripped the IV out of arm and heart monitor off and left. Fine ever since

Sorry you had to go through that, but totally not surprised. The saddest part is you had a relatively good experience, with short waiting times, compared to my horrendous experience on June 8th, 2021 (which went into the wee hours of the 9th).

It absolutely amazes me that so much attention is being given to getting quicker response emergency services. Why, so you can get dumped off at the Villages Hospital? Based on my experience at that hell hole, I would rather stay home and die.

[Stu from NYC]

Originally Posted by Ramone

I Agee, went to same ER on a Monday 4PM in Mid May, 20-30 others lined up. Checked in for blood clot on eye (per eye doctors) and waited till 7:30PM and left. Came back 8AM next day, waited hour and taken to ER exam room. Waited 1 hour for doc, routine exam, told to wait for some test he wants, CT Scan, Blood, MRI. Waited 3 hours got blood test. Now late afternoon, no food and little water. Late afternoon Nerologist (spelling) seen, told I was being admitted. For what I asked, observation they said. Put in room to wait for further test, told they were busy and short of staff. Got CT Scan. Got a sandwich and applesauce for dinner. I.V.s in and heart monitor on. Nurse tried to get me first on list for MRI, she succeeded on getting me in at 6:30 am, where tech said they were not busy yesterday. Oh!
No waited for some food, new un caring nurse asked for some food, she sniffled and half hour later got some cereal. 1PM Neorologist asst came in and wanted to keep me another day. Would not adjust meds or anything. I said I wanted out, she said no, I ripped the IV out of arm and heart monitor off and left. Fine ever since

Disgraceful

[Villagesgal]

Waterman in Eustis.

[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!
———————-
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.
————————
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.

[Michael G.]

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

[Djean1981]

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