The Home Depot Emergency Department at NYU Langone Health—Cobble Hill — Attraction in New York

This is a terrible ER! !!!! User ech time 0 min ago It is my opinion as an RN with 40 years experience who actually once worked in this hospital that the emergency room at this hospital is TERRIBLE. I think Dr Anand Kumar Swaminathan is not only uncaring but rude as well. My daughter, who lives in another state then I, went there after having chest pain and palpitations and vomiting during a long holiday week where the ER was her only alternative for care, with severe symptoms which would come and go over two days. She called her own Dr. who recommended she go to an ER to get an EKG and a blood test right away especially since she had an abnormal blood result on the last lab test and medications were recently adjusted. She is on medications which alter her electrolyte balance and reported to the ER that she had several episodes of really rapid pulse and chest pain and vomiting lasting two days or more. She was feeling very weak and shaky. Dr Swaminathan REFUSED to do a simple blood test which would have revealed exactly her potassium, sodium, magnesium, and glucose levels were that may have given a clue as to why she was experiencing these symptoms. All he did was take an EKG to see if she was in danger of dying THAT MINUTE and an expensive chest x ray but REFUSED to do a simple electrolyte test which would most likely have identified the causation and would have certainly eased the patients mind. It was explained to him several times that electrolyte imbalance was her problem to begin with. Dr. Swaminathan claimed life threatening electrolyte disturbance would have been seen on the ekg and since it was normal at THAT PARTICULAR MOMENT IN TIME it was not emergent and NOT THEIR PROBLEM!!! He said they only handle things that are an emergency in that moment not things that could become life threatening after she leaves. She should wait it becomes so or until her Dr was available next week to get a test despite how she felt. He rudely blew off all of her and my concerns (after speaking with him by phone) then and sent her home ALONE, feeling dizzy, with chest pains and periodic palpitations and weakness and no answer as to why except it could possibly be muscular-skeletal. (Which would NOT explain the dizziness and palpitations). He would of course NEVER KNOW since he NEVER bothered to look at her electrolytes!, (because, as he snippily said, "it's not our problem since she isn't having life threatening symptoms at the minute" and she was to wait it out for a week until her own Dr is available or come back if she gets worse! (NEVER TO NYU!!!) He did not care one bit that she was frightened, uncomfortable ,alone and in fear of dying or she wouldn't have been there to begin with. This is the most unkind, uncaring , save a dollar, screw the patient's real health, don't care one bit about the patient's peace of mind, screw the whole patient's TOTAL well being, kind of poor minimal care that is becoming the new normal . They didn't even offer her a glass of water! This is cheap, shabby, unsafe, medicine-by-the- book, individual be damned sham they call care and if this is their protocol it should be reviewed and so should this doctor's non-caring, rude, time-and-dollar oriented approach to patient care. Of course, NYU didn't hesitate to ask for her MONEY before she was sent out alone into the boiling heat of the 90 degree day without so much as a sip of water after hours there, just a piece of paper saying rest and comeback if you get worse and a bill for thousands!!! NYU can and should do a lot better...

On September 2nd 2025, I and my wife arrived in the Emergency room of the Cobble Hill hospital in Brooklyn. My name is Jik Chu, and my wife is Yesook Chu. We are both naturalized US citizen, and senior citizens both well over 80 years old.

We arrived using Assist, a private ambulance company. Initially we called another ambulance company who refused to go to Cobble Hill for an unknown reason. We had to call Assist after many searches who took us to Cobble Hill arriving around 2:00 PM.

We were taken to the Emergency Room and subsequently my wife’s X-ray and CT series were taken. She had a nasty fall during last night. Fortunately no bone was fractured, and starting around 4:00 pm we started to wait for the ambulance. Around 5:00 pm we were removed from the room 22 to a place next to a corridor.

Starting around 6:00 pm I started to ask my male nurse and social worker why the ambulance is so late. No answer was given. I started to ask the manager who’s in charge of the Emergency Room. I was confronted by a security office who said unless I sit down and keep quite they will have to remove me from my wife’s bedside to an outside location. I obliged.

By 7:00 pm my wife was in pain. I asked for cancellation of the ambulance service, instead of a wheel chair and a pair of crutch to walk to the taxi. When we are ready leave, the ambulance finally arrived and we gladly accepted the ambulance service. At the parking lot I saw 3 cars standing with the Cobble Hill Ambulance logo on them.

I found out from the driver, he’s from the Senior Care Co. which is the only ambulance company the Cobble Hill Emergency staff is allowed to call. Earlier I called Assist, who said they could deliver patient to hospital who called on their own, but not called by the Hospital staff. When I called 911 medical, they said I should ask the Hospital emergency staff to arrange the ambulance service.

As a law abiding senior Citizens, we’d like to see we could choose among any private ambulance companies. If the hospital must choose an ambulance company to dispatch, the hospital must have more than one ambulance company under contract with plenty of cars. Alternatively, let patients choose their own company. Thank you...

What a bizarre experience of indifference. As I was discharged, I was told flatly by a nurse, “A lot of patients leave here without any answers.” I came to ER after 10 hrs of blinding pain on one side of body and left the same. Nobody attempted to figure out what the source of the pain was, once the tests ruled out three things. NOBODY WAS TRYING TO PROBLEM SOLVE WITH ME. I told the technician when she touched me I had searing pain by my kidney, but she said only the doctor can diagnose me. Their sonogram didn’t pick up that it was a kidney stone. If the doctor would have spent time listening to me, we could have figured it out. I told the nurses that the pain over night had traveled from my back to my front, a symptom of kidney stones. Yes most of nurses and techs were nice, and yes it’s clean, but one important key is still the doctors. So they ran their tests but I was there 3 hrs and doctor never examined me, never checked for the pain, and never went over results of tests with me. He spoke to me a few minutes and said he’d come back after lab results, but never did. I stumbled around the unit searching for a second doctor, but there wasn’t one. This is the abc’s of medicine, treat the patient not the disease. All I was told was to take Advil and Tylenol. Leaving the ER with same pain and no answers was a frightening and painful experience. If you’ve had a kidney stone, you know it’s excruciating. I was back in ER the next day but at another hospital and they identified a kidney stone and an infection.

Listening to the doctor at NYU Lagone Cobble Hill play flirt with an elderly woman next to me for 20 minutes while she too expressed fear and just wanted him to do his job, was a disconcerting waist of time and resources. No matter your insurance, going to an ER is enormously expensive. In terms of EI, he seemed bizarrely clueless, just loving the sound of his voice, not trying to listen to patients. Ugh. He didn’t even come and go over the results with me. As the place was calm and not busy, I watched him sit behind a computer. Having nurses watch me leave in extreme pain, and fear without any pain medication or plan of next steps was one of the worst...