Children's Hospital Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora — Attraction in Aurora

When we arrived,everyone was friendly. The initial nurses that did our first vital check were amazing and stated that our son had no fever and his vitals looked great. We then were taken back in a timely manner and that's when everything felt like it was out of our control, after explaining that we think his high temperature was due too him being in a hot home with a fire place we were still told we needed to do blood testing and urine testing, our doctor had told us there was no need for a spinal tap and that she could agree with us that our son did not have a fever. After agreeing to doing blood testing and urine testing we were then given the ultimatum we that we load our child up with medicine and stay over night or we need to do a spinal tap and then could possibly take our child home. Neither of these options were even discussed or brought up when they talked to us about needing his blood and urine output. We had told our doctor we did not feel that things were necessary for our child and did not want to put him through more unnecessary testing. Our doctor left and another lady came in to re-explain everything, we again stated how we did not feel comfortable with further testing as the providers kept reiterateing that "his vitals looked great, his urine looks great, his blood work so far looks great" and we were asked what option we wanted, we stated that we wanted to take our son home and if his bloodwork indicated anything that we would bring him back and do further testing, the lady then explained that we would have to sign paper work going against the doctors recommendation and she then stated there would be consequences if we left (insinuating a call to police or CPS) even though we were just trying to advocate for our child and doing what we felt was in his best interest. We then decided to go with a spinal tap for our son after being pressured to pick an option that the doctors wanted, not us. We then were told we could not be in the room for sterilization and that the longest this would take is 30 minutes, that the longest part was to set up for the procedure. We then waited in the waiting room for over an hour and only got an update after my husband had gone to the front desk to ask. We finally were able to go back to see our son again and we're told it should only be another hour until results come in, another lady came into the room about 30 mintues after to grab his spinal fluid, so the results had not even been brought down at that point after we had already been waiting and when we asked why his results have not been brought down yet the lady gave us attitude and said because "this is how things work". We then waited over an additional hour and a nurse came in to give our son a antibiotic which our doctors had not explained to us he would be receiving the antibiotic, our nurse explained what it was for and then our doctor had came in to explain the antibiotic after the fact. Then she explained that we were having to wait an additional hour for lab work to come back. At this point we had checked in at 1pm and it was past 11pm, there just always seemed to be another thing that was added on that had not been discussed with us until the moment it was needed to be. As first-time parents we,feel like we had no decision-making in this process without there being an ultimatum, we were not communicated with well in any manner and felt completely uncomfortable being in that hospital. We will not be returning to childrens Hospital of Aurora and hope that the children's hospital of Highlands Ranch has more to offer. I did want to state that our nurse , Shannon, was absolutely amazing in comforting myself and was very caring. She is the only person throughout that experience I felt comfortable leaving my child with. It wasn't expected that if we didn't like the options there would be a call to police or CPS making us feel like we're bad bad parents for not agreeing with the options that were given to us and that we would hope and expect more understanding and kindness from staff, not uncertainty...

I reached out to my daughter's PCP in hopes of help because we were not able to come out of pocket to go to Mayo Clinic which is her regular hospital that manages her celiac. We were given 24hrs to get out here and I worked miracles to make that happen. My 17.5yr old daughter and I were excited to get answers and help. But from the moment we were admitted it's been a nightmare. From staff complaining about me requesting reasonable accommodations for my daughter to discrepancies and miscommunication. It's not asking much for a health care professional, to protect a immunocompromised patient. We have hit some waves in regards to seeing eye to eye in regard to my daughters care, but I believed that we had a mutual understanding of being on the same page as far as wanting to get her to a healthier weight and seeking answers for what may be hindering that. After the team meeting, I thought we had a game plan... and although I'm deeply disappointed in the short sightedness in regards to what is causing the lack of weight, we've been more than adaptable and willing to follow y'all plan. I had mentioned in the team meeting how precautions throughout the floor weren't being taken and I was concerned for my daughters safety as well as mine. I didn't feel like anything was being done in regards to that so I reached out to patient advocacy. The floor manager Melissa had called me and I pressed the button on the apple phone that records, it alerted both of us to the recording and we finished the conversation. The manager then called me again and I initiated the recording, she stated that conversation aren't to be recorded and I informed her I do not feel safe, continuing the conversation without documentation and her for to email me with resolutions. She stated that she can't email me but would put it on my chart. Prior to patient advocacy getting involved we haven't had any problems or complaints in regards to our interactions. We've had civil conversation and discussion. Never has there been name calling, yelling, threats or anything of the sort. So I was extremely taken back when two hospital personnel came to my daughters room in a manner that tried to intimidate, and state that I have been recording hospital personnel and have been abusive to hospital personnel and are "making staff members uncomfortable". I asked for examples which none could be provided; because none have occurred. It was a feeble attempt to intimidate, discredit and silence. I'm deeply concerned with the retaliation against me, attempts to intimidate and treats to have my daughter discharged, simply because I did my due diligence as a mother, to advocate for my child. Prior to me reaching out to patient advocacy, this was NEVER a problem. If I was management and there was a parent who alerted me to a possible problem with precautions and safety, l'd thank them for bringing it to my attention, and.do my duty to ensure that staff was ensuring proper precautions and hygiene measures. I have never recorded hospital staff, I recorded a conversation that took place with me outside the hospital; and the other party was aware. Which did not violate any policy, given that Colorado is a single consent state I didn't have to make the other party privy to conversation recording. A recording never took place in the hospital. ve NEVER broke hospital policy, and I'm deeply concerned with the standard of care that my daughter received at this hospital. The fact that instead of addressing a concern, I was met with resistance, hostility, attempts to intimidate and attempts to attack my character; speaks volumes to the culture of this hospital and...

The emergency room was more like an urgent care. Checked in at 12:30 am in the middle of the night. really crowded and it took us three hours to be seen after we called and spoke to a triage nurse ahead of time. who told us we had a legitimate emergency. The waiting room was not clean. There was blood on one of the seats next to us medical trash everywhere like the finger oxygen monitors, masks, and medical gloves. When we got back to be seen by the nurse practitioner, it was clear that the room had not been cleaned properly from the patient prior. The baby dropped her pacifier and it landed behind the bed. Obviously, we didn’t pick it up, but there were several used medical gloves from what we could tell. Scary. The food and snack area was really overpriced. There are not any notices as to when the hot food area would be closed. The coffee machine and tea area were not serviced and the filter needed to be replaced on the commercial coffee machine, but there was no one around to service it. if you could imagine, we had been up for over a day with a really sick and screaming baby and were in desperate needed coffee or some kind of caffeine. $ paid for overpriced snacks. Someone walked up and just stole out of the open area snack place. so much for having Security everywhere or cameras. What I’m assuming was the main area entrance was not being monitored and anybody could walk in. this was a bigger issue because the back door to the emergency room wasn’t being monitored and all you had to do was waive your hand and push the door open. The security guard didn’t even look up to see if you had a badge or to check an ID. It seems like an incident waiting to happen.  took us three hours to get seen, and another two hours to be told to basically deal with it after being told by the Children’s triage nurse to come in. Really awful experience with a sick baby. This was our second time here in less than a month. The first time, our baby got COVID at daycare. The second time was for a new virus with a steady 104 degree fever going on three days. I did like the nurse and the nurse practitioner we saw, but the NP quoted some survey that I looked up when we got home and I couldn’t find. Would have liked a reference since it was the basis for what she was...