The Villages Hosp.
 

Just had to drop a note about the Villages Hospital. I had to go there for some surgery on my knee the other day. All I can say is I was VERY impressed with the Hospital,check in was quick,piano music in the lobby as your waitng, nursing staff was great etc. Very clean,bright. My prep nurse was very attentive as was my charge nurse after surgery.She even called the next day on her day off to see if I was doing alright. Having come from Long Island and the supposed big Hospitals I found TVRH to be far superior to that of LI. I wouldn't hessitate giong there again at all. :BigApplause:KUDOS

Skip that is good to hear. We have not had to use it yet, but that is nice to know.
Also hope you are coming laong fine and have a speedy recovery!

Army Guy

I am glad that someone had an experience other than the disaster I had. Went to ER with major arrythmia. Had to wait a while before MD showed up. In meantime nurse put IV in my arm and neglected to remove touriquet. When MD finally did arrive he was ready to leave and wanted nurse to inject meds to stop arrythmia on her own. Both nurse and I had to protest and he stayed while they injected me and my heart returned to normal. Were admitting me so I had to wait amost three hours for a bed. Feeling discomfort in my arm after a couple of hours I called nurse who flushed out my IV. When pain didn't stop and my arm was getting numb made her come back and it was then she realized that the tourniqet had not been removed. It was a nightmare for me and to make matters worse the shift was having some kind of food event and everyone kept going back and forth to get goodies. Next time I was in distress I went to another hospital.

Update
 

i promised an update after my surgery.Just spent 4 days 3 nights at TVRH after having total knee replacement. Surgery was done by Dr. Cowin outstanding job. The nurses,aides, PT staff and volunteers were outstanding throughout my stay. I don't have 1 complaint with anything including the cafeteria food. If I needed anything and hit the call button they were right there. At night the nurses would stop and chat and see if I needed anything. The rooms were very clean,linens were changed daily and the paper was dropped off every morning. On my walks in the hallways people got out of your way, gave encouragement and asked if you needed any help. It's good to know we have such a great Hospital close by. I did relay the message on the ER complaints and was told they are addressing them and to be patient. They agreed that it's unfortinate that the ER gets used as a clinic by so many people including those outside TV. I would deffinatly not hesitate going back there for anything in the future.I don't work for them and this has been my experience and my opinion!
:bigbow:

Glad to hear it,...I've also had surgery at TVH and have no complaints whatsoever about my experience there. :)

Not at all glad to hear you had to have surgery but very glad to hear you appear to be mending and so glad to hear that you had a good experience. I think that makes everyone feel better, especially coming from someone we know and trust.

Keep improving Skip...we are looking forward to when you can again SKIP!!!!

Also not happy to hear that you had to have knee surgery, Skip. Glad that you are on the mend.

Personally, had knee surgery for a ruptured quad muscle about 2 years ago, and recovery was NOT fun. Almost 2 years after, and still not back to what it should be.

I know what you are going through.

Sorry to hear you had to have surgery Skip but glad everything went well and hope you have a speedy recovery.

I count myself very, very lucky that I have not yet had reason to visit any hospital here in Florida!

But, from everything I have heard over my seven years, I am a strong believer in The Village's Hospital. I believe we have the best folks here, and they are dedicated to our care.

I lived for nearly 45 years within spitting distance of a major, well-respected teaching hopsital in Saint Louis. Despite limited experience with either that facility or The Villages, I have been persuaded that our very own TVRH is as good as any in the nation!

I salute them. :bigbow:

SWR
:beer3:

You maybe should save that salute until you've been in The Villages Hospital. I've had one good experience there and one very bad experience there.

The Villages Hospital
 

We did not have a great experience with the hospital. My brother-in-law was visiting from Canada. He went to an emergency care center here in TV. He was told he should get to the hospital ASAP. Given the necessary paper work to avoid long forms, and should have been admitted right away.

Had to fill out an hours worth of paper work, and he was in extreme pain.

When a volunteer came down to take him to his room, we went home thinking he was in good hands. The volunteer took him to his floor and handed over his package of forms and information. Shift change and a hour later some one asked him what he was doing there.

Next day when we went to visit, his nurse had not even read his file and had no idea why he was there.

I could go on.........., but even getting him signed out was a nightmare. And his nurse came into his room mad, because I had the nerve to go ask the floor nurse station what was going on and could they contact his nurse to get the paper work to us for his discharge.

Sad to give a bad report, but why gloss over facts, and pretend this sort of thing does not happen in The Villages.

This is really not very clear and you never did say what treatment he received and for what?

I can understand not everyone agreeing about the hospital but your complaints are not clear to me. Everyone has to fill out paperwork to be admitted. Getting someone signed out requires release from the attending physician and that is not always easy to do, because he/she may be tied up.

You said you "could go on" please give us more details if you want to be understood and agreed with.

"Why gloss over facts and pretend this sort of thing does not happen in The Villages", sounds like a Villages bash to me.

But I could be mistaken. May I have some popcorn?

golf4me: I am just curious...Are you saying that the same people who operate The Villages also operate The Villages Hospital?. I am getting very inpatient and somewhat suspicious with people like you who seem to need to come to the defense of The Villages. More directly speaking, and other than purchasing a home here, do you have an invested interest financial or otherwise in The Villages? If not then allow a resident the opportunity and right to express his/her opinion concerning an experience(s). However if you do have an additional investment then acknowledge that fact so we all know your true motivations. By the way my only ownership is in a house.

It seems that many who enter The Villages hospital via the ER seem to have problems there. Those that enter through a scheduled surgery seem to do very well. I suspect that is because the surgeon , be it a heart or ortho or whomever would not tolerate bad care for his patient. They carry a big stick.

Some of this doesn't make sense (to me, anyway). When you say this, " He went to an emergency care center here in TV. He was told he should get to the hospital ASAP. Given the necessary paper work to avoid long forms, and should have been admitted right away", I wonder:

1. When you say "an emergency care center here in TV", do you mean an urgent care center?

2. Who "gave him the necessary paperwork to avoid long forms"?

3. Assuming it was an urgent care center visited first, how would an urgent care center admit a person to the hospital??

411 Urgent Care Center
 

The 411 Urgent Care Center, which has two locations - one in Summerfield and one in Buffalo Ridge, has a hospital employee who will pre-register you for hospital services if staff at 411 Urgent Care determine that you need to be seen in the ER or you need additional tests only offered at the hospital. I have been the recipient of these services several times - pre-registered, fitted with an armband and given paperwork which allowed me to simply say "hello" to the registration staff at the hospital, thereby expediting my necessary visit to the hospital to be seen in the ER or to have tests/x-rays, etc.

Adam Santos and his brother, John Santos, at 411 Urgent Care have taken excellent care of both me and my husband on several occasions. The most dramatic of which was when I went to see them obviously quite ill. I did not realize exactly how ill I was, but Adam did. He called an ambulance and I was admitted through the ER with systemic MRSA. Yes - MRSA - isolation in the hospital - a pic line - the whole 9 yards - and I lived to tell about it.

I do not know that this is the urgent care center that the OP is referring to, but it has been my personal experience that this is one urgent care center that can make it a bit easier to bypass some red tape at the hospital.

On an additional note, I have been inpatient in The Villages hospital 3 times since living here. All 3 times, I received excellent care. My husband has been inpatient also and received excellent care.

Mommieswammie, very interesting post and thanks for sharing your story.

Do I understand that at 411 Urgent Care pre-registered you to The Villages Hospital ?

I've been admitted to our hospital twice. The first time was for scheduled surgery. The second time I came through the er. I had prompt and good care both times.

It was a Villages Hospital employee at 411 Urgent care that preregistered me to be seen in The Villages Hospital ER and/or to have tests such as x-rays, blood work, ultrasound looking for a blood clot, etc. The staff at 411 does not have the authority to admit anyone to the hospital. Arriving at The Villages Hospital with registration papers, an armband and test orders certainly made things much easier. Of course, if 411 can take care of your medical needs, they do. I do not believe that 411 Urgent care is in any way part of The Villages Hospital system, but the staff there are quite attentative and have devised ways to make things easier should a trip to the hospital be necessary. I certainly am not qualified to give definitive answers about the services at 411, so maybe a call to either Adam or John at the center might be a good idea. Just tell them it was the lady with the MRSA who recommended them.

Like many here in The Villages I have moved around. Unlike many of you I have had the unfortunate experience of having a hospital stay in every state in which I moved. What I have learned is that the support staff is curcial and that nurses are truly angels, It just impressed me to watch them work under such stressful situations; especially when dealing with ungrateful and demanding patients. True they all make mistakes. In fact the hospitals in Minneapolis began to report errors annually in the local papers. I suspect to alleviate lawsuits and to gain the support of the community. I am not sure that they still engage in that practice.

The choice of hospital like most things is a personal one. I am taken with the Munroe system. I have found doctors and their staff in this system and the hospital itself to be upbeat and competent . Yes my record stands I have had the opportunity to have two stays at the Munroe Hospital

I always look up healthcare practitioners at the state medical licensing board lookup at this page:
Healthcare Practitioner License Search

When I see that an urgent care practitioner is actually a registered nurse practitioner or a physician assistant, I'm going to look up next the Supervising Physician under whom they must practice, and I'm going to look and see where that supervising physician is on hospital staff or not.

If I'm seriously injured or seriously ill, I'm going to the E.R. There, if I get suddenly worse (like having a heart attack or stroke), they are equipped with all other departments ready to intervene and treat immediately. This is when price and wait times are a secondary concern of mine.

Just one person's observations.

Yes - I am aware that John and Adam are nurse practioner and physicians assistant. Frankly, I forget which is which. Yes - there is a supervising physician - Dr. William Goellner. Yes - if I am seriously injured or ill I am going to the ER, but there are times when an urgent care center is an appropraite place to seek medical care. Of course those times are a personal decision.

I do not know what urgent care center the OP visited, but he stated that he arrived at the hospital with paper work designed to ease the registration process at the hospital. It was questioned whether or not that was possible at an urgent care center. I was merely relating my personal experience and confirming that indeed it was possible.

It is not my intention to facilite a debate about the merits of an urgent care center vs. an ER. As all things in life there are choices and one must make the best choice given the circumstances, whatever they are.

Last night took wife to emergency room. Got there at 4:30p. Got to see a physician at 1:15am. They need a fast track system.

Get a Doctor
 

One thing I'd like to say. I can't believe how many people I've met that haven't looked into setting up their Doctors even after a years time. It is very important to take care of B4 you are I'll. Also be sure they can practice at the local Hospital. A call to your Dr. before going to ER can speed things up and quite possibly your Dr. will show up there. As I've said earlier abuse of the ER deffinatly leads to delays of needy persons.

Irishman, I hope your wife is ok......no matter what the problem that is just VERY unacceptable to have to wait that long to see the doctor. Then again, while I was a patient in TV hospital I had to wait one day for 5 hours to get a Tylenol!

I'm sorry to hear that you had a bad experience at TV hospital. But look at the bright side: You're still alive! It is estimated that about 195,000 people die every year due to medical mistakes while in the hospital. And that's just the number of deaths for hospitals. If you include medical errors at clinics, nursing homes, doctor's offices, in home care, prescription drugs from pharmacies etc., it's over 500,000 deaths per year. (It's about the equivalence of 3 jumbo jets crashing every day and killing 1,500 people.)

Anyone interested in this subject should read the following book: "Top Screwups Doctors Make and How to Avoid Them" I just started reading the book yesterday and I can't wait to get back to it.

The last thing Villagers should do, in my opinion, is go around thinking or trusting that everything will somehow be okay. Doctors and nurses with the best of intentions can make mistakes. So your best mind-set is one of caution: Ask lots of questions to make sure the right things are being done.

There should also be a book titled, "Top 1,000 Cases Where Doctors Did Everything Textbook Perfectly, But Sh*t Happened Anyway".

:bigbow:

I am very happy to here this as I am from New York orginally, and one doctor told me the medical care in Florida is sub-standard.

IMHO - One must be their own best advocate when seeking medical care. I have experienced several family members, who go to the doctor and don't have a clue as to what kind of questions that need to be asked. When I say, they should make a list of questions prior to going, they look at me like I am from another planet.

Today's doctors have only ten minutes to give you as they feel they are losing money. It's best to be prepared as opposed to going home and then thinking, I meant to ask the doctor this. I have found it extremely difficult to get my doctor on the phone after a visit.

Just sayin..........

Looking at the rates Medicare and medicare insurance supplements pay, I'd say that after 10 minutes doctors ARE probably losing money. Even more so when it takes them another 20 minutes to fill out all the insurance claim forms and then fight to get paid , maybe 3 months later. If you want the old fashioned hand holding, you probably have to buy into a boutique physicians practice; $20,000, or more, annually up front for all the service you can use.
Great if you can afford it.
Awhile back The Villages Hospital was listed as one of the few hospitals that is almost 100% medicare dependent. Tight reimbursements equal tight service levels. We are getting what we are paying for. ---just saying.

That sounds so defensive and totally unnecessary in this discussion. No one ever said that doctors and nurses never work hard to try to save people. But, just because they do, it doesn't help the family of someone who dies because of a simple preventable screwup.

Story 1: Many years ago, a neighbor of mine, a 45 year old long distance truck driver, went to the hospital to have a simple proceedure done. While in the hospital, they gave him the wrong medication and it killed him. He had a wife and two teenage children. That was another town about one hour from the Villages.

Story 2: Several years ago there was a villages news story about two or three women who all received internal damage from rectal exams(colonoscopies). They were all done by the same doctor. From what I understand, he made a tear in each of their colons and sent them home. Well, of course they got very sick as a result. Luckily, as far as I know, none of them died. They had to be scheduled for surgery to repair the damage.

Story 3: A neighbor of mine in the Villages was scheduled to have a stint put into a partly blocked artery(Leesburg Hospital). The artery had a sharp turn in it and the doctor couldn't get the stint to go around the bend. So he stopped. When she woke up he told her what happend and asked her if he could try again later in the afternoon. She said yes and he tryed again. Guess what, it didn't work the second time either. So he told her, "it's okay, you don't need it." She felt sick and stayed overnight. Medicare would only pay for the first try so she got billed several thousand dollars for the second try.

So it's not just about people dying from simple preventable screwups, as in the first example. It's about medical incompetence that often causes needless suffering and/or financial hardship.