NYC Health + Hospitals/Woodhull — Attraction in New York

Came in via ambulance after cutting my leg and requiring stitches. I was directed to sit down until someone came over to treat me. No one told the staff it was self inflicted so I sat around waiting to be seen with an open gash on my leg in the dirty emergency room. Once someone finally spoke to me, about 45 minutes later, and asked what happened, I told them I had cut myself and the all of a sudden rushed to treat me upon finding out it was self inflicted. Before they even got me a bed to sit on or a gown to change into they took all of my belongings and locked them up with no explanation. I overheard one nurse tell another “No one told me this was self inflicted, I would’ve put more urgency on it had I known.” I then sat in the trauma unit waiting to be stitched up for a few hours. After receiving stitches I sat around for another few hours waiting to be seen by a psychiatrist for a psych evaluation. After seeing the psychiatrist in the Emergency Psychiatric Unit, I was told I would be discharged but due to it being late at night I was to wait until the daytime doctor evaluated me. Okay... The only problem? There wasn’t enough beds for the number of patients admitted. Leaving myself and many other patients with the option of sleeping on the floor, or in a chair. In addition to this, they needed some bloodwork on me. Their solution was to have staff pull my blood right there in a dim common area. It took 3 tries between two nurses to find a vein. I was very dehydrated from being in the ER for 7 hours with no water, so it was hard to draw my blood. They told me to drink some water and I asked where I could do that only to be ignored. Later in the night I was awoken to be shown to a room with a bed to sleep in. Not that it’s a hotel, but there wasn’t any pillows. I later saw that no one had pillows, leaving everyone who was lucky enough to have a bed, lie flat on their back. The next day, another doctor evaluated me, only this one told me that I would be admitted to the psych unit. One doctor said I was stable enough to leave because I am treated in outpatient, another said I needed to be transferred to the psych unit because my cut required 7 stitches. After that I heard nothing from no one. The next day I saw yet another psychiatrist. This one told me I did not need to be admitted and I could be discharged if anyone (literally anyone) could vouch for my safety. So they discharged me. I told them I had no phone, wallet, or keys, because they were given to my boyfriend who I had come in with. I also told them I couldn’t reach him and asked if I could stay until I could get ahold of him. They told me that there was a courtesy phone in the lobby I could use. The only problem with the courtesy phone in the lobby? It only works to call IN the hospital. Otherwise, there was a pay phone. But again, I had no wallet. I asked customer service if there was any way I could contact my boyfriend to let him know I needed to be picked up but they were very rude and said their phone only called in the hospital. I then asked if I could call the unit I was on to see if they could make a call on my behalf, because again, even if I walked home, I didn’t even have to keys to my apartment. The staff at customer service told me they should have already done that for me, and that she couldn’t help me. Luckily, I ended up using the free phone across the street and waited outside for him. Overall, not a great experience. A majority of the staff I encountered seem to be annoyed at having to...

El peor hospital de Brooklyn. Embarazada, super hinchada, con la presión alta y lista para dar a luz me llamaron para cambiar mi cita para inducir el parto, luego cuando decidieron verme me dijeron que el bebé tiene poco líquido. Me ingresaron, me llevaron a una habitación supuestamente para ponerme una vía intravenosa y luego supuestamente me llevaron a la sala de parto, me dejaron ahí 6 horas o más porque según ellos no había lugar disponible para que empezaran a inducir el parto. . Después de que finalmente me liberé, me llevaron a la habitación y la doctora le dijo a la enfermera que me iba a empezar a dar pitocina, que iba a empezar a inducir el parto, resulta que la enfermera fue a buscar la supuesta pitocina. y ahí quedó, una hora después mi hermana le contó al doctor lo que había pasado que la enfermera no me dio nada, bueno la doctora dijo que ella le dio la orden pero no sabe por qué la enfermera no me dio hacer cualquier cosa, al rato llegó la enfermera con la medicina. O sea, si mi hermana no se queja, me dejan ahí horas sin hacer nada. Después de verme la doctora también desapareció, estuvo horas sin verme. The worst hospital in Brooklyn. Pregnant, super swollen, with high blood pressure and ready to give birth they called me to change my appointment to induce labor, then when they decided to see me they told me that the baby has little fluid. They admitted me, took me to a room supposedly to give me an IV and then supposedly they took me to the delivery room, they left me there for 6 hours or more because according to them there was no room available for them to start inducing labor. After I finally got free, they took me to the room and the doctor told the nurse that she was going to start giving me pitocin, that she was going to start inducing labor, it turns out that the nurse went to look for the supposed pitocin and that's where it stayed, a An hour later my sister told the doctor what had happened that the nurse didn't give me anything, well the doctor said that she gave her the order but she doesn't know why the nurse didn't do anything, after a while the nurse arrived with the medicine. In other words, if my sister doesn't complain, they leave me there for hours without doing anything. After seeing me, the doctor also disappeared, she went for hours without seeing me. After a while they came and told me that they were going to start inducing with another method because the pitocin did not make me dilate more than 3 centimeters. They told me that I came to give you the balloon, they never gave me anything, they forgot about me. In the end a doctor arrived who, thank God, cared about me, put the balloon on me and that's when the pain started. In the end they did a cesarean section, after the operation they took me to an office-type room where there were nurses working on the computers. There I couldn't rest at all, because of the noise they made, my head hurt a lot because I had preeclampsia. I begged and begged to be taken to the room I had, they told me: I HAD TO WAIT FOR ONE TO OPEN, AFTER THE ROOM WAS DIRTY, THEN I HAD TO WAIT TWO HOURS, THEN I HAD TO WAIT ONE MORE HOUR, THEN WAIT FOR THE PERSON WHO HE TOOK ME TO THE ROOM, IN THE END hours later they took me to the other room because I had to make noise and complain. I spent the whole day...

Would give zero stars if I could. This place is dangerous! Even an EMT we met said he would never come here for medical needs and told us we were crazy for doing so. An friend's dad who is a NY cop said once said, "if I am shot on the steps of Woodhul drive me to another hospital." But my friend was hurt and light-headed and it was closest public hospital (she has no insurance)...it's worth the drive elsewere if you can manage it.

-ER is unclean (the doc assistant when exiting our exam room, grabbed a bunch of dirty rags and sheets off corner of floor and yelled "ugh, what are these doing there." -Security is very lax (cop "protecting" us at entrance all had the longest hot pink fake nails, dunno what protecting she plans to do with those). -Nurses and docs are disorganized, continually entering room thinking my friend was someone else. -Nurses were rude. My friend was very dehydrated and when I asked hospital employee for water, she rudely said "I don't really work here." And left without a word. My friend drank from the water bottle I brought along. -Almost gave my friend penicillin after she said multiple times she was allergic. -Didn't notice glass in her skin from accident, despite her getting x-rays. -Didn't ask if her wrist injury was due to attempted suicide (it wasn't but it sure could have been by how it looked) -Didn't ask her why she was seriously limping (she had twisted her ankle day before) -Didn't ask her if she had head injury despite saying she fell and passed out (probably as result of her bad ankle) -IN FACT, asked zero follow-up assessment questions about the accident. -Doc assistant refused to believe my female friend's assessment of her own pain, talked down to her, improperly administered lidocaine (according to follow-up doc), started stitches before she was numb and made fun of her when she yelled in pain, improperly bandaged/supported her injury, poorly executed stitches (again according to follow-up at Bellevue who redid them). -Both doc and doc assistants assessment that my friend needed expensive hand surgery were dismissed by the hand surgeon at Bellevue who said her hand just needed stitches, to be protected, and to heal.

(When I went here years ago with an incredibly painful ear infection... -I waited 4 hrs to be seen despite being second in line at clinic. -The doctor shoved the otoscope into my ear without warning and almost made me pass out in pain and cry. -Doc gave me wrong type of medicine so my situation got worse as I kept taking meds hoping for improvement that was never gonna come. -Went to another doc delirious with pain at this point and was told everything done to me was wrong and that their error could have lost me my hearing if I had waited a few more days for a second opinion.)

So nothing has changed, this place is hell and I feel horrible for all the low-income, poor, uninsured, undocumented people (many of whom were POC) who have no choice, but to turn to this dangerous, uncaring place for medical care....