Villages Hospital
 

Well, I hesitated to post but...
Hubby went in by ambulance, we thought it was a stroke.
ER Doc thought so too. Waited in ER hallway for a bed for 9 hrs. That's OK, they WERE extremely busy and the hospital was full.
ER staff was great, although they did take the wrong guy in for a CAT scan thinking it was husband....(when we asked about our CAT they said "You already had it."...).
Anyway, 3 days and a few tests later the Dr. and Neurologist told us nothing was wrong, tests were fine and that it was probably Anxiety or Depression and gave us a psychiatrists name. (It's all in your head dear...the pounding headache, slurred speech, unable to move your leg, the falling over and the low B. pressure when standing, confusion, all in your head.)
As we were leaving, the nurse called me aside and whispered "I found this in your chart and thought you'd like to know, the tests showed a Mastoiditis. My uncle had it and he was way off balance etc."
Why didn't they tell us???? Why didn't they treat it???

We called our Doc at home in Maine (we were NOT going to call the hospital, it would have taken forever to get help I assume) and he said that could be very serious if left untreated and called in anti-biotics. (We don't have a primary here yet.)
So, my question is, if in an emergency we don't go to TV Hospital, where will the ambulance take us? The Docs in TV and Leesburg are the same!
p.s. the nurses were great!

So, hubs is still not himself and I'm searching for a Doc and a Neurologist.:undecided:
Frazzled

That is very, very worrisome. I am so sorry that you had all those wrong things happen.

Me too Gracie! I'm thinking that WE don't have a choice where we are taken as we prolly are directed to the nearest facility! I'm sorry for your experience and really hope it is an unfortunate but isolated incident!

Your husband may not want a female doctor but I find dr clarissa Abrantes to be very caring and thorough. Good luck!

Oh so sorry to hear about your husband. I sure hope he gets back to himself soon! Hopefully, they will get to the bottom of this sooner than later. Speedy recovery....

So sorry this happened to your husband. Hoping it gets resolved with good results.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

Wow
 

Sorry to hear this hope all comes out alright. I was just going to post my recent experiance. Yesterday I had to go for a Cardio Cath to get clearence for my knee surgery. I thought the nursing staff and the Cath Lab Staff where outstanding and kept us very calm and well informed. I guess it's all about who you get to wait on you. As far as the Ambulance I know when I rode with the Ambulance on Long Island we took you to the nearest hospital not sure of here though.

I was at Villages Hospital ER in late May and was admitted. My stay there was great ....have NO negatives to say about TVRH. That being said...have lived in several areas and communities. Some had large teaching hospitals and some just smaller regular ones. I've heard BOTH positive AND negative reports about most of these facilities. Doesn't matter where you live! I've heard both bad and good things about the Mayo Clinic and believe me, in Minnesota they're where "the yellow brick road" leads to. I'm just using that as an example. Where you have human beings, mistakes are going to happen. Hope to Heavens it won't to you when the time comes. If a facility is exceptionally busy (and this isn't an excuse) the possibilities for mistakes are heightened.

I'm sorry your husband had this experience!!! I hope the treatment for his condition has him up and around soon!!!

Billy, sorry to hear about your husband's issues. Hope everything turns out well for you both.

Bill :)

I just got out of Villages Hospital the other day after 7 days there. Today had to go to Urgent Care as still not well, another infection brewing or probably the same one. If I had the strength I would have run of there as fast as I could. They did not address my problem in a timely fashion at all and overall care was inferior. 7 days and I did not get to see a Urologist for a serious kidney infection.
try Dr. Hamrick( I think that is her name) she is the new head of the stroke center at Villages Hospital. I find it just as negligent that you did not see the neuroligist or at the very least they should have given you her name. I'm running the other way.

I always tell the ambulance to take us to MRMC in Ocala. Good emergency room and good doctors.

But then we live in the Marion county end of TV.

I think your experience needs to be brought to the attention of the administration of the facility. Is there a patient ombudsman who could be contacted to carry this to the proper people? I think your questions are appropriate. Why didn't they tell you? Why didn't they treat this? Why were you directed toward a mental health provider when there was a physical problem evident? If I were the administrator or medical director of the facility I would want the answers to those questions also. I would not let this go since it obviously affects your confidence in the facility you would likely be taken to in an emergency.

So sorry to hear of your husband's scary situation. I'm glad he had you with him as a support. There are definitely mistakes made within the Medical System. With aging Boomers, it scares me to think of the increased pressure on a system that is already challenged.

My heart is breaking for you right now. I know how scary this is. I see some of the posters have given you some guidance. I do hope you are able to get to the bottom of this. I have had a similar situation and what I would say to you is to please persevere until you get the right answers.

Sending positive thoughts you way.

two different people came to me to ask about my stay as I was being discharged, I told them what I thought in a calm manner. Also I am writing a clear timeline of what happened while I was there to hopefully help avoid others from having to go thru what I went thru. They kept using the excuse it's Jan. and very busy....how silly of me to get so sick in Jan, I'll try to wait til May next time.
Anyway, it's Munroe for me next time. We did alot of research on both Munroe and Leesburg when we moved here and determined munroe would be best for us....in the heat of the moment we made a not so good decision, won't happen again.

Is Munroe in Ocala.? Will the ambulance transport to that location?

When I went they asked me which hospital I wanted. I said Munroe. They took me. But then I live in Marion county. I am not sure which ambulance service picked me up.

Munroe Regional Medical Center
1500 S.W. 1st Avenue Ocala, FL 34471
352.351.7200

Here is Monroe hospitals websit
http://www.munroeregional.com/

M brother had two major operations both at Munroe. I also had two operations and will tell you that Munroe is the only hospital in the area that I have any confidence.

Unfortunately for me it turned out that I ended up with at least one hospital stay in every state my company transfered me to. My last move was from the metropolitan Minneapolis, Mn area.

Munroe does an excellent job. The staff are competnet and friendly.

A condition for me in choosing a doctor is that he must be associated with Munroe.

Billyg My previous post was not clear of intent I was attempting o tell you your husband would recive good care at Munroe and not about me. Iam sorry for that oversight.

Mastoiditis can be effectively treated and appears to be somewhat persistent. it also appears that given the so called "superbug" a number of different anti-botics might be offered.

Good luck to you and your husband and I trust all will go well. Please post again to let us know how your husband is doing,

P.S. The reason i strayed is because I was posting while watching the 49'ers Saints game

The Villages Hospital
 

As a former Director of Nursing at a hospital in NYS, I find it extremely unsettling that your husband had to wait in the ER hallway for 9 hours. The Standard of Practice for ER's across the US is approximately 3-4 hours, either discharged to home or admitted to a bed in the hospital. I am questioning whether hospital personnel gave your husband the "clot buster" to dissolve clots that occur during a stroke as he appeared to have symptoms indicative of a stroke. I am unclear as to whether this hospital administers the "clot buster" in appropriate instances as there must be a neurologist available 24/7. It is important to be aware of other hospitals within a reasonable radius of TV that can provide the necessary care that one needs.

Thank you all
 

I am so appreciative of the support, help, opinions and caring that you have all offered. This is a wonderful site. I didn't realize how much I needed some support through this ordeal. Sometimes one doesn't realize the stress of being the care-giver and how important support is.
Part of the reason I chose TV Hospital was because it was close to home. I knew that the travel would add to the stress and I don't drive as well at night as I used to.
These are all tough decisions, but now I don't feel so alone in making them.
Thank you all.

I am so sorry to hear of your husband's poor experience at the TV hospital. I was glad to hear the the ER nursing staff was good (my wife is an ER nurse there).

I certainly would not offer any excuses for being in a hallway bed for nine hours, that is completely unacceptable. missing an important diagnosis and relying on a nurse to convey the information is unacceptable. That being said, it is just my opinion, but I think the TV hospital has been outgrown by the rapid growth of TV. There are only a limited number of beds and during snowbird season there are simply not enough beds (in the ER or in the hospital itself if a patient needs to be admitted) to meet the demand.

My wife has been an ER nurse for over 20 years and she gets very stressed by the limited capacity of the hospital. The TV ER is unlike any hospital she has ever worked. Because of the older age of most of the patients a higher percentage of the patients that arrive are critical. In other places my wife has worked if a twelve year old shows up with a broken arm they would simply patch the child up and send him on his way. With an older patient population this is not always possible--frequently these patients have to be admitted for additional care. In addition, there are frequently underlying causes which could cause these injuries (back to the 12 year old with the broken arm: Usually it is pretty cut and dried, the 12 year old might have broken an arm playing football. With an older patient exhibiting the same broken arm it is often necessary to see if the broken arm was caused by an underlying health issue (such as falling due to stroke or other neurological issues). The large size of TV's population combined with the small size of the hospital combined with the relative fragility of many of the patients frequently make it a tough place to work. That being said, my wife enjoys working there because patients seem to be extremely thankful for the care they do receive in the ER. Compared to the drug seeking crackheads, drunks, domestic abuse victims, gunshot victims, etc. that she has experienced at other ERs, TV hospital is a decent place to work.

As far as neurologists, I recently needed to see one and Dr. Smirnoff came highly recommended from the hospital staff. I tried to get an appointment but he was backed up for weeks so I saw his associate, Dr. Valencia, who seemed competent. I've only seen him a couple of times, but so far I have been pleased.

Great post and observation. My wife is also a Nurse working at the Villages Hospital but not in the ER. She expresses the same concern about size and number of beds available for such a large population in the winter months. She works the 7am to 7 pm shift 3 days per week and rarely does she get home before 8:30-9:00pm.

The Villages Hospital is a disgrace to an otherwise wonderful community.

My mother experienced the 9 hrs of ER waiting room hell there also. Then several days of one blunder after another. Trust me, never again.

If The Villages have any desire for quality hospital health care, they will shut this dump down, fire every single staff member, bring in a complete new management and medical staff and start over from day 1. Which will never happen, so just do yourself a huge favor and stay far away from this nightmare of a hospital.

Quality healthcare is worth a 30 min drive.

I can't tell you how many people I have ran into with similar stories... we
went there because it was close.... then the nightmare began.... half a day in the waiting room, days waiting for a specialists, wrong tests, need another specialist...who may be here in a day or two... get me the hell out of here! Where's a doctor who can release me? Maybe he'll be in later today...?

The food is good there. Health care though is beyond disgraceful.

All I can say is that I had my upper lobe of my lung taken out 2 1/2 years ago at The Villages Hospital and I had excellent care. We hear alot of the bad experiences but alot of posters don't bother to tell the good.. I think we are very lucky to have this hospital and when they start the new one by Brownwood, perhaps the ER wait won't be as long......

Quite frankly, there should not be such bad experiences in any hospital. If it is as bad as reported in the prior posts, our hospital has a lot of correcton to make. If it is too busy for proper care, route admittances to other hospitals; if the specialists are poor, get rid of them. Wrong tests and missed results is malpractice.
I assume that Florida has a Hospital Regulation Board that investigates and monitors quality of care. Lets hope they are doing their job. I would think the annual ratings/reports are public. Lets investigate before we get too excited.

I realize that half of the physicans in practice graduated in the bottom half of their class. I just hope they are all not practicing here!

I agree that there should not be these problems at the hospital but I am sure every hospital unfortunately has there issues... Lets hope The Villages Hospital looks into these issue....

Don't overdiagnose using a Cat scan
 

I think that nurse may have been overstepping her training. She read a report which may have indicated a finding in the mastoid, however, CT scans are well known to over indicate problems like sinusitis and mastoiditis. Any patient with a simple sterile middle ear fluid will often have fluid in the mastoid air cells of no clinical significance Radiologists will usually report any anomaly they notice, no matter how unlikely it is to be an actual cause of the patient's symptoms. It is the job of the physician to interpret the information they receive balancing the CT scan and the clinical presentation and the other lab work and the physical exam. The CT is one piece only. I have no opinion on whether or not depression or stress is a correct diagnosis, but I would like to express my concern and caution at the manner in which the findings on a scan were given to you. It does make one wonder whether the nurses trust the doctor and whether they are working as a health care team. If a nurse questions the actions of a physician there are proper ways to address her ( or his) concerns. I would encourage you to get a local primary care doctor as you may have put your Maine doctor in a difficult situation... He neither saw the patient nor the CT scan and is being asked to make important medical judgements based on second hand information. I am sure that the hospital could send the records up to Maine but it is unlikely they did so this quickly. I understand my comment my seem like I am defending the doctors, I am not. I am just saying that what the nurse told you may be incorrect or misunderstood by her. Notifying the hospital patient advocate and telling her about your experience may help improve the care of the next patient.. Time in ER, taking wrong patient to the CT, nurses over interpreting chart information and going behind the doctors vs doctors missing important information. Hmm. I hope as does everyone on the website that all works out wonderfully and that someday you'll look back and have a story to tell

To whom?
 

If I decide to voice my complaints, where do I start?

An update. We saw a Neurologist last week. I brought the Hospital records with us (which I had to pay for by the page. $50. For 1/2 the file)
My husband DID have a mini stroke (TIA) which he is now being treated for.
This after the hospital Dr. Told us everything was fine and my husband should see a psychologist. Unbelievable.

BillyG,

From your initial post, it is very hard to sort out which doctor you are referring to when you say "3 days and a few tests later, the Dr. and Neurologist told us nothing was wrong....was probably anxiety or depression".

You said "we thought it was a stroke......ER Doc thought so too." Then later you said "ER staff was great".

So, after 3 days "when the Dr. and Neurologist" told you nothing was wrong, was that dr. a hospitalist/internist under whose care the patient was placed when admitted to the hospital?

I'm asking because all our neighbors and friends who've gone to the ER were very pleased with the ER drs. and nurses, despite long waits in some cases.

I agree with Blueash above, about the appropriateness of a nurse giving you a diagnosis from a CT scan, and this statement of Blueash is very important:

"It is the job of the physician to interpret the information they receive balancing the CT scan and the clinical presentation and the other lab work and the physical exam. The CT is one piece only."

Thanks for clarifying which drs. told you it was probably nothing or anxiety or depression.

I work as a nurse at TV.

I'm sorry this happened to you but I can assure you that a TIA is not the same as a 'stroke' in the major sense that it does not cause brain tissue to die. Transient ischemic attack - PubMed Health

'Clot busters drugs' (i.e. tPA) are not just given randomly. Their use is under controlled conditions and almost always require a CT and evidence of a true stoke caused by blockage. If the stroke is caused by a bleed then the random use of tPA can be fatal.
Thrombolytic therapy: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia

A CT within 1 hour is the standard of care. If there were signs/symptoms of a stroke your husband would have been given a CT and care would have been followed from there.

A note on the 'new' Brownwood hospital:

The hospital has a new CEO that is coming this week. He will make a determination what type of facility is going to go into the Brownwood location. It might be an Urgent Care. It might be a general hospital. It might be.....

I think it will be some time before this decision is made.

Do you feel good about a Doc who calls in an antibiotic based on a phone call without seeing the patient? Just wondering.

The last three posts by Russ Boston and the one from I love TV were excellent, informative and very helpful.

Sometimes people who are not educated medically make rash judgements on medical treatments. Tests and treatments are misinterpreted and misinformation is spread. The persons involved are usually tense and fearful and may have heard or absorbed the information given them incorrectly.

I thank Russ and I love TV for these helpful posts.

We learn so much on here.

Excellent point. My family's experience with The Villages Hospital has been very well handled. With triage situations, needed tests, mandatory care for anyone who arrives(federal law)in my experience, all ERs are challenged .

Thanks but a note of caution. All medical statements should be taken for what they are - suggestions. I state what I know but I could be wrong. In the hospital most if not all orders are reviewed by multiple people (Docs, nurses, RT, PT etc.).

We as nurses need to educate our patients on their discharge plans and are usually very good about making sure the patient and their family understand the plan of care. I haven't worked in the ED but I'm sure they have the same goals.

Sorry for the confusion.
When he arrived at ER the ER Doc said "we think it's a small stroke, we are going to do some tests".
Cat scan was done 5 hrs. after he arrived to ER.
Next day an ultrasound was done.
Next day the MRI.
That night the attending Hospital Dr. and Neurologist came in and said the tests were clear and I have the name of a psychologist for you.

We went to a different Neurologist ( Dr. Valencia) last week.
He told us that it was a TIA, put hubs on Aggrenox to prevent future strokes and ordered cholesterol blood work (not done in the hospital).
Soooo....
Once again. The ER staff and all nurses were great.
Thank you all for your questions, input, support and wisdom.
Much appreciated

As to where to complain....my discharge statement had some very wrong things in it so we went to medical records and asked how to have that correct infor noted. There is a dispute form that one can fill out with an attached statement why you feel discharge statement is wrong. We've done that, it will be reviewed by committee and they will inform us of decision. That's fair.
Now as to the care I recieved while there....a "customer service" person came around on day I was discharged and asked me for the good, the bad and the ugly of my stay there. I told her! I think they are trying to improve, but some of the care that I recieved(or actually failed to recieve) is unexcusable. Some serious errors were made that resulted in me suffering way more than I should of had to. I am writing a complaint to the hospital administrator. Hope it helps for future patients. There are some great nurses there, I had two in the 8 days I was there. Russ, I would have loved to have had as my nurse, I know the care would have been excellent and maybe even more important I would have had reasons and explainations.
I am not saying that I wouldn't ever go the The Villages hospital again because I know these things happen all over the country, even in the big "medical" cities. We all need to advocate for ourselves or have someone who will do it for us.

Sorry to hear about your bad experience,....I had some surgery done there last August and didn't have any issues,....hopefully that kind of thing doesn't happen there often....