Medical Errors Cause 444,000 Deaths a Year…
Think that number has to be wrong? I wish it was.
Due to all that's going on in our economy, along with the new health insurance regulations, hospitals are feeling the squeeze like never before. They have to hit their numbers or administrative heads roll. Of course this trickles down and the ramifications are mostly felt at the patient level.
We have friends who are in the hospital often, unfortunately, due to long-term health issues. In the past 6 months they've seen a serious decline in patient care and an even more serious increase in medical errors.
Thank God this family knows that when a loved one is hospitalized, they can NEVER be left alone.
Someone has to be there around the clock–always with children and with adults if they're not awake and alert–nicely asking things like, “What are you giving them now?” “What procedure is that and why is it being done?”, and constantly questioning the nurses and doctors about their loved one's care. Obviously you don't do this in a rude or annoying way–building a relationship with caregivers almost always equals better care, and besides, most nurses are lovely people! Just don't assume, “They must know what they're doing,” because often they don't. Make sure you research each new medicine or procedure they say is “necessary”. YOU have the final say in the care of your loved one, not them. (Remember the Jacob Stieler case: Do we have the right to deny harmful medical treatments for our kids?) These friends have told me about several close calls recently, when a medication was almost given that could've caused death. I'm not exaggerating in the least. This is why I believe the number is accurate, because if the problem is so prevalent with ONE patient, it's not even a leap to assume that it's happening everywhere a lot.
I spent quite a bit of time in the hospital recently with our niece, Hailee, after the accident (she and Shane are doing well by the way, thanks again for all of your prayers!), and what was most concerning was how every medical person told us something different! Not only that, the communication between them was very poor. Once I spoke with a nurse about something really important and specifically asked her to put it in Hailee's chart, and the nurse that came on the next morning knew nothing about it when I brought it up.
This type of stuff is happening constantly!
By the way, I do believe that most nurses and doctors have their patients' best interests in mind, and most also have great big hearts, but something has to be done regarding these medical errors.
Trust me on this: If a loved one is hospitalized, do not leave their side unless you have another advocate to take over for you while you're gone.
One more important bit of advice:
When you see any type of medical error, big or small, or something that makes you even a little bit uncomfortable, document all of it. Sadly, we live in a time when we, and parents especially, are seen as a threat if we don't blindly follow along with whatever the hospital or the doctor says, whether we agree that it's necessary or not. Obviously, many doctors are still very much in the correct mindset that patients, or the parents, have the ultimate choice, but not all, so be aware.
Still find it all hard to believe?
Read this article from Forbes: Stunning News on Preventable Deaths in Hospitals:
These people are not dying from the illnesses that caused them to seek hospital care in the first place. They are dying from mishaps that hospitals could have prevented. What do these errors look like? The sponge left inside the surgical patient, prompting weeks of mysterious, agonizing abdominal pain before the infection overcomes bodily functions. The medication injected into a baby’s IV at a dose calculated for a 200 pound man. The excruciating infection from contaminated equipment used at the bedside. Sadly, over a thousand people a day are dying from these kinds of mistakes.
If you aren’t alarmed enough that our country is burying a population the size of Oakland every year, try this: you are paying for it. Hospitals shift the extra cost of errors onto the patient, the taxpayer and/or the business that buys health benefits for the infected patient. My nonprofit, which provides a calculator of the hidden surcharge Americans pay for hospital errors, finds most companies are paying millions or even billions of extra dollars for the cost of harming their employees.
Have you experienced medical errors with your loved ones, too? Do you agree that patients cannot be left alone or do you think I'm overly concerned?
Alice says
This article is making me feel really bad about myself. My Mom fell off the 2nd story of our new construction house (that is a whole side issue), and she broke her femur in 2 places. She didn’t tell us until the next day (my father was with her), and she underwent surgery and is in recovery. I stay with her in the day from 9-6, but I am not there around the clock. She keeps demanding I go home because I have an infant and a toddler and she doesn’t want to scare them or get them sick. I am proud that I helped advocate for her ultrasound to check on bleeding, that I pushed my sister’s concern about protein C (a genetic condition she may or may not have), and that I was able to hopefully get her more consistent pain medication because her first round of physical therapy was very bad. I also washed her hair, cleaned her feet, and helped her with her pee pan as much as I could the first couple of days. It’s been 2 days so far (on my clock), and I am beat. But now I feel guilty for going home at night. All that happens is she sometimes goes pee at night and gets a Norco every once in a while. Nothing is happening at night so is it wrong to sleep? I guess sometimes the nurses are late getting to her bed so she can pee on time so I left her the pee pan hidden under her covers but…is it enough? I’m tired and feeling sad. She’s 60 and fully conscious and strong-willed but I don’t know. Should I be sleeping there too?
KitchenKop says
Hi Alice, please don’t feel bad, you’re a great daughter!!! If your Mom is insisting you do not stay AND she’s fully conscious and on-the-ball (not too drugged up to know what’s going on), then I wouldn’t worry about them doing something to her by mistake. It’s mostly those who aren’t able to advocate for themselves that I worry about, or if they’re on a lot of medication, etc.
I’ll say a prayer that your Mom heals quickly!
Kel
Vicky says
We had our daughter in the emergency room with severe abdominal pain and they did a CT scan. Of course no one wants that because it is 1,000 times stronger than x-rays, but we had to find the problem, right? Well, a few months later she had the same problem, same symptoms, and they wanted to do another CT scan!! We said no way. We had to stand our ground, but the doctor did relent, and she’s ok now. I fully believe they use whatever makes them the most money and do not really care about the patient.
Anna says
Kelly, I find this article so disturbing. Most of us will find ourselves in the hospital at some point in our lives, unfortunately, or at least there with a loved one. Anytime money becomes top priority terrible things happen. Thank you for bringing attention to the problem. I didn’t realize how important it was to have someone there 24/7. Unfortunately my family is one that believes in following all doctors’ orders without question, so I shudder to think what will happen if I ever have to go in, but I shared it with them anyway. In so many areas of life in the US, we need to slow down, stop prioritizing money over all things, and return to good, ethical values. I find it quite discouraging, but I hope that there will be a backlash at some point. I’m trying to be the change I want to see, and I know so many others are, too, so that gives me some hope.
Cynthy says
These messages are VERY disturbing and this is obviously a red hot topic Kelly.
In my own limited experience, my husband and I have been prescribed the wrong medicine several times. The dose I was prescribed of Levaquin was 3 times the dose I should have had. On another occasion I was given someone else’s prescription and on yet another occasion the doctor told me to crush the tablets yet when I got home and read the blurb it said in big letters NEVER CRUSH THESE TABLETS. My husband was prescribed medicine he should never take and could have been life threatening. On another occasion they wanted to give me a nuclear stress test, the technician came to give me the injection wearing protective clothing and gloves. I said, ‘what’s that?’ He said “it’s the injection I have to give you” I said ‘why are you wearing all that protective clothing’? He said “because it is radio active” I said ‘NO WAY!’ You actually think you are going to inject that stuff into my vein? NO THANK YOU!
There are simpler stress tests you can take if needed, but the nuclear one is more expensive so they always go for that now regardless of what the patient would prefer.
My advice, whenever you are prescribed something by the doctor never get the procedure or the prescription immediately, go straight home and research the procedure and/or drug on the Internet before either having the procedure or filling the prescription. It could save your life.
Of course if its an emergency and you are lying in the middle of the road you have to just pray (if you are able) that they know what they are doing.
Just as an aside, did you know that is not against the law, (at least in the State in which I live) to employ someone straight off the street with no qualifications whatsoever, dress them in a nurses uniform and call them nurse? These people then draw blood, prepare for surgical procedures and generally do the duties of an RN without any training whatsoever except the most rudimentary on the job. They have no idea about hygiene, hand washing, cross infection, or the spreading of disease. They are ignorant to the point of callousness and feel so important in their nurses uniform they turn into little Hitlers when dealing with patients. Next time you go to a Medical Center or your doctor’s office you will most likely be confronted by one or two of these, because you see THEY ARE CHEAP LABOR! RN’s cost money!
Soccy says
Seton Medical Center in Daly City, Ca basically killed my mom. She went in for an emergency gall bladder removal and the surgeon cut her artery. Se nearly bled out and was hospitalized for nearly a month. After that, being a renal diabetic, she was bedridden and never fully recuperated. Two years later, she went to the ER at Mills Peninsula in Burlingame, within a day she was in the ICU and she died within two weeks. They killed her with an infection she got from the hospital. Of course every nurse and doctor covered each others ass and no one admitted any fault or wrongdoing at either hospital. No hospitals for this family, ever again!
KitchenKop says
Wow @Soccy, that is just horrible, I’m so sorry.
Kelly
MrsD says
I am a RN that is a stay-at-home mom now. I have to say that I really loved my job when u had the time to PROPERLY care for my patients. Every year that went by, came more paperwork (seriously, it’s UNREAL, petty stuff mostly), a bigger patient load, more responsibility, sicker patients, and more silly rules from administration. I was a darn good nurse…but I ended up hating my job the last several years. I felt awful going home after an exhausting shift feeling I wasn’t able to give everyone 100% anymore. The hospital made it impossible. I have seen many big errors over the years. Many were the result of overworking the staff. (Some just human error, some just incompetence) Our healthcare system is in crisis…and has been for a long time; but it’s getting worse with cuts everywhere. That being said there still are awesome nurses and doctors out there. Totally agree….you HAVE to have an advocate with you in the hospital though.
Malin says
Maybe my experience is different because I’m in the UK and have the NHS but I was in hospital for four days recently for planned surgery. My only complaints were that I was roughly handled to help me wash my first morning and I think that was the reason I suffered a haematoma which added at least a day to the length of my stay, and the food was so poor (didn’t really expect anything else TBH).
Otherwise I was happy with the rest of my care. I had my follow up appointment earlier this week and one of the surgeons I saw on rounds once managed to recognise my face and remembered details which wouldn’t have been in my notes. I was visited once or twice by family over the four days but otherwise I was on my own. I do know someone who went into the same hospital for the same surgery a couple of weeks later and he had a completely different experience BUT he is pushy and can be rude and I suspect the nurses reacted to that.
I’m a bit shocked by these stats because I have heard that per capital health care is more expensive in the US than the UK.
Meghan says
The culture is changing in the hospitals, and it is not for the better. I work in administration in a huge Pediatrics department in the Mid-west area. Our Doctors and nurses are constantly run down with administrative and insurance issues. The big thing that is changing is the way Physicians are being evaluated by the hospital Administration. Everything is about RVU’s (Relative Value Units). If the Physician hits their target or goes over, they get a bonus check. If they fall below, then they get nothing and in 2016 they will actually be monetarily penalized for not hitting their targets. That means the hospital will take some of their money away from them. This is huge. Every procedure and visit has a RVU assigned to it – for example: If you spend 30 minutes with a patient that is 0.6 RVU’s. The more time and the more complicated the procedure, the more RVU’s you receive. A lot of our physicians are really struggling with this. The “good” doctors who spend time with their patients, ask a lot of questions and do extra work behind the scenes to figure out what is going on are being penalized. The doctors that hurry through patients are being rewarded. Money is money and everyone wants the bonus. It is really sad, and a lot of doctors are getting stressed out about it. The real kicker is who decides what RVU’s are assigned to procedures? The Insurance Companies, and now the Government. They will intentionally keep things low to make sure everyone complies with their system. Also – the bonus money our hospital has to give to physicians who go above their RVU target…was given to us by the government. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be happening. We just don’t have enough money. It is really crazy!
Cynthy says
Thank you Meghan for the other side of the story. The best Health Care in the world? I think NOT!!
Vicky says
Incredible! From all these comments one would think they are purposely trying to kill us all!
KitchenKop says
I don’t know why the Facebook comments aren’t transferring over here like they’re supposed to, but if you guys want to read more shocking stories, click here: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151886889356262&set=a.428911151261.211181.322610921261&type=1&stream_ref=10
Sue says
My mom had been to the doctor, then to cardiologist because of shortness of breath and the cardiologist gave her nitroglycerine & fluid pills. A few weeks later she ended up in the ER, barely responsive and was diagnosed as having bronchitis. We were so relieved that it wasn’t her heart, or thought so from this news. After several days of not improving in the hospital they tested her pacemaker which was found to not have a reading at all. They replaced the pacemaker within an hour and she was fine a few days after that. To our family it seemed unbelievable that no one had thought to check her pacemaker.
Julie says
My Mom was admitted to the hospital after taking Coumadin and noticing excessive bruising. Her blood was as thin as water. The nurses wouldn’t touch her anymore than necessary for fear of causing a fatal bleed. After spending several days in the hospital getting her levels adjusted, she was released…with a prescription for the same dosage that nearly killed her! Thankfully I checked before filling the prescription.
Stanley Fishman @ Tender Grassfed Meat says
Julie, you saved her life! She is so blessed to have you.
angela says
I went into the hospital with heart attach symptoms (age 39) they did all the tests no reason was given to me for these symptoms sent me home with 3 heart meds. We questioned the nurse, she questioned doctor, he said just take them. I questioned his office nurse when I got home, I was told they are low doesages, take them. So a month later I go to him for a check in and HE asked ME why I was taking these meds if I did not have heart or cholesterol problem!!! (My husband wanted to punch him) But it gets better. 2 years later I am in the emergency room a gain with worse symptoms than the first time. Turns out I have a tumor on my heart the size of a baseball. This is a different hospital, we moved. They sent for records from the first hospital. The lady who read the records asked me why I did not tell them I had a tumor on my heart. I was shocked! The first hospital sent me home and never even told me about the tumor, and now that same tumor is 2 times bigger! If they would have addressed the issue the first time they probably could have gone through my ribs to get it out but it was too big and I had to have full blown, open the rib cage…I thank God it turned out to be a cyst (non-cancerous) but the first doctor did not know that. I could be dead for his negligence. I tried to get a lawyer to help me, even to just write a letter to make this not happen again…but I guess since I do not have permanent damage I would not make a lawyer money.
Marina Gutner, PhD says
Unfortunately, medical errors in the hospitals are only the tip of the iceberg. They get the most attention because people are dying quickly from causes that are obvious.
But just think how many tests that are the part of the standard medical care and are used to make diagnosis and evaluate the effectiveness of treatment are actually unreliable. Blood tests for celiac disease, gluten sensitivity, most food allergies, most tests for hormones (progesterone, estradiol, testosterone etc.) and thyroid are just some of them. The probability to miss a diagnosis using these tests and get inadequate treatment is very high.
There are millions of people (30 million in US alone to be exact) who unknowingly suffer from hypothyroidism because the standard medical care relies on TSH test alone, uses too wide reference ranges for diagnosis and treatment and prescribes T4-only medication absolutely ignoring the biological need of T3 hormone.
As a result people with hypothyroidism develop many other health conditions and often are treated for each of them with different medications instead of correcting the underlying thyroid problem. All these patients suffer for years and nobody considers it as a medical error. This certainly need to be changed!
Dawn Turner says
When one of my aunts was in the hospital for cancer, they tried to give her a medication she didn’t recognize. Thankfully, she wasn’t alone, and they asked what it was for. Diabetes. The woman had never had diabetes in her life, but the hospital was going to give her diabetes meds. The nurse said diabetes was listed on her chart. Ugh.
Stanley Fishman @ Tender Grassfed Meat says
Kelly, thank you so much for posting this. My hearts go out to everyone who has lost a loved one to these greedy institutions, which are the most dangerous place you can be.
It is an old Italian tradition to never leave a loved one alone in a hospital, not for a second.
I see the main problem as greed, and no consequences. Hospitals overcharge to the point of insanity, yet they are all understaffed. And they make money from these mistakes, which is described in the article Kelly linked to. And they are almost never sued when they kill someone. And they and the responsible employees are never prosecuted for murder, or manslaughter, or negligent homicide, or anything else.
Kim Morisett says
I couldn’t agree more! Shift changes are especially high risk! I caught inconsistencies & errors in my baby’s care everday 🙁
Barbara Goldkamp says
When my son, Christopher who is now 20 years old, was two months old and was awaiting heart surgery they unplugged the oxygen to take him to get an x-ray but forgot when he returned to the room to plug it back in. If i was not there and watch him turn blue and alert the nurses, he would not be alive. I am convinced not to leave anyone in a hospital without attending by his/her side. Totally agree!
Linda T. says
I totally agree with this article! My daddy had hemophilia so he was in the hospital quite a lot. My mom would always stay with him and then, when my sister and I were older, we would stay to give her some rest. We were always his advocates, making sure he was getting what he needed. At one point he had a severe internal bleed in his leg and it wasn’t getting any better. He was there for many days and his leg was swelling more and more. I finally made a few phone calls and found a hematologist in Atlanta that was trying a different kind of treatment for hemophilia (this was in the late ’70’s or early 80’s) so we checked him out against medical advice and I drove him to Atlanta for treatment. I believe he would have died if we hadn’t changed hospitals. The doctor/staff at the first hospital were upset with us for taking him out, but we knew it had to be done. The medical field has helped us in many ways over the years, but they are only human and can make mistakes just like the rest of us.
Susan says
It made me chuckle -not happily- when I read the portion of the Forbes article that said the people that are dying are NOT dying from the things they came to the hospital for, rather they are dying from mishaps made by the hospital. The thing that makes that statement suck even more is that once the hospital has killed the person, the death certificate will list the illness the person came to the hospital with as the cause of death, and not the factual truth.
I just saw it happen over the summer when my friend lost her MIL. The MIL was going through treatment for throat cancer and her doctor kept encouraging her to take morphine for the pain, but fortunately, she wasn’t having much pain. But he insisted and insisted. So she took them according to the directions and an hour later she was foaming at the mouth. My BFF took her MIL to the hospital telling them she had throat cancer and had just taken morphine, and she believed the MIL was allergic to it. So what did they do? Injected her with more morphine! Within minutes she was fully seizing.
This started a 3 week process of being in and out of the hospital because the MIL was never the same, and the seizures continued to come. The doctors kept giving her more and more drugs and things continued on and on. The day the MIL died, my BFF took her back to the hospital because her MIL hadn’t been able to communicate for 2 days. After the hospital checked her over, they said, “She can’t talk because she’s dying.” And she did 4 hours later. Of course her death certificate said the throat cancer was the cause of death.
Lori says
Kelly, you hit it on the head here. NEVER leave your loved ones while in the hospital! Nurses are way overworked and there are not enough of them!
Back in 1989 my brother was in a car accident and it messed up his back. He’d had back surgery and was sent home seemingly fine. One day shortly after, around 10 am, I he calls me, can I come get him and take him to the hospital (His house was a 25 minutes drive, then another 30-35 minute drive to the hospital from his house). I had 3 kids under the age of 5 at the time, so I told him I’d be there within the hour, he tells me, no, be here in half an hour. I got there in 35 minutes.
He was waiting on me, and though it was August and hot, he had sweat all over his face and was flushed looking. He was also very short with me if I tried to talk. I knew he was in a lot of pain. I got him to the hospital and he walked in on his own (he insisted he didn’t need me to do it as I had the kids, though I insisted!). His mom worked at this hospital in a doctor’s office (he and she are my steps) and so he went straight up to the floor where his mom worked. They put him immediately in the hospital. He was running a high fever as they’d left a sponge in his wound in his back.
My brother died in April of 2009 of lung cancer, and to the day he died he never remembered calling me, the ride to the hospital, or walking into the hospital! He didn’t remember most of that week! And when he was released, he went to our parents to stay for 3 weeks to recuperate! he was lucky as he could have died of sepsis.
One of my daughters had a blood disorder she was diagnosed with at the age of 22 1/2 months (that I am now 100% sure was caused by vaccines! She’d had ‘routine’ vaccinations on July 23 and by the end of August was displaying signs of her blood disorder, ITP, which can be caused by the MMR and the Pertussis vaccines, both of which she’d had in July). Had a doctor (head of the hematology/oncology unit of our Children’s Hospital) five months into her care that we should have her spleen removed as it was costing my insurance company more than $10,000 a month. (It was more like $4000-$6000, but I didn’t care if it was $100,000!). I was furious that he cared more about my insurance company saving money than the care of my daughter! To say the least, we never saw him again and I would not allow him to have any care of my daughter. We saw another doctor on staff and he said ABSOLUTELY NOT as her immune system was undeveloped and she’d have issues the rest of her life as her health would be severely compromised (which I knew!). She eventually went into remission and she is now a 25 year old married woman with a career who is very healthy and very knowledgeable about healthy eating and healthy lifestyles.
And finally, my (step) mom was put in the hospital 10 years ago and had triple bypass surgery. No one was with her that first night and she cried about how the nurse had yelled at her because she could not get up to go to the bathroom on her own, and though she called for help, it took them so long to get there that she had wet herself. The nurse acted like it was my mom’s fault! From then on we never left her side and made sure someone was with her round the clock! And the woman who was put in the room with her, we made sure she had adequate care, too. She was legally blind and had pneumonia when they did surgery on her, so she could not see and on top of that she had the pneumonia, which caused her to want to cough, which was hard on her stitches. She asked me to call the nurse at 4 am for medication for pain (it had been hours since she’d been given medication!), and it took almost an hour to finally come and give her medications! She was moaning in pain by the time ‘her’ nurse was located and finally came to administer her medication. No one else was allowed to help her. It was ridiculous. I was made very angry many times by the lack of response and the slow time it took to get the help needed for my mom and for Mary, the woman in the next bed. Terrible care.
NEVER, NEVER leave a loved on alone in a hospital! Especially a child or one who is unable to help themselves!
Jennifer says
Nearly 18 years ago, shortly after I discovered I was pregnant with my oldest, my grandma came to town for her “regular” chemo visit. She’d been diagnosed with leukemia 4 years previously, and despite the poison on a regular basis, she seemed to be able to maintain a pretty decent quality of life. But within four days of her treatment, she was admitted to the hospital, completely unresponsive to stimuli, and died less than a week later. I was devastated! I hadn’t even gotten to tell her the wonderful news about her first great-grandchild being on the way. It wasn’t until a couple of years ago, when I was chatting with my sister about a friend suing a doctor here locally, that she dropped the bombshell: my grandma had “accidentally” been given an undiluted dose of chemo…a fatal dose. My parents quickly discovered that the cause was the hospital, having financial difficulties, was allowing volunteers to administer the chemo after the nurses started the IV, and a new volunteer had simply grabbed the bag marked with the medication as she hadn’t been trained to remove the dosage and inject it into the saline drip. My parents declined to sue the hospital (they see the Biblical mandate in 1 Corinthians 6 as applicable to all believers’ lawsuits…not just against other believers).
Dorsey says
My daughter was killed in ER last June from improper medication. SHe left 7 children and a husband. My husband was given unnecessary major abdominal surgery one week after open heart surgery that almost killed him. They waited until I had gone home to pull that one and got him to sign the paper while under the influence of narcotic pain meds from the heart surgery. They never checked with the heart surgeon who would have told them he was not in danger.
I agree with the first commenter….. we think we will just go out onto the lawn from now on! You stand a far better chance of surviving! Thank God for these blogs where we can continue to learn of ways to tend to ourselves.
KitchenKop says
Dorsey, I am so sorry. I hope they admitted their horrific error!
Kelly
Dorsey says
So far…… just covering their butts! 🙁 They tried to say her heart was in such bad shape but guess which organ was the first to be donated?
Paula says
I am sorry for your loss, but please, do not tie organ donation into this. My daughter’s life was saved by a liver transplant last year. She was on the waiting list for nearly 3 years. There are people dying every day because of the lack of registered donors, and myths regarding organ donation don’t help with that shortage.
Cynthy says
What a mean response to a grieving mother.
KitchenKop says
Paula, Dorsey wasn’t slamming organ donation, she was just making the point that they said her heart was in bad shape, yet it was donated, so it must have been fine. That’s awesome about your daughter, I do wish more people would be willing to donate their organs. I totally believe that it’s a beautiful thing to do.
Kelly
Liz says
I completely agree with you. Like you said, there are many phenomenal physicians out there that go the extra mile, including nurses. But they are human too – just like us, they make mistakes and they are in a high stress job, oftentimes working super long shifts.
Especially as a parent, you have to be firm with the medical staff and insist on what you want and need. I’ve had a physician try to intimidate my husband in leaving our child alone in the ICU — when he promised her he would be by her side at all times. My husband is a cop and this physician threatened to call security. Thankfully,my husband didn’t back down and was able to stay by her side 24/7. When she awoke, he was there which gave her security. (I can’t imagine leaving your child alone in a hospital….can you?)
I have a neighbor who is a Hospice nurse. She worked for our local hospital for years and told me that nurses often forget to write down the necessary information that needs to be passed on to the next shift because they are so overworked and exhausted. This can be tragic, as we know.
Theresa N says
I’ve heard this all my life (no I’m not young) starting with my uncle who never left my grandmother alone when she was in the hospital. So when my husband spent a week in the hospital a few years ago I stayed with him. We didn’t have any problem (thankfully) but I did notice we didn’t see much of the nurses unless they were giving medicine or checking vitals, I came to realize that with me keeping an eye on him it gave them the time for patients that were alone. The doctors at this hospital were in your room by 6:00 o’clock in the morning doing rounds which was so different at other hospitals were at 9:00 and 10:00 at night you were still waiting on the doctor to come around.
Cindy I know what you mean we had to finish out the bills on payment to because everything wasn’t covered, like you we where making payments faithfully. We received a letter saying they were going to sue if we didn’t pay the full amount, when I talked to them I said we’re making payments, they said it didn’t matter we had to pay the full amount. Remember when they use to say as long as your making payments they can’t bother you? Looks like that’s changed too.
Cindy Merrill says
I will crawl outside and die on the lawn before I ever see an Emergency room again. St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Layfayette IND. charged me $900 because my medical insurance didn’t think I had a life threatening episode ( I had a severe allergic reaction to contaminated wheat, could not breathe): I paid $50 a week (all I could afford) yet I still got threatening letters promising legal action if I didn’t pay the full amount!!! Yes, I still have those letters. Never again. I now take homeopathic remedies, herbs, and avoid gluten products.