SSM Health DePaul Hospital - St. Louis — Attraction in Bridgeton

I recently had my 92 year old mother sent to Depaul by ambulance as a result of fall. Upon our arrival I immediately noticed that it was literally packed within the Emergency Room. I also noticed that they had removed my mother from within the confines of the ER and placed her in a wheelchair back in the ER lobby without having done any type of initial triage to ascertain if she had any type of broken bones. My mother had fallen a year before and had broken her femur which was explained to the EMS team prior to her ambulance conveyance.

I will say after we arrived and after some questioning she was then expeditiously seen by the triage nurse and they immediately did a full X-ray workup on her. However, my 92 year old mother came out of the X-ray facility literally in tears saying that she was trying to explain she was in intense pain and never should have received more assistance.

She was then told to remain in the lobby until she was called to be seen by a Dr. From that point on we literally sat in the ER waiting for well over 9 hours before being seen by a physician. It was very obvious too that the nurses at the front desk although very professional in manner were quite stressed.

I’m retired military and all I could think of was what if this had been a natural disaster or an influx of patients as a result of a horrific accident. I do understand that this was after the July 4th holiday but with that being said that’s where preplanning comes into mind. I over heard a nurse state that the hospital bed was at full capacity and therefore they could not send ER patients once stabilized to a room. Again then you should have some way of letting walk-in ER patients know the wait time so they can have alternative choices. I observed a man literally go into a seizure while waiting in the ER on 5 July 2019. I observed another female pass out in the restroom which required a security response just to get her out of the bathroom. She had been there well over 9 hours as well. We arrived around 11:00 am that morning and and my mother wasn’t released until 1:15 am the next day. The attending physician was very apologetic and fortunately after all that time it was discovered my mother did not have any broken bones only severe bruising. I will say had someone like a PA or a LPN reviewed her initial xrays the initial assessment could have been done expeditiously and a script written for pain. In my opinion the entire Depaul ER process needs to be looked at and streamlined for better service to its patients.

Here are some recommendations:

First and foremost in addition to using the triage method track the patients initial sign in time. I would say no one should ever be sitting in the ER waiting area any longer than 3-4 hours max. Have follow on PA or LPNs routinely briefing patients as to each his or her status while in the triage area waiting for treatment.

Establish contingency plans for potential peak times around holidays and severe cold seasons.

Provide mounted televisions within all waiting room areas.

Ensure your front desk is well staffed and has a well lighted area at all times when receiving patients.

Ensure the ER bathrooms both within the ER and within the waiting area are kept extremely clean at all times.

Ensure the cleaning staff consistently sanitizes wheelchairs when being stored in storage areas for patients. Patients and caretakers typically don’t have gloves and those germs are routinely being spread from sick to non-sick patients during a patient conveyance.

Ensure all the phone charging stations are operable. Remember families are trying to make contact to love ones during medical emergencies.

Ensure you always have enough staff within the ER, place additional staff on call for peak times.

Have designated quarantine areas for folks with coughs and severe colds. Mask should be handed to a patient after the desk is notified of the ailment.

Ensure the intercom system is working and audible within the the main ER waiting areas and outside at the entrance...

To say that my care here was lacking is an understatement. I was told by my old surgical office to come back to DePaul Hospital for any emergent gastrointestinal issues, as this was the hospital where I previously had a bypass. I came in because I was having abdominal pain and expelling high amounts of gas via belching. My husband brought me and the nurses at the front desk seemed to not care about my discomfort. When I was finally brought into a triage room to have an IV put in for blood draws, I was stuck 4 times with a needle with 3 of them resulting in a blown vein, which is quite painful. The 4th IV stick was painful as well, even though it was successfully placed. All 4 places I was stuck with an IV needle continue to give me mild levels of discomfort as I type. We were then told to go back to the waiting room. I continued to have pain and belching. My husband asked if I would be seen by a doctor soon, but they could not give him any answers and seemed bothered by the fact he was asking. After waiting until 4:30AM, no one showing any care for my situation, and seeing that other patients were also not being taken care of, I decided I wanted to leave. My pain and gas levels had decreased to a level I was okay going home with. When I told the nurses at the front desk that I wanted to leave, they seemed surprised. I told them I was feeling better and that I did not want to keep waiting for an even longer period of time. My husband and I were tired, but also knew that I would not be taken care of; no one had shown concern from the start. After confirming that I wanted to leave I was told I would be leaving “against medical advice (AMA)”, which made me feel like I was being guilted into staying. I held my foot down, asked if they could at least properly discharge me with the results so far, and confirmed once again I wanted to leave, but I was told they couldn’t do a proper discharge and it would still be leaving AMA. I did not care at this point. They told us we could leave, but this was before even updating my insurance information/name in their system. The person from registration was quite rude to us and made us feel burdensome-just because we wanted the right insurance to be billed and the right name to be placed in the system. We waited awhile longer while the updated information was being put in, and when we finally got to leave, it felt like we had just wasted 4.5 hours of our time. If you have a choice, do not go to SSM Health DePaul Hospital for your emergent medical needs. This event has also caused me to start researching other gastroenterologists/bariatric surgeons in the area for post-bypass care; I do not wish to come back to this hospital. This is very sad for me because I was finally in a situation where I could have my follow-up care, but I cannot trust this hospital in any sense now. Three years of time passed have only shown me that a hospital I thought was great is now nothing more than a...

The wait to get into a room wasn't long at all. The staff that checked us in and triaged my daughter was nice, but then we encountered David. He was rude, and unprofessional. He entered the room, and didn't introduce or identify himself. He had a look of annoyance on his face from the moment he stepped foot in the room. He came in fumbled through the drawer for some items to give my daughter an iv. He then left out came back in, and without even trying to hide it, he looked at my 16 yr old daughter as she wailed in pain, and rolled his eyes. He then proceed to talk under his breath in annoyance with my daughter. My daughter and I were communicating through body language and looks at one another, and she says to me, I'm glad we are on the same page. David then storms closer to her and loudly says, "if you want me to help you I need you to lose your attitude". I'm not sure if anyone has ever heard the expression that hit dogs holler, but he definitely felt guilty about the very subpar treatment he was providing her to feel the need to speak up when she wasn't even talking to him. At this point I was fed up, and as her mama I jumped into mama bear mode, and the nice me went out the window. Now Mr. David didn't like when he was being treated how he had been treating us since he walked in the room with us. I asked for a different nurse which, David responded he was the only nurse, and that was too bad. I told him that I didn't want him touching my child, and he told me he wasn't going to deal with me and how I was acting. Admittedly, I was upset and frankly pissed off, and in full mama mode at this point. He literally told me I was acting "retarded" and asked that security be called on me. He then closed the curtain in my face, which I snatched open, because I had previously told him I didn't want him to touch my child, much less be in a room behind a closed curtain with her. I wouldn't trust David to care for my pet rock much less my child. Before it was all over he insinuated that she was faking her pain, not once but twice. I responded by reminding him that he is a nurse, and not a doctor, and shouldn't be making those assessments. With the interaction that I had with David, it is safe to say I will NOT be returning to Depaul. There is noway this is the only complaint that has been reported regarding David's bedside manner, and to feel that I am 100% right about this, and to know he is still allowed to practice medicine at your hospital speaks volumes about the level of care, or should I say lack there of, that your hospital provides is enough for me to never consider returning. If my child wasn't in so much pain, we would have went somewhere else. If I could give 0 stars, I definitely would. If you can make it to any other hospital, I suggest you do so, because if DAVID is Depauls level of standard, it's clear they don't give a damn about...