Dignity Health - California Hospital Medical Center — Attraction in Los Angeles

I came to this hospital on a referral from my primary care physician because I had an abnormal EKG after throwing up out of the blue one morning. My overall impressions of the doctors, nurses, and staff is that they are actually phenomenal, though overworked. Because hospitals prioritize patients with more urgent issues, mine was lower importance, so I ended up being there about 9 hours overall.

During that time I got to see and hear a lot of doctor/patient interactions while I waited.

I've never seen a group of doctors who were more attentive, compassionate, and patient than the doctors working in this hospital. They truly listened and went out of their way to connect with their patients, no matter who their patients were or why they were there. There was so much respect, even to patients who seemed clearly to be drug-seeking or had severe mental illness or were highly demanding and reactive.

I was also impressed by how many doctors spoke multiple languages, and how attentive they were to making sure their patients were conversing in the language that was most comfortable to the patient. Clearly the doctors and staff who work here have a deep calling to practice medicine and deliver the best medical care possible to people regardless of money. These are not the doctors and nurses who got into this business to get rich, these are the doctors and nurses who got into this business because they want to help people, and that shows in every interaction.

All of that said, the clientele coming into this hospital was very mixed. There were severely mentally ill people or homeless people coming straight off the streets, there were people who were fairly obviously drug-seeking, but there were also a ton of families with young children or elderly people being accompanied by neighbors who cared for them. (Once the hospital gets people checked in, the people who seem mentally unstable are moved into rooms where they can be watched more carefully.)

In terms of hospital facilities, the system is somewhat confusing when you come in because you move from place to place depending on which stage of triage and treatment you are in. Sometimes there weren't enough chairs for people and they would be standing around. And when patients originally come in you have to go through security and through check in, which feels very impersonal and like they're expecting to get robbed. Before you check in there is really no attention, so people in pain were standing in line with nowhere to sit while they waited. At the same time, given the clientele, it has to be done this way to protect the patients and the medical staff. If they could add chairs to the hallway, that would make a big difference.

As you are moving through the system it takes a long time if you are not severely ill, but the pace is fairly steady and you are clearly being tracked even when it feels like you are not. The job of an ER is to determine who needs care more quickly and prioritize those people. This hospital was clearly doing that, which was frustrating to people who were lower priority and expected the hospital to work like a bank where the people who come in first get treated first. Some of those people would start to get loud and irritated, but the hospital staff would treat them with patience and kindness anyway.

The staff was also incredibly gentle with patients who had clearly not followed medical advice. For example, one patient had been discharged from surgery with care instructions for a drainage tube, but he didn't like the drainage tube and decided to cut it off. Not surprisingly, it created problems and he ended up back in the hospital. Instead of scolding him about it, the doctors were exceptionally kind and they just handled the problem. The same patient also wanted his IV removed because he didn't like IVs, and after explaining why the IV was there, the doctors were incredibly flexible.

Overall, the doctors, nurses, and staff are five star plus, but I gave a 4-star rating because the location and situation make the hospital rough...

The triage team at Dignity Health - California Hospital Medical Center was so concerned about moving to the new ER building at 4am that they literally and callously discarded me and a few others, discharging us quite rudely, with minimal care.

They left me shivering, scared to death at the end of the hallway for 8 hours, cyclical vomiting with blood, severe chest pains, and an infection that isn’t responding to meds. My blood pressure is through the roof, and they gave me nothing for it, even though they acknowledged that I needed blood pressure medication. The chewable aspirin they gave me 5 hours in, I vomited almost immediately. I wasn’t holding anything down, I still can’t. I asked for Zofran several times and it was one of the last things they gave me at 3am before giving me the boot, with some milk of magnesium, which I also vomited up. When I told them I was not comfortable with being discharged with how I feel, they got extremely aggressive. I told them I was just scared because I was vomiting blood and I have cancer, Barrett’s, Crohn’s, and colitis and I’ve been in a flare for months. They doubled down, and then claimed that they offered me a norco and I refused.—that was a lie. I would have taken it bc I was in immense pain. I mean, I have painkillers and muscle relaxers at home, and I came to the hospital to get better but I definitely would not have turned down a way to ease the pain. They kept telling me that they didn’t see a reason to keep me, with every reason I gave that I needed further evaluation. Like did they even look at my chart or did they just go off of my vitals and labs? Bc regardless of me not being in cardiac arrest something was wrong!! They kept saying that they did everything they could, Even though they gave me literally no care. None. Then they gave me discharge papers even though I asked to speak with the doctor first, and they refused. My discharge papers say that I have pulmonary hypertension. They didn’t communicate this with me at all. PH is serious, but you wouldn’t know that by the way they callously wheeled me out to the front. I had to wait for Michael to pick me up.

I told them I was going to file a complaint with patient advocacy, and they didn’t care. I’m sure they know they’ll get away with how terrible they were being. I’m also pretty sure they wrote in my chart that I was “being complicated” but I was scared!! I’m also autistic. I’ve been through so much these last few months alone and I can feel that something is going on. I’m so scared, and medical-cal is so limited. Every day I feel worse and now I’m scared to go back.

I told the little old lady they kicked out to do the same, and file. There was also a gentleman in there that the first thing the literally asked was, “when was the last time you used?” He flipped out, justified. He didn’t look like an addict to me. He looked like a business owner, everything he was wearing was WAY too expensive. Tbh, they were treating everyone like they were addicts of some kind and that is absolutely disgusting. You know an addict when you see one, and regardless they STILL deserve care. We just want to feel better and know that we aren’t going to die in our sleep.

I’ve never been treated this badly before by their staff. They were very rude and callous. Absolutely nothing about them was kind. I’m leaving 1 star because I can’t...

Oh man, I don’t really wanna talk about it! I was in the emergency room two days in a row. I had to wait 50 gazillion hours. It was a horrible experience! I was there December 1 in the ER six hours! Waiting in the hallway! You never get a room you never get a cubby nothing like that. No you’re just sitting in the hall then the doctor come see you for 60 seconds then they tell you to go wait in the waiting room.!

After that the next day, December 2 because they had told me to come back December 2 to get treated for what I went in there for which was unbearable pain if I tell you anymore, I’ll be violating my own hip-hop 😂! Cycle back December 2 start all over another six hours oh but let me tell you about their new technology you know yeah it’ll send you a text and tell you how long your wait time is so the wait time says oh you’ll be seen in 20 to 30 minutes after 20 or 30 minutes then it says oh sorry our wait times have Been extended. You’ll be seen in two hours then an hour later it says you’ll be seen in 2+ hours and then it doesn’t change the whole rest of the six hours. It keeps saying 2+ hours and I’m like how is time not moving and I’m still sitting in the hall. Oh my God Finally I get to see a doctor in the hall of course for a whole 60 seconds and then I’m just like really oh man, but at least I got a pain reliever that day. It lasted one day so the next day I went to my provider at USC Care Neurology and they took care of me. Thank you, USC Care Neurology. I mean, you know I’m only giving this low rating because it’s atrocious to have to have an app. tell you that your wait time is 20 to 30 minutes and they tell you when you check in yeah we’re gonna take care of you right now yeah cause you were there the previous day in the ER for the same thing And then you still are there six hours like why did you lie to me? Oh, I’m having a meltdown and then you send me a survey asking me what I think of the technology about the wait times it stresses me out knowing that you tell me I’m gonna be seen in 30 minutes and then 30 minutes later it says two hours and then an hour later it says 2+ hours for the next four hours. I’m just like really And then I’m still in pain. That’s ridiculous. That’s just crazy. The technology is like makes a person lose it, and on top of that, our lady did lose it. We’re in the hallway and I mean she’s screaming at the top of her lungs. I don’t wanna be here. I don’t wanna be here. I want to be transferred to another hospital. You know I mean, oh my God are you kidding me oh my God and nobody gave her the memo that’s the way it is at California Hospital ER if you go in there you’re gonna wait six hours hello there yeah I hope you voted. Let’s hope that wasn’t a lie voting on that proposition that says we’re gonna get more healthcare providers and emergency room. Wait times won’t be as long. Yeah don’t hold your breath on that one stay in school healthcare providers. Come on young people go to school become a nurse become a doctor do it for...