Originally Posted by jojo (Post 1390803)

I am a volunteer at the hospital and speak with all the patients after their first night in the hospital. I give my notes to the volunteer who directs patient surveys. She compiles and meets weekly with the administrative team at the hospital. I don't have the hard data, but I would estimate from my notes that well over 85% of patients are happy with the nursing services they are receiving on the floor. Many give very high ratings. One of the questions that I ask in the protocol that I use is whether the patient was admitted through the ER. I then ask about the wait time and the quality of the treatment in ER. While the answer to the time varies, most patients say they were triaged immediately. They acknowledged that they may have had to wait in the waiting room during busy times if their issue was not life threatening. The major delay they tell me is not in being treated in a timely manner but waiting in the ER rooms for a bed to open in the hospital. As to care in the ER, again the vast majority say it was OK or good. As I read these reports, clearly one would assume that the place is a disaster. I have taken my mother there twice in the past year and we were treated immediately and she was admitted to the hospital both times. I do not question the authenticity of any of these reports. Clearly, folks are telling what happened to them. Obviously some people have experienced major delays or problems in treatment. However, I must tell you that I talk to patients weekly and rarely do I hear stories such as these on TOTV. I wonder, do those who have experienced good care in the ER just not speak up?

Originally Posted by leux75 (Post 1390812)

The villages hospital is undesirable for many reasons.My husband was a pt in Feb, we had many complaints.I wrote a letter to hospital administration.Itold them I was disgusted each time I saw a full page add in the Daily Sun stating The Villages is Americas healthiest home town.

Originally Posted by jojo (Post 1390803)

I am a volunteer at the hospital and speak with all the patients after their first night in the hospital.

Originally Posted by blueash (Post 1391038)

Thank you for volunteering. However if I were a hospital administrator I would do my survey after the first night while the patient was still in the hospital. The patient has gone from very frightened to stabilized,and is hopefully pain controlled both of which are a big improvement from the day before, and is still subject to the quality of the care which is going to be received over the next hours and days while still in the hospital. Of course they are going to be both feeling better [pleased] and cautious about complaining. I'd add that the great majority of complaints are about the ER not the inpatient units. Maybe the administration should have you walking about in the ER doing a survey of how satisfied patients down there are feeling. Maybe even make it anonymous and not face to face so there is no pressure to be socially pleasing. Say a cell phone app that allows people to rate the care every 15 minutes, a series of scales looking at wait time, courtesy, housekeeping, being kept informed, comfort. These are features the waiting patient can intelligently rate.



It is uncommon for diners to complain about a bad meal while still in the restaurant even though there is no concern that the staff is going to be cooking their next meal. Server asks "How was the meal" "Fine" but all along they complained to their dining mates about the quality. Which report is the accurate one? The complaint to the friends at the table or the "fine" given the server?

Originally Posted by dbussone (Post 1391047)

There have actually been studies about surveying patients while in the hospital. The data is skewed because patients are concerned they will be mistreated if they complain while still in the hospital. Almost all hospitals survey patients after discharge for this reason.


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Originally Posted by vintageogauge (Post 1391111)

The follow up calls at home are standard practice with all hospitals asking mainly how your recovery is going, nothing to do with the ER. I would never go there again the ER reception area is disgusting. I always give restaurants a second chance if I had a bad meal or bad service, an ER is a whole different ballgame. Even if some of these complaints are not 100% true, they should have an independent survey firm asking key questions sent to the patients after they are home. Complaining here as noted earlier does no good.

Originally Posted by Xaribe (Post 1397224)

I have been trying to educate myself on TV. My brother, who lives in Bradenton, said to avoid TV. I was concerned because I have not found much negative about TV until now. The houses and other activities seem fine, yet dental and healthcare seem very lacking with many stories sounding like elderly abuse. I have UHC Advantage, but live in the Northeast. My wife had Merkel Cell Cancer for which medical costs approached $80K, but my out of pocket was at best $1500. So medical care is paramount for me. After reading the responses, I may forget TV. I have never heard so many horror stories. My wife gets a CAT scan every 6 months, and we are 3 yrs now with nothing found.

I do want to thank everyone for providing the information.

Originally Posted by Xaribe (Post 1397224)

I have been trying to educate myself on TV. My brother, who lives in Bradenton, said to avoid TV. I was concerned because I have not found much negative about TV until now. The houses and other activities seem fine, yet dental and healthcare seem very lacking with many stories sounding like elderly abuse. I have UHC Advantage, but live in the Northeast. My wife had Merkel Cell Cancer for which medical costs approached $80K, but my out of pocket was at best $1500. So medical care is paramount for me. After reading the responses, I may forget TV. I have never heard so many horror stories. My wife gets a CAT scan every 6 months, and we are 3 yrs now with nothing found.



I do want to thank everyone for providing the information.

Originally Posted by dbussone (Post 1402657)

Just a little information for you. My wife and I both grew up in the Boston area. She is an RN trained at Massachusetts General Hospital. We both have some issues common to those our age, and she has MS. We have successfully found local physicians who provide quality care. When sub-specialty care has been needed, we (and our internist) have identified very competent physicians within an hour of The Villages. It used to take longer than that to get into Boston from 25 miles away.

Everything is a matter of perspective.


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Originally Posted by Hancle704 (Post 1402696)

Problem still occurring at TVRH. Today, my neighbor went to ER with Chest pains. No beds in ER so he was seen seen, sent for testing, IV started and then returned to waiting room. The bottleneck IMO, is open beds "upstairs" in hospital, but no nurses . So folks remain in a bed or gurney in ER or out in waiting room until more nursing staff is brought in. This situation occurs now, unlike peak season when there are nurses but no rooms. Meanwhile TV continues to grow, but there does not appear to be a plan in place to manage this problem at TVRH. My wife just spent and extra weekend in hospital occupying a bed because they had no Physical Therapist available to do an assessment of her post hospital needs.

Originally Posted by villages07 (Post 1402707)

Hancle.... I can validate your story. Spent more than Six hours at ER today accompanying someone else. He gave up and went home when they said it might be two hours more. If they had communicated better we could have made other, better choices...like Leesburg ER or new ER up on 441. Very poorly run. I am proud of many things about The Villages and the ancillary businesses, but, I am ashamed at how the ER is run. He got the same story about beds upstairs being full.

By the way, I checked TVRH website at the midpoint and it said wait time was 0 minutes. What a farce. Yes, they are quick at checkin and triage but a long, long wait to see a doc.

This is on a Wednesday morning in late May. I can only imagine what it's like on a Saturday night in March!


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Originally Posted by Xaribe (Post 1397224)

I have been trying to educate myself on TV. My brother, who lives in Bradenton, said to avoid TV. I was concerned because I have not found much negative about TV until now. The houses and other activities seem fine, yet dental and healthcare seem very lacking with many stories sounding like elderly abuse. I have UHC Advantage, but live in the Northeast. My wife had Merkel Cell Cancer for which medical costs approached $80K, but my out of pocket was at best $1500. So medical care is paramount for me. After reading the responses, I may forget TV. I have never heard so many horror stories. My wife gets a CAT scan every 6 months, and we are 3 yrs now with nothing found.

I do want to thank everyone for providing the information.

Originally Posted by JoMar (Post 1403507)

You all do know this isn't a hospital associated with The Villages right?

Originally Posted by Dan9871 (Post 1403515)

Of course you have to decide for yourself about medical care in the villages.

But just to give you another data point to consider...

My wife and I also have UHC Advantage and use Villages Health. She has had serious medical issues this year and been in the ER numerous times, both at TVH and Ocala Regional Medical Center. Both seem to be very busy, have lot's of patients in gurneys in the hallways and take forever to get admitted to the hospital, usually due to lack of beds.

I know that some the doc's and medical people that respond on here on TOTV say that TVH ER needs improvements but from what little I know of ER's it seems about the same as most, at least from a patient's point of view.

But the overall care and quality in the hospitals and from the medical people has been very good. We both feel it is more than equal to what had when we lived in Eastern Mass.

As far as medical costs so far for my wife the cost on paper from the doc's and hospitals is over $280,000. Our out of pocket so far is almost $4500 plus what we pay for Medicare. The UHC Advantage plan we have limits our out of pocket to $4500 so we are just about done with out of pocket for this year.

We've haven't had any issue finding a good PCP or specialists, or getting the tests my wife needs. We've depended on our PCP's recommendations and it has worked out very well.

One time a provider that UHC said we had to use was about 40 minutes away. We found another in the Villages and asked UHC for an exception based strictly on convenience for us. UHC only to one day to approve it without anything more than filling out a request form.