Cleveland Clinic Main Campus — Attraction in Cleveland

Don’t believe the hype! Very good ancillary services/support staff, less than effective and relatively average to low skilled physicians with way below average investigative skills and diagnosis acumen! For an institution that is supposed to be amongst the best in the country, and best in cardiac care for several years in a row, I was sorely disappointed. Either they are buying their rankings or the ranking publications are simply skipping over the EP section… Once you get past the bells and whistles, e.g. massive state of the heart facility, concierge like service for foreign patients, etc… you quickly realize that this hospital system is mostly like any other, except it does an incredible job at marketing both its past and current exceptional achievements. These achievements are carried out by a very limited few. In other words exceptional/thorough docs are in short supply in this hospital, like in any other. They just do a great job of marketing and advertising the accomplishments of a very select few physicians, who are the exception and not the norm. Note, you will likely not have access to these exceptional physicians as they are in high demand. Instead You will be farmed out to much less proficient physicians who are no different than your average local specialist… I dealt with the cardiology department, specifically its electrophysiology section… The staff/ancillary medical team were awesome; however the Electrophysiologist I dealt with, was poorly organized, not thorough and contrary to what their cardiac appointment staff advertised, did not deal with highly complex arrhythmia diagnosis and curative treatment… His approach did not entail any in depth investigative processes, e.g. review of prior incident QRS morphology, review of clues provided by prior and current imagery, etc… He did exactly what the avg to below avg EPs I’ve seen so far, have all done: (1) Focused on the primary symptoms that suited his skill set and (2) ignored any acute symptoms that fell beyond his expertise, while heavily relying on the medications vs. investigating the root cause(s)… (3) failed to enlist the help of more experienced colleagues. He did not address the root causes of the disease regardless of its progression and instead preferred to settle on highly curated symptoms’ treatment, while hoping that acuity or worsening would not be immediate… This of course nearly ensures that down the line, once the disease process has worsened, I will be back for more acute and expansive services… What a revenue model… I strongly recommend that (A) you do extensive research and identify which physician(s) has the skillset that is required, to not just “treat” you but to actually cure you/find and tackle root cause(s) of your ailment before going to this hospital. And (B) ensure that this physician can actually see you/is available. (C) most important: Ensure that they are thorough, which is largely the exception. WHY? It takes time and work, for which they may not get a financial return. Otherwise, you are wasting your time and money. Just stick to your local specialist. Do not let the appointment staff randomly select a physician/specialist for you, based on availability. The physicians who have high availability generally tend to be the least effective/least thorough ones; hence their open schedules… Oh and their patient complaint process does not entail a conclusive resolution mechanism, as the clinical teams are not obliged to take corrective measures or communicate those measures to the patient… which leaves you wondering why come back to this hospital… Bottom line: Don’t believe the hype. Do your homework. If you are not getting satisfactory answers, e.g. booking agents tell you that “all EPs treat complex arrhythmias” and the one they suggest is really good, don’t believe them… Insist on the one whose name you found through research or who was recommended by another patient with ailments similar to yours and who’s received treatment here recently. If this is not a possibility, go somewhere else/don’t waste your...

We just left the death trap. This was our 3 days .My wife has a nutritional deficiency. We came here in hopes finding a cure. Two days now, seen couple of doctors, was told from beginning that wife would be taken care by nutritional team. Well, haven't seen much of them. In fact we have only recieved one meal, missed three meals, missed my wife's prescribed pain medications that we were told she has to, have hospital dispense. They didn't!!!!! We have been told by more than 3 nursing staff that that is par for the course in building H. So, I run out to McDonald's, Burger King etc., to buy food for my wife, so she doesn't starve, under the watchful care of the Cleveland Clinic Staff. Just talked to orderly picking up and asked about tomorrow morning's breakfast. She stated that they don't take orders this late. She has not left bed. No one has asked anything about orders. This place is atrocious. The worst hospital I have ever been to. Do yourself big favor, try ANY OTHER opportunities first. Cleveland medical clinic is way understaffed and overwhelmed with what they are trying to accomplish. Cleveland Medical is a STAY AWAY FROM, at all cost hospital. Now her pain meds are late again. Every person we talk to has some changing excuse. We told them her meds needed to be given at 4 am & 4 pm. First time was four hours late and was told that it was 8 am and 8 pm per the schedule. Now tonight's nurse says it's 9 pm. This is not something to mess around with. STAY AWAY FROM BUILDING H. These people do not give a darn about their patients. Well, so much for day two. We'll, almost. A supervisor, by his words, should not be in that position. He's only 1 year hire. WOW. SERIOUSLY?? Your here to ask how you can help? Same thing comes to mind. You can't do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result. We've been through this already. We have stated our problems with the nursing staff. Orderly staff and even talked to the people behind the desk. SAME RESULT. NOTHING. We are stuck her trying to save my wife. It kills me to know that the first doctor WAS so strict about getting nutrition to her as quickly as possible, yet nothing. STAY AWAY FROM HERE.

Well day 2.5. Is off to a bit better start after discussion with supervisor. Today, med are almost on time. Breakfast is coming about lunch time told by nurse. Wife's blood pressure is low 90/60. I hope this was expected after yesterday's shitty attention. I really don't think anyone here talks patient concerns to each other. I know they talk. See them standing chatting around each time I go out. It it doesn't better to day, we will go home and try to get into real hospital. Okay now 1:00. No lunch. Wife was given low carb diet this morning. SHE NEEDS TO GAIN WEIGHT. LOOK AT THE CHART. NO ON READS. Asked nutritional nurse that came by. No she shouldn't be on low carb diet. No shit????? She blamed some other department. This Clevand clinic is a Death Trap. Okay. They got this lunch meal here. It's nothing that she would have ever ordered. But it is something. Wow! Told the nurse April that the nutritionist said to let her know if we don't get meals. We told the nurse and she started giving me reasons why she didn't need to. I explained that we are suppose to tell her about missing or messed up meals. She said she is in contact. When I see the nutritionist I'm asking if she knew of our problems. Just waiting for the excuses. SERIOUSLY the law needs to.look into this operation. There is alot going on badly in Cleveland Clinic Ohio. This place has problems from the kitchen to the pharmacy. The staff just follows blindly. Just like mice. The dietician said that it was important that a stool sample be done. She said she will place bowl in toilet to retrieve sample. That was first thing this morning. Now 4 pm and nothing. It's like they are trained well to say the words but that's it. Dropped as usual. Ridiculous. No we haven't seen anyone to tell yet. Okay next screw up. Dr came and mentioned endoscopy (mouth to My limit is reached. It got...

Hello-We consulted with the Cleveland Clinic regarding my Wife's chronic Lyme infection after searching for help locally in WV. After two rounds of doxycycline, we started thinking that we needed to look outside of the area. She received her first Lyme diagnoses from a rheumatologist along with a couple others on this visit including ankylosing spondylitis. She tested positive for Lyme and was prescribed two weeks of doxycycline. She continued to decline, saw many physicians, and was ultimately misdiagnosed with MS as well as fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. This same neurologist who diagnosed her with MS later agreed that she did indeed have Lyme, and it had triggered her "MS" after a spinal tap, serology testing and MRI's that revealed Lyme and the Epstein Barr virus. We then decided to consult with the big guns in Ohio since now she had two diagnoses of Lyme and had tried two weeks of doxycycline but was still in rapid decline. We were being told if she was still having symptoms after two weeks of antibiotics, then it couldn't be Lyme. Growing desperate we called and spoke with a very nice lady at the Cleveland Clinic and were surprised to find out they would "treat" my Wife. I cannot tell you how excited we were to finally get some help with this terribly common, but seemingly invisible disease. We made the appointment with the infectious disease doctor Chris Kovacs Jr., drove to Cleveland, booked a room and tried to sleep anticipating that everything was finally going to "be OK". The next morning, we arrived for the appointment at 7:45 and were impressed with the Clinic's "Operation" until we got in front of their doctor Chris Kovacs Jr. who broke our hearts and wasted our time and money. After listening to her case for approximately five-six minutes, he informed us that "We don't have Lyme in WV and if she hadn't traveled to the northeast of the US then she hadn't been exposed to Lyme" as to which I replied, "I don't mean to be rude but, where do our dogs get it?" he then said that my Wife "definitely did NOT have Lyme" and suggested that maybe she needed more attention at home after asking my profession, which is sales. Chris Kovacs Jr. then refused any testing for Lyme or co-infections and we left his office in tears wondering what just happened. We traveled back to WV and by luck ran into someone whose Mother had Lyme but was misdiagnosed with ALS. She was treated by a local doctor and her "ALS" went into remission. I couldn't believe what I was hearing and we got in touch with that physician who is now semi-retired and after proper testing, she finally got a more appropriate treatment for Lyme. This brave doctor reported the positive serology results to the Kanawha County Health Department. Now she is "on file" as having positive Lyme serology results and we have received Lyme Brochures from the Health Department published by the CDC, Lyme book markers, and vinyl yard signs that read with the warning "Lyme lives here”. These were nice quality signs btw, if you are reading, please send more. I tacked ours up around the neighborhood. Apparently they track this sort of thing IF your doctor reports it through the proper non-insurance channels. She ended up getting treated with antibiotics including a PICC line with ceftriaxone. We are both very much still affected by Lyme today and if only our family physician had given my Wife $40-$50 dollars worth of antibiotics when she first presented, then maybe, just maybe I wouldn't be typing this at work right now. Any physician who denies Lyme can be a chronic infection should be ashamed of themselves for their lack of courage to help. They know the truth and Lyme needs to be given the credence that people deserve. It's a sad day when the insurance "front" tells you that "You don't have Lyme in WV". I'm surprised he didn't call it "Lymes". I would clearly give "0" stars if that was possible. Thank you for reading, I hope that this can help in some way as I've been meaning to write this for...