[perrjojo]

I have heard horror stories about our hospital emergency room but I got to experience it first hand last night. My husband has been having problems with asthma and saw our doctor on Tuesday. He was given meds and told to come back if he got worse. Last night he SUDDENLY got worse. We called the doctor but got no response. The Urgent Care office was closed sooooooo we went to the ER. He was promptly called back and had his vitals checked and then told to go back and wait in the lobby. After a while patients started getting restless and comparing stories. One woman had come in and they inserted an IV and told her she would be getting interveinous antibiotics. That was 10 hours earlier. One man was bleeding and needed sutures and had been waiting 5 hours. There were two very elderly people in wheelchairs who were on oxygen and were so weak that they could not hold their heads up. One of them had been there so long his oxygen tank had run out so they gave him another tank. One man was very frail and in a wheelchair and had been there alone for a very long time and needed to go to the restroom so the bleeding man assisted him to the toilet. One man covered in blankets and in a wheelchair looked very ill but his family finally gave up since he could no longer sit up and left. I don't know where they went. Several more gave up and left and several more came in. The last person coming in was told it might be a 24 hour wait. My husband decided he was not going to die unless he stayed there, so we too left. He suffered through the night and he saw our doctor this morning. I know Emergency rooms are busy and crowed but this was shameful. I might add that while my husband and I were concerned for his well being, my heart was breaking for some very sick and very elderly people who just really shouldn't be left sitting in a waiting room for hours on end. I hope they are doing well today.

[cquick]

what a sad story.

[gerryann]

This story made me cry. This is so very wrong and sad. I'm sorry you had to go through this. It is totally unacceptable!! Our hands are tied. Words fail me.

[CFrance]

A 24-hour wait in an emergency room? What's wrong with that picture?

[geri317]

Very scary story. I just pray I never have to go the ER in the Villages. What are we to do?

[perrjojo]

Hopefully life and death incidents were being taken care of but the situation with the very frail and elderly was heartbreaking.

[Villager Dude]

Originally Posted by cquick

what a sad story.

I wonder, unless it is life or death , if it would be better to drive to Ocala ?

[billethkid]

These stories have been talked about for years. Does anybody but me wonder why the powers that be allow it (?) to continue?

There are other options outside TV......but some say they are too far to go.
How far could one go in the same 3-5 hour time waiting in TV ER?

Until or unless something changes TV hospital is not on my list of choices.

btk

[NotGolfer]

Same thing happens in other cities. Not saying it's right!! Just saying it's not just T.V.'s hospital!! Have heard this story from the area from where we moved here from, heard family members talk about it in their communities ....just saying it's not an exclusive problem!!

[SALYBOW]

munroe regional

[mommieswamie]

The last time I went to TV Hospital ER, I waited 12 hours for a room and 16 hours to see a doctor. As I had gone there on the instructions of my primary care to be admitted, I thought it was the only thing to do. My experience was the same as the OP - sick, suffering people waiting hours and hours. While I was sick and suffering too, it was heartbreaking to watch the many others in the same situation.

I vowed I would never go there again.

Indeed, the next time I was instructed by my doctor to go to the ER for admittance, I went to Florida Hospital Waterman instead. While my doctor did not have admitting priviledges there and I wondered what kind of trouble I would be in with my doctor, everything worked out. The ER doctors at Waterman took one look at me and it was clear that I needed to be admitted. My primary care doctor was phoned later and his only comment was that he wanted me to go wherever I could get treatment and get well. He was not the least bit upset with me.

(As an aside - I have now been hospitalized 5 times in the last three months for an infection that responds well to antibiotics, but returns within a day or two of the completion of the antibiotics. Sunday I am going to Mayo Clinic for a week of appointments at the recommendation of my local doctors.)

[dillywho]

I know I've said this before, but I have nothing but praise for TVH and its ER. Yes, they do take the life or death cases first. That is why patients are triaged.

Once again, I still have my husband today because of TVH and their entire staff. On Monday the 25th of March, he went in because of profuse sweating and not feeling well. He was examined and the decision made to keep him overnight. Early the next morning, he coded and without their swift actions, he would be dead instead of home now. He spent the next 2 days in ICU on a vent (after Dr. Hurt put in two new stents) in very critical condition, and the next days on the Cardiac Unit on the 4th floor.

I grew up in a medical family and have never seen care any better than what he received the entire time. The ICU is like none I have ever seen. Other hospitals we have been in, ICU visiting hours were restricted to 10 minute visits 4 times a day and limited to family only and/or clergy. Here the only time visitation is not allowed is during shift change which mostly has to do with HIPPA Regulations. No visitation is 6:30-8:30 both a.m. and p.m.. They prefer you leave at ten but is not mandatory.

I also witnessed nurses going above and beyond for their patients even after their shifts had ended. One nurse went so far as to change the bed for one of her patients.....not the linens....the entire bed. The one he had been given was a loaner from the ICU which are bigger and taller beds and he was very short. The one it replaced was broken and had been taken for repair. At the time he came in, the loaner was brought into service in order to get him into a room and out of the ER. She found one that was awaiting assignment and changed that one out for the one he was in and had housekeeping change and ready the loaner for someone else. She was already ready to go home but put her patient very much first.

By the same token, I also witnessed several patients who were very demanding and never satisfied. The first guy in the room with my husband was one of them. He complained incessantly and was very upset because all the rooms in TVH are not private. He refused to share the bathroom with anyone (no biggie when we got in there because hubby wasn't allowed out of bed, anyway). I wanted to tell him that he was in a hospital, not a five-star hotel. He finally checked himself out AMA (against medical advice) and left. Another one kept demanding that his doctor come in so he would know if he could go home and stayed on the nurses to call him. (I'm sure he is the only patient his doctor has, you know.)

I could go on and on, but you can probably get the picture. This hospital and its doctors have saved my husband twice now. I don't know how much more we could ask. His first heart attack, he would never have made it to another hospital in time.

Maybe rather than going after the hospital, all this should take another direction for several 24-hr urgent care centers instead of the limited-hour ones. Sounds like there is definitely a need.

[patfla06]

I'm sorry to say that it's that kind of wait time in the
Tampa area E.R.'s also.

I'm really surprised to hear this about The Villages
Where the population is NOT huge like in the cities.

I feel so bad for everyone subjected to that experience.

[SusanOfWoodbury]

After reading your note I feel very sad for your husband and all the other people waiting to be seen...I believe Urgent Care is waste of money, if they are not open 24 hours a day. People have emergencies at all hours, not just when the urgent care is open...I think that if the hospital has an ER, than they need to staff that ER to take care of all people.. Nothing will probably change till someone in the ER dies for non treatment....sad, but true...

[skip0358]

Article in yesterdays paper on Ambulance drop off times at ERs. Seems TVRH isn't the only long wait. when an Ambulance has to wait 45+ minutes to get a patient transferred to a Hosp. ER you can bet that ER is just as bad as TVRH. Plain and simple there are WAY to many people for the amount of ER beds and very few Urgent Cares stay open late so what choice do you have?