Methodist hospital ER- not nice!
Comments
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I've been to the Methodist ER twice. Once for myself and once with a depressed semi-suicidal friend who had just taken an overdose.
for myself, I went with a friend who is a nurse, who told me to call 911 and get an ambulance as they would treat me better and faster, and she went with me. she stayed for hours (it was 2 AM) and as long as she was there it was great. She did all the things for me that they should have been doing. As soon as she left it got hellish, on a gurney in a hallway for hours, abandoned in radiology, waiting forever for a bed. However, once I was admitted it was fine. It also helped that I had another friend who was a charge nurse there and I think she put in a good word. The lesson: don't go to Methodist unless you know someone.
My second story is actually pretty horrible. Long story short, a friend took pills to kill himself but not enough so he slept a long time and then called me all groggy and depressed. I took him to Methodist ER, they determined they didn't have to pump his stomach but that he needed to be admitted to the Psych ward. He had to wait for room so they put him in a room in the ER with a guard to watch over him. I went home to get some sleep and when I went back in the morning, he wasn't there. They'd forgotten about him, the guard had left and he'd gone home. (He said at one point, to get their attention, he took a wire that was in the room and made a noose and pretended to hang himself. A nurse came in to get something and didn't even look at him He answered when I called and I got him to come back and he went to the psych ward. It's a miracle he didn't try to kill himself again. He's okay now. -
I was treated at Methodist in the early 90s for a mugging. While the wait was long (four hours), the staff was generally caring and competent. I was fortunate to meet a doctor who advised me on how to navigate the system, which helped to expedite my treatment. The aftercare that I received was similarily friendly and competent. Actually, dealing with the billing issues was a major pain in the ass, but that had more to do with my HMO than with Methodist.
While it does not excuse the rude behavior of the staff, working in the ER is an extremely stressful job. Few hospitals have sufficient staff to provide quality care. As noted by other posters, many people visit the ER with complaints that could be suitably addressed in outpatient settings; this can have a cumulative effect on hospital staff, making them agitated and impatient. Again, this does not excuse rudeness, but helps to explain it. -
^I can appreciate how difficult it must be working in an ER, however I think being just downright rude is unacceptable in any job position.
As a sidenote, I also watched a mother allow her daughter to puke on the floor behind a row of chairs 3 times while sitting there waiting, each time asking "did you just puke" "yes" "get your ass back over here." There was literally a pile of vomit in the middle of the room and I was the only one who seemed to notice/care. Luckily I was saved by the plastic surgeon before it started to stink. -
My only ER visit in NYC was at Methodist.
I went in last summer when my finger mysteriously swelled up. I would've gone to my regular doc but it was the evening before the 4th of July and he was in the Hamptons or somewhere, and Blue Cross told me just to go to the ER. Waited about 3 hours for screening/intake/triage or whatever they call it, then another hour to see a PA, who sent me to radiology. Radiology dealt with me fairly quickly, but then I had to wait about another half-hour for the PA to finish dealing with another patient. He looked at the X-ray, told me I'd broken a bone in my finger, gave me a splint, a sling and a script for Tylenol with codeine and told me to follow up with my regular doc.
So ... my regular doc refers me to an orthopedist, who does his own X-rays and says it's not broken, it's sprained; should heal on its own in a few weeks. He rolled his eyes when I told him where I'd gone for the initial dx.
Not an egregious horror story, I guess, but you'd think they'd have people on staff who can tell the difference between a fracture and a sprain on an X-ray. -
About 2 years ago, I had a bike accident (hit a pothole, flipped over handlebars) and went to the Methodist ER because I had 2 huge, very deep cuts in one knee that needed stitches. I was bleeding and crying, and the intake person said, "don't worry, you're a bleeder, they'll take you soon." He handed me a gauze bandage for the meantime, and then I sat in the waiting room for 3 1/2 hours, bleeding profusely, blood literally running down my leg, until they called me in to do the stitches. (Which took another 1/2 hour from the dr. looking at it to actually doing the stitches.) It was ridiculous.
Last week I had a severe allergic reaction to something while I was at work. My boss insisted I go to the ER, but due to the previous experience, I called my doctor's office instead. He was kind enough to see me right away, I waited 20 minutes once I got to his office, and was fine a few hours later. Moral: unless you cut a limb clean off or are having a heart attack, try your dr. first if at all possible. -
Unfortunately I don't have a doctor since I've not really been sick since moving to the city (2 years ago.)
I think I'll go start a thread about primary care physicians today...I really should get my own doctor. Going to clinics is super lame.
And, in case anyone cares, the finger is doing better, bleeding is basically stopped and it looks like its going to heal OK as long as i remember not to type with it. -
I disagree with going to a Manhattan ER because I've had bad experiences in those ERs (St. Vincents, Beth Israel). I also live closer to Methodist but go to the Long Island hospital ER with my kid because it is much better. Both times I went there with a very sick child they have a much more efficient, smoother, faster system for doing triage on kids and figuring out what they need right away. Took him to the ER at Methodist and it was just a frightening, miserable experience for him, being crammed in with all these sick kids in a tiny space. I tell parents this all the time: don't bother with the Methodist ER unless you absolutely have to, LI is much better. For myself, I can stand to wait usually and put up with the rudeness. For my son, who is six, no.
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Despite living two blocks from Methodist, I have informed my family to take me to LICH if anything serious ever happens to me after 6pm.
Methodist isn't bad during the day shifts--but once the night people come on, oh boy. I went there about two years ago with bad lower abdominal pain. (I knew it wasn't gas, and I knew it wasn't something that should wait for my doctor's office to open the next day.) I went to Methodist, knowing it wouldn't be the best because ER's just aren't fun, but the beginning of the visit started off well enough. I ended up getting into a bed and being seen by a PA and nurse who were great! They seemed to be on point with questions, and things were moving along swimmingly.
Until the shift changed. (At least the original people were nice enough to tell me they were switching and gave me the names of those coming on.)
I understand the new shift has to catch up on existing patients, but it was ridiculous. The people treating me could/would not communicate with each, nor would they communicate with me. At one point, a nurse comes over and says, "So we need to get you to your CT scan as soon as possible." Really? Since when. "Oh, the doctor didn't tell you? Oh well." At another point, the Dr and RN seemed to debate whether they should give me something. (Arguing next to my bed.) That was only one small bit of a long, 9 hour ordeal. (5:05pm until 2:20am.) I know I didn't have breathing difficulties, or a cardiac emergency but even the one person I could see who DID was left along for long stretches of times. it was terrible.
Eventually, I was diagnosed with one thing... and then received a phone call the next morning confirming this diagnosis as well as another one. "Oh, you didn't know that showed up on your CT scan? Well, it did." I'm fine, everything worked out okay, and I can laugh about nine-hours of fun at Methodist. I still have doctors based there, and will go before 6pm. But even if I'm dying, if it's after 6pm, take me to Atlantic and Hicks. -
sewster wrote: About 2 years ago, I had a bike accident (hit a pothole, flipped over handlebars) and went to the Methodist ER because I had 2 huge, very deep cuts in one knee that needed stitches. I was bleeding and crying, and the intake person said, "don't worry, you're a bleeder, they'll take you soon." He handed me a gauze bandage for the meantime, and then I sat in the waiting room for 3 1/2 hours, bleeding profusely, blood literally running down my leg, until they called me in to do the stitches.
I had endured a similar scenario in NY Methodist's Emergency Room, but it was closer to 6 hours. I felt like no one would notice if I bled to death.
There was nothing but chaos in that ER. Staff would appear briefly and then vanish for long periods, leaving all us poor, bleeding, sick saps alone, wondering when some of us would be called in. No one on staff was helpful or even seemed to know what was going on. The place seemed understaffed. -
Subject: Public Affairs
If someone has not thought about it already, maybe we should contact some higher up about all these horror stories. It is very frightening taking in someone that is sick and to be treated so poorly and with such disdain is one of the most stressful situations. I have been in the emergency room there as well and cried out of fear and frustration.
Administration 780-3301
Medical Board Office 780-5110
Public Affairs 780-5367
Lyn Hill, Vice President Communication and External Affairs -
Subject: Re: Public Affairs
GiGi wrote: If someone has not thought about it already, maybe we should contact some higher up about all these horror stories. It is very frightening taking in someone that is sick and to be treated so poorly and with such disdain is one of the most stressful situations. I have been in the emergency room there as well and cried out of fear and frustration.
That's a great idea. I wonder if there's an external body to cc that kind of letter to, like the City Dept of Health.
Administration 780-3301
Medical Board Office 780-5110
Public Affairs 780-5367
Lyn Hill, Vice President Communication and External Affairs
I've always heard that LICH was better in a pinch, but a friend of mine just had a surprisingly good experience at Methodist after a bike accident. This was a weekday afternoon . . . -
Subject: Re: Public Affairs
pitu wrote: [quote=GiGi]If someone has not thought about it already, maybe we should contact some higher up about all these horror stories. It is very frightening taking in someone that is sick and to be treated so poorly and with such disdain is one of the most stressful situations. I have been in the emergency room there as well and cried out of fear and frustration.
That's a great idea. I wonder if there's an external body to cc that kind of letter to, like the City Dept of Health.
Administration 780-3301
Medical Board Office 780-5110
Public Affairs 780-5367
Lyn Hill, Vice President Communication and External Affairs
The New York Post? -
Is it right to single out any one hospital? Maybe we're seeing the impact of our country's health insurance crisis. Is emergency room service in Queens as bad?
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Its one thing to have to wait a long time, and I understand that ERs are overcrowded and its a difficult/stressful job, but I don't think that's any excuse for blatant rudeness. They treated me like I came in with a hangnail and berated me as such when half of the end of my finger was hanging off.
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With the ever-growing number of under-insured and uninsured in this city (and freelancers are in that number, as our the working poor, as are people who work full-time w/insurance but have deductibles so high as to render them insurance-less) the ER has become a primary care destination. That tremendously complicates the issue and most ER's are forced to run on a triage system - the finger then gets least attention.
All I can say about New York Methodist Hospital, a voluntary, non-profit hospital which is part of the New York-Presbyterian Healthcare System, is that their Cardiac ER helped save my life. Nothing really more to say about it. And from the ER in Brooklyn they transferred me to Weill Cornell with whom they are also affiliated. -
my honey and i actually had a good experience at the Methodist ER last fall. he thought he was having a heart attack (though it turned out to be acid reflux). but i was very impressed with how calm and helpful the medical staff were. it may have been because we ran into a nurse we used to know on our way in, but the patients who were around us seemed to get very good care as well. we were sitting in a section of chairs where we could hear other conversations very clearly. there was a doctor named Mike, i think, who was teh msot cheerful person i've ever met in my life. so i guess if you think you're havign a heart attack Methodist is a-ok.
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Subject: Methodist ER dangerous!
I live 2 blocks away and would never return there! My mother is a hospital nurse, so I'm familiar with typical ER troubles and M.O. But the triage at Methodist is dangerous and incompetent even by comparison.
There is nothing but a sign in sheet, no one attends it. They don't even look at you to evaluate you for hours. I was bleeding internally but they didn't know it (nor did I) and I could not find a human being to discuss my issue. I sat next to a pregnant woman who was short of breath and had not been interteviewed in the 4 hours she sat there after two more hours she just left without being seen. My impression of the place is that you will not even be triaged unless you arrive in an ambulance. After 8 hours, I called my mother and told her I was leaving, she called the hospital and demanded that someone see me, it was embarassing as hell, but it worked.
If you're forced to go there, that may be the only way to receive proper attention.... -
I went there once four years ago to have my "ahem" wedding ring sawed off. (When I moved out I moved the ring from my ring finger to my index finger and I couldn't get it off. I went to the ER when my finger started turning purple. Yes. Lame.)
Anyway, if you've ever had a ring sawed off it's not as easy as it seems. It's done with a tiny saw that you have to cut with only for minutes at a time because the friction makes the ring get hot. So, I got a front row seat to all of the inner workings of the ER for about two hours. The doctor was really nice to me and would come over and saw for a few minutes and then go help other patients and then come back. It's not easy working in an ER.
But I'm sorry to hear about your finger. I did the same thing back in my short order cook days. One of these days I know I'm going to do it again. -
Is this the Methodist on 7th ave around 5th St? I've been to the ER there twice: once for me, once for my wife. I had a very good experience (well, as good an experience as one can have in an ER) both times. They were very pleasant, courteous and efficient. I was surprised, actually, because my last ER experience was at Long Island College Hospital, which was a minor horror.
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I have several friends who work in that ER so I usually get treated well nowadays. In years past, not so much. but, i figure it is an ER and what can you expect?
As for the hospital itself, I gave birth in that hospital and was treated very well and have had relatives who have had surgery there and have also been treated very well.
hubby years ago went to the ER at LICH and had a horrible experience, horrible, i would never go back. i figure ERs, unless you are on death's door, are a crap shoot at best.
if half of the end of your finger was hanging off, why didn't you have stitches? -
Subject: Re: Methodist ER dangerous!
ella wrote: I live 2 blocks away and would never return there! My mother is a hospital nurse, so I'm familiar with typical ER troubles and M.O. But the triage at Methodist is dangerous and incompetent even by comparison.
Well, I have gone there not in an ambulance and been triaged,so, they do triage people who do not arrive in ambulances.
There is nothing but a sign in sheet, no one attends it. They don't even look at you to evaluate you for hours. I was bleeding internally but they didn't know it (nor did I) and I could not find a human being to discuss my issue. I sat next to a pregnant woman who was short of breath and had not been interteviewed in the 4 hours she sat there after two more hours she just left without being seen. My impression of the place is that you will not even be triaged unless you arrive in an ambulance. After 8 hours, I called my mother and told her I was leaving, she called the hospital and demanded that someone see me, it was embarassing as hell, but it worked.
If you're forced to go there, that may be the only way to receive proper attention.... -
queencallipygos wrote: [quote=eggcream]I've had a few surgeries there with no problem.
You had surgery in the emergency room? Because I think this is about the emergency room, not surgery.
another year old thread. Hmm, if you read the post above mine you would see that shishkab wrote "i'd also like to add that i have had surgery twice at Methodist with as good an experience as can be expected at almost any hospital."
hence my comment about surgery. understand now? -
I think this whole discussion reflects the state of the healthcare system (emergency in particular) in this country. When incompetent people make you wait hours and hours for something that can be remedied in 30 seconds, you know that there's a problem.
On a separate note, does anyone know a GOOD emergency room? How is NYU on 1st Ave? -
A few years ago I cut my finger and knew I need a couple of stitches.
I am not complaining that I walked in at 9pm and walked out at 3 am. There were people much worse off than me who need to be treated first.
It did not bather me that the doctor that stitched me up seamed like a high school kid to me, I am getting old I guess.
The fact that vomit remained on the floor in the waiting room for the entire 6 hours I was there was really bad. -
I went there with my pregnant friend, she was dehydrated throwing up and dizzy. This was on a Friday. She had gone the past Wednesday in quick with no problem. The waiting area hardly anyone in there. Apparently to be seen you have to throw up in the hallway for the desk attendants to coming running to bring you in the ER. We waiting 4 and half hours in the waiting area and then they finally called her in to a room. The room was dirty, it smelled like hair dye, dirty gowns, open bandages , open urine container. We sat outside the room because the smell was too much to take for about half hour. Doctors walking by, not saying anything to us. Then I went to go get a doctor or whoever I could get to ask how long she going to be waiting because she is really not feeling well. She said we will be there soon. As she walked by the room she saw my friend sitting outside of the room and made a comment “oh there is no point sitting there go in the room and put the gown on”. That really pissed my friend off and she said something out loud and we left. I could see several other people getting mad, they called another girl in told her where to go and she was waiting there to long went we left. Calling people in when they didn’t have a bed ready to see them. So for sure she it never going back to this hospital again.
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me too with the bad ER experience at methodist. (and yes, i've been to many other ERs. this was special.)
went there with a friend who'd been in and out of the hospital that summer for neuro-spinal issues. got treated terribly. the doctor she eventually saw was nice, if not terribly helpful, but everyone prior to that was a grade-A bitch. also, their "system" involved us having to change waiting rooms 3 or 4 times while we waited, with a new check-in, etc., at each one. not only is that stupid, but it was also pretty cruel, since the reason we were there is that my friend was having extreme pain and difficulty with walking.
it was like seeking medical care at the post office. never again. -
I had an awful experience with the Methodist ER as well, and more specifically their "reconstructive plastic surgeon".
In the winter, my face had an unfortunate incident with my sidewalk. It wasn't pretty (my lip was split from the inside and I took a chunk out of my chin).
The staff kept asking me "what happened to your face?!" Is that really what I want to hear after I walk myself to the ER?
Anyway, in short, the guy who does stitches took NINE HOURS to get there. I was told that I probably wouldn't need stitches (if I had known I needed stitches, I would have paid to get them done in someplace besides a Brooklyn ER, you know?), so it was much to my surprise when he started stitching up my lip after hardly saying a word to me. My bad, when I was crying in pain he told me to "hold still". When he left the room, I was free to go...without any information on caring for them, and without a prescription for pain or infection.
I later found out from my regular doctor that the stitches were put in wrong, tied up wrong, and prohibited the healing of my lip. Also, I was told they were dissolving, which it turns out they were not.
This thread is really informative, I thought it was just me with the bad experience. It's disheartening to know that I'm not alone. -
squares, the plastic surgeon who stitched you up wasn't Dr. Smith was it? Because that genius got paid for a whole lot of nothing when I was laid up in Methodist last December.
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Are you taking about this Dr Smith?
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i've had numerous bad experiences at methodist, as a patient and a visitor.
you won't get me back in there unless i'm bleeding copiously from my head and i wasn't in my right mind enough to tell someone to take me otherwise.
i have a deal with all my friends: if something happens, we rush them to NYU or beth israel
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