I get that hospitals can be overwhelmed with patients on any given day. I get that the staff are stretched to their limits. But I also get that people in pain need to be treated with respect and in as timely a manner as possible. 4 hours in the waiting room seems unreasonable to me. Then it's hard to excuse being left in a hallway only to be moved to a cubby hole in yet another hallway and then a nice room only to be moved again into a curtained area in the overflow area before being moved yet again to another room. I get that it's cheaper to keep a patient in observation than to admit them because if you send them home too soon, like I was less than three weeks before, Medicare will deduct money for the second admittance. So I get it's cheaper to drag us all over the hospital instead so when they send us home days later they still make the most money possible. But what I don't get is why you only get to see a doctor for seconds, only to have him disappear, Mine ordered a scope for me so I could have no water. I was without water so long my blood pressure dropped dangerously low. So low they had to hydrate me through IV fluids and after that happened, I found out the scope was canceled because it was unnecessary since it targeted the wrong end of my body. I have been fighting the system for three weeks now, trying to get rid of this awful diverticulitis. I was under medicated, and sent home, told I couldn't get a refill of antibiotics and I was still sick, told by the next urgent care I didn't have diverticulitis and, landed in the hospital, the next day in agony. I'm terrified I won't get over this by the end of my meds and will have to go through this all over again. I was so disheartened I stopped caring what they did to me. I couldn't even get them to move the iv in my arm to another area because it was so painful even though I asked three times. It's like this everywhere. Healthcare has gone to crap in the country that charges the most for what should be the best care in the world.
It all started about four months ago when I was feeling some discomfort around my mid area and upper thighs. I contacted my Henry Ford Helth Systems Doctor at the Columbus center. She had been my doctor for several years and I would have never thought that I would be treated as a burden and my health could be compromised as it was by my doctor. My doctor was not in the office and I understand that strains of COVID-19 have taken the toll that it has on everyone but my doctor was comfortable prescribing a medication to me through a video appointment visit without even seeing me or seeing the affected area. After all these years with her, I trusted her after all she is a doctor at HFHS, "BIG MISTAKE". After taking the medication and completing it my condition worsened and my skin was actually pealing and burning. Throughout the day I would have to ice myself down take cold showers and sleep with an ice pack because of the itching and burning. I went to the Columbus clinic on several occasions and they tried but nothing was working from shots to additional medications and I continued to leave my doctor messages and yet another video appointment and nothing was working she needed to see me all while being referred to other doctors who needed to know from my doctor what was going on with me and still no resolution. Literally, after two months I had an in-person appointment with my doctor but prior to that appointment I had to go to the Columbus center to refill a prescription and because the burning was so bad I asked for my doctor's nurse who came out to see me and I asked her to please let my doctor know that I am still doing very bad and feeling weaker because I can not get any sleep or rest The nurse cam back with a phone number to dermatology and stated that my doctor said that I should see a dermatologist because I have a skin problem. I let her know that I have never had a skin problem and there is nothing in my chart that indicates that. The nurse realized that I was very unhappy and asked to walk me over to the clinic. I told her that was shameful for such an esteemed hospital to have doctors and nurses working for them that could care less for its patients and be so disrespectful to the community's needs. It's simple they just want to shoo you off and make you think that you know nothing and you will accept what we tell you rather than listening to you. After all that I found out and overall this time, it was because of the medication she originally gave me and all the time she said it wasn't and now you will see it on my chart that I am not to take that medication "SHAMEFUL". I did send a communication through internal processes on my chart and I did get a call from someone apologizing in regards to my experience what an embarrassment to HFHS that they know very little about customer service after all these years. I am now four months into this dilemma with thousands of dollars spent by me not including what was covered by my medical provider however, there is a positive factor from all this:
I know exactly that HFHS is about herding humans as paychecks next to cattle especially when they can hire doctors who treat their patients as if they are in a third world health care system.
The other thing I have to be grateful for the Farmington Hills Dermatology office. I went there when I could not get a single doctor from HFHS or Columbus to help me as my skin from the medication was burnt and pealing and where the new skin was so sensitive I was bleeding and the itching OMG and that office and the team there is simply incredible. They understand what it means to be called a doctor and take that role. It's not just a title it's a way of life where you choose to put others before yourself and to take care of them regardless of the circumstances. they have been treating me and I believe that I'm recovering and the medications they have me on have finally been working but don't forget they schedule me to come in and see me without passing me on from one person to the other. They did not make excuses that would suit them to just bill me and they actually looked at me and my symptoms in order to treat me. Their treatment has been remarkable and the crazy thing is they are not like the others. That office made me feel as if I am a human being again and my doctor cares about my well-being.
HFHS could actually learn a lot from that office and use that office as an example of how to run their hospital, not like the horrific excuses I have experienced, and I actually paid to be treated so badly.
I gave the rating of two stars simply because the dermatology department was so exceptional but I didn't want the facts to be lost and it is looked at because without that department the rating should be zero stars, that's it's ok it worked out because other doctors took care of someone else mistake that could have severely done irreversible damage and don't forget its been four months and the doctor at Columbus got it wrong while she treats others and makes referrals to fix her mistakes, I would never go back to that one :(