UF Health Shands Hospital — Attraction in Gainesville

I am writing you due my recent stay at UF Shands hospital with my son. It took 45 minutes to find parking due to ALL of the garages being at full capacity. Then, we had to wait over 2 hours for them to admit him for a scheduled admission. We also had to wait over two hours for my son to get a menu to order dinner. Which, he never received. They end up given us vouchers for Wendys because you could no longer order. They did not hook my son up for his EEG until after 6 o'clock. Then, we encountered an issue with them refusing to take my sons full bottle of Onfi because it was not unopened. However, he cannot take the generic. I was told to bring his own by two different people but not that it had to be unopened! So, our only option was for him to risk taking a medicine that caused him to seize or skip the medication, which is not good for epileptic patients. The whole point of this test was to see if his current medication dosages are working and stopping his ESES during sleep. How can that be done if he skips a dose? Not to mention, the nurse that came in his room attitude was horrible and highly unprofessional. She later apologized but having a nurse roll her eyes at you at walk out when I am just advocating for my son is ridiculous.

Sadly, several of your nurses were not pleasant unfortunately. During our stay we only encountered 3 nice nurses. That is sad. Yet, they sit at the nurse station, laughing, playing around, gossiping, and snacking while we wait forever. Now, they did finally agree to allow me to give our Onfi so we could do the test. I have two boys with special needs and I had my mother fly from Michigan just so we could do this test. So, you can imagine my frustration. Not to mention, the last time we were here your nurses gave my son the wrong medication. After I told three different people so it wouldnt happen. Then, during this stay his Dilera inhaler was not listed as ordered meds. They had no problem allowing me to use mine. I am assuming it is okay when it is blantly their fault. Overall, my son did not have a good experience in your hospital so his stress levels were high. He usually sleeps with his service dog and could not sleep due to him being uncomfortable. Therefore, his need for her was heightened. He asked if he could get a stuff animal. Thankfully, a nice nurse found him one. However, he still tossed and turned at 11 we asked for Melatonin we didn't receive it until 1:55 a.m. I have never experienced the lack of care and unprofessionalism in my whole life. I called your partners in care and was supposed to receive a call back but no one did. I also left a message with the hospitals patient care advocate. She contacted me rhis morning so we shall see what gets done.

This experience and my prior experience was so unsettling I hope I never have to bring my son back. He goes through enough with his health issues to come here and be treated this way. I'll never let it happen again. Oh, and he still hasn't received a menu either. I am hoping something is done because this is unacceptable.

Update: Nothing was really done beyond sending me a letter in the mail stating my complaint had been investigated with a big thanks for letting us...

Run , don’t walk away from this morbid excuse of a hospital. My wife started chemotherapy treatment about 3 weeks ago. They told us to monitor her temperature because of the treatment, on Sunday morning at about 1:30 am rushed wife to the recommended ER near bye, admitted her an waited 5 hours for room/transport. Got her set up in the room then I went home to get some items we forgot in the hurry to get to er. Came into my wife’s room she was covered in a very bad rash, what was more disturbing was the staff had not seen it yet, you know busy,busy, but don’t go bye the nursing station,watching all the staff on there cell phones waiting for a room bell to go off. What ever happened to nurses walking the floors looking or hearing for problems. Finally after almost three weeks from our first introduction to the dr. She finally shows her face. 3 days of no control of her temperature they finally sent her off to another part of the hospital to have a procedure including a tube down the throat. While in the recovery room, sitting right next to the receptionist a listening to her an the associates next to her berating people on the phone an after they hang up, beyond inexcusable. Finally Came back to room, unable to get off oxygen. An don’t bring the garbage they tell you is food. I think they killed the alley rats for the sausage. But now going on our 5th day and with “0” medical background I can safely say she is way worse off now than when she stepped thru the doors of this hospital.forget about how they take care of the caregiver , a 60 year old cote that you cannot sleep on if your life depended on it even with the 6 blankets you put under you. Then, Let’s not forget how the emergency parking is taken up bye employees, while sitting in my wife’s room (7th floor) , watching the people buzzing around, looking for that one open spot at shift change, truly comical.so many other things wrong to list. Bottom line the low reviews should be worse. A place truly in need of an “ENEMA still trying to get out of here. One of the entry points ( feeding tubes) , got jammed up so they needed a new one but none of the staff on duty could do it ,specialist required. Four different times we were told they are on the way finally the nurse came in an said someone canceled the order bye mistake.finnaly the specialist shows up, bye the time the butcher left , my wife was almost in tears, you could tell we were interrupting there lunch. Great place, not. I am continuing to update mostly for record keeping since I don’t have the ability at the present time to write this down. Wife had an issue going to the restroom person responsible said the forgot to check the area when nurse came in she questioned about the issue, well you are still on a stool softener, keep in mind it’s been 6 days, but good news nurse was wrong, nurse at desk stated as much. And the upper management either are ignorant to how bad things are or just to lazy to do anything about it. Just got the, just call us when you need something, okey. All this and my wife with all she’s going thru , just smiles and...

After my son had excessive bleeding from his newborn circumcison his pediatrician recommended going to Shands Pediatrics After Hours to see a pediatric urologist. I called and was told a pediatric urologist was on call and would contact me within the hour. Because the bleeding was rather severe, my husband and I took our son to the after hours clinic to be on site when we got the call. However when we arrived they told us we had to check in with the E.R. This didnt make sense, but they insisted. Next thing I know they have my son in an E.R. room working on clotting the circumcision. All the while I kept asking when would he see the urologist. They told me that once they had an I.V. line in which is apparently protocol.... a surgeon would come take a look. Two hours later, the nurses had finally put in the I.V. My poor 11 day old son had been poked in numerous spots as they continued to put this I.V. in. Finally a surgeon comes into the room. He takes a look and says, well I cant be sure so he has to stay the night and wait to be seen by a urologist in the morning. At that point the clot had formed and my son was fine. My husband and I begged to go home with him and come back in the morning. I myself was still recovering from labor and delivery and didn't have what I needed to care for myself either. That's when we were told that if we left it was against their advice and everything they had done would not be billed to my insurance. I was terrified by how much that would mean I would be responsible for paying. We stayed overnight. No one ever came in to check on us. We just held our son all night in shifts making sure he didn't move and disrupt his clot and prayed to God it would be healed come morning. The most help we had was someone came and brought me a breast pump and some things to take care of myself. We also had to share a room with a couple whose son was undergoing surgery in the morning. In order to get to a private bathroom I would have to cross into their room. So I ended up caring for myself in a public restroom down the hall. Finally at 6:00am a team of surgeons came into our room. They literally opened his diaper, said "looks good" and told us we could leave. I can say with almost 100% certainty we were bullied and threatened into staying over night so they could charge my insurance thousands more. I am in the process of disputing the bill. This is not the first time Shands has bullied me into staying under their care and charging my insurance thousands of dollars for bogus claims. STAY AWAY if you can. The ONLY reason I went here is because my pediatrician promised an on call urologist and that NEVER happened. As of now we still don't know for sure if he has lasting negative impacts from the botched circumcision and lack of care. He is still swollen a month later and will most likely have a long lasting if not, life long...