The Villages ER/Hospital
 

After having read and heard about so many negative experiences at the Villages ER, I'd like to share our experience.

Due to severe pain from a ruptured disc, our PCP advised my husband to head to the ER. Within one hour of our arrival (by ambulance), Bob was evaluated by a nurse and the PA, and received his first pain medication. The nurse was outstanding - compassionate, informative, and attentive.

Bob was admitted and had surgery a couple days later. Overall we were very satisfied with the care he received in the ER and on the floor. My one suggestion for improvement would be their discharge procedure. The surgeon signed off at 7:30 AM. The floor nurse called the hospitalist three times to get a ball park idea of when we could expect him to finish the discharge and she never received a call back. After eight hours of waiting, another doctor came to finalize the discharge.

I did feel sorry for my husband's roommate. He had no one with him most of the time and for three days straight I listened to him ask the nurses to change the dressing on his wound. He told them it was to be changed daily. Every time they told him, "yes, I'll be right back to do it" but only after the third day when he complained to his doctor was it finally done.

A word of advice for those who recently moved to the Villages. We'd only been here a few weeks when Bob needed medical care. Being new, we did not at that time have a PCP and because of that we had weeks of delay for treatment. If you haven't established yourself with doctors, do so asap. It would have been far less frustrating navigating the medical system around here if we already had a PCP.

It was a year ago this weekend that I had a similar entry in TV hospital, however it being the holiday had to wait a couple of extra days until my physician was gotten a hold of and the wheels began to turn for the surgery. I would have to concur that my time there was outstanding! I observed that the staff was overworked (probably could use some more help) but in spite of that they did a great job!

I'm glad you were almost satisfied with your hospital experience. I find it unconscionable that your husband's roommate could not get his wound dressing changed!! And waiting eight hours to be discharged is just wrong.

I suggest that you get established as a patient with a PCP who has priviledges at both the Villages and Leesburg hospital or one or more of the Ocala Hospitals. Otherwise your care will be pretty much in the hands of a Hospitalist. Not to diminish their value, but I have found that the PCP has the best understanding of your medical history and the Hospitalist oftten handles care after surgery when the surgeon no longer visits you in the hospital.

Working on the 2nd floor as an RN I agree with most of your suggestions. Having a primary doc in the area is very important. You may have still had to wait for your discharge even with a primary as your hospital admit doc since they usually do all their normal practice during the day and THEN see patients at the hospital in the evening (but this can vary by PCP). Only the doc assigned to the case, whether it be a hospitalist or the patients PCP, can do the discharge. As nurses we have to wait until the discharge orders (meds, activity, diet, followup care etc.) have been written before we can execute the orders. This does take many hours sometimes.

As far as the dressing change goes you have to know the whole story before you could comment. All wounds that are dressed have an order in the chart regarding subsequent changes (when, how and what materials). It is very possible that it was a 3 day change (in fact this is very common). Sometimes the patient may think it should be changed but they may or may not know. I have also had patients who said "when are you going to change my dressing?" and in fact I had just changed it that morning! Some patients are very confused.

Village Hospital ER
 

Unortuntely I have had to go to the ER by ambulance 3 times in the past year, once for food poisoning, however went in due to total dehydration and excessively low blood pressure, 4 broken ribs due to excessive coughing after completing radiation and chemo for 12 weeks, and lastly because I smashed my shoulder to smithereens in a bizarre accident. All experiences in the ER were awful .It was hours waiting in hall on a gurney before being put in a room and then many more hours before Doc. Would have sent a letter to our Daily Sun but knew it wouldn't ever been published! ,I would chose any ER in area but the Villages should I need ER in future, and there are good ospitals in he area!

We never know what's happening in an ER....we as patients are put into a triage mode while there. "IF" we're delayed there before being admitted to the hospital it could be because the beds are full and they have to wait for one to open. When we're in distress, we feel we're the only ones and why isn't someone paying attention?? It could be because there is a more immediate concern with someone else that needs atttention. As someone else stated, we never know the "whole story"!!

hospitals
 

So it sounds like The Villages Hospital needs to improve their care. What are the other choices? Anyone had treatment at the Moffit Cancer Center?

Yes at Moffitt and they are the best. Not saying anything bad about the Villages Hospital. Also good experience at the Villages Moffitt Center.

Glad to hear you had a pretty good experience and that the ER care was particularly good. My wife is an ER nurse there and while IMHO they are overworked, the nurses I have met that work in the ER are dedicated to providing excellent care. You might consider writing the hospital and letting them know the good (include your nurse's and PA's names) aspects of your care as well as the areas that were deficient. The hospital tries to respond to patient kudos as well as criticisms and while your report on TOTV is helpful to readers, a quick note to the hospital administrators helps on improving the overall quality of care.

Had to rush my 90 year old Mom to Villages ER (via ambulance). The ER was very busy that day, I actually beat the ambulance to the ER. I was not permitted to stay with Mom (she has dementia) and had to plead to go see her after a few hours. She was disoriented, but being treated. I was told to go home as it would be several more hours. When they called me to pick her up, I found her standing ALONE in front of the ER crying. She was scared, disoriented and you can only imagine how angry I was.

After a week to calm down, I wrote to the Administration of ER. Received a "sorry that happened" answer....

If I have a choice next time, it will be to go to Monroe in Ocala.

not exctly a rousing endorsement and where in the slow season now. What the heck is going to be like when they finish the build out and were in prime season....Guess don't get seriously sick