This is a condensed story of my visit to the Hospital back in February:

It is hard to critique a place which takes care of you for a week, but I will anyway…
I was admitted into the hospital after a long Sunday morning in the ER getting medical treatment for an abscess in my right armpit which was swollen from an infection. Nurse Jackie (no not that Nurse jackie) treated me and she was wonderful. As a precaution, they admitted me and put me on an intravenous Vanco antibiotic overnight. Jay came up and I watched a blurry unmemorable Superbowl.

I was released that next day but later returned to the ER again because the infection was spreading. I was actually pretty calm about it since I had just gone through this the day before.  Unfortunately there was no Nurse Jackie this time . This visit was much more of a disorganized mess. and I will spare you the details but I didn’t get food or pain pills until four hours after I requested them.

Later the next night, around 6pm, there was another incident. I realized that the nurses had forgotten to bring my 4pm dose of Vanco. I asked them about it and they said, “No you don’t have a 4pm Vanco, it is at 8.” I said, “um no, the doctors changed it to three times a day.”  They quickly checked my chart and gave me a “ooops, we did forget.”  They returned and  ”plugged” me back in to the IV immediately.

Later one night my arm began burning where the IV was going in. The nurse said “No that is not right- it got under the skin because they administered it too quickly.”  Over the course of the week I had this happen on four occasions and after the third I made sure every new shift nurse knew to run that Vanco slower.

Yet another incident – I’ve lost count – I was to have a surgeon come back one evening and reopen my wound  (OUCH!) and make sure the remaining infection was gone. I waited for five hours before I finally walked out to the nurses station and asked to see the nurse manager. I discussed all the issues and expressed how I felt about my treatment thus far and the overall frustration with the care.  I said “I am here so you can administer that Vanco, that is pretty much the only reason I am here, So how can that be so difficult to get right?”  Miss Varghese, the Nurse Manager, listened and apologized.  Later she said a communication error had happened with the surgeons and finally, 6 hours later, the surgeon came to express the infection (OUCH!)

I must say I was worried for other patients on my floor that may not have been coherent or conscience to know whether or not they were being well taken care of.

Lesson learned: Make sure you keep on top of your care while in this hospital.