HMH Palisades Medical Center — Attraction in North Bergen

I went to this hospital last night with my 11 week old. One would think going to the ER with a brand new sick baby would mean good care, right? Well, brace yourself...

Upon walking into the ER my husband and I approached reception with our newborn. One of the receptionists completely ignored us. She didn’t even look up from her screen. The other one that “helped” us was extremely rude. He was confrontational, off putting, demeaning, and wouldn’t take his earphones out of this ears when speaking to us. I had to raise my voice so the whole waiting room could hear me and repeat my child’s problem 4 times because he couldn’t hear me when I’m three feet from his face and then he still mispronounced it because having his earphones in his ears is more important than listening to patients or parents or anyone else for that matter. (For the record it’s RSV, NOT RSB!!!) Receptionists are the face of the hospital. They let you know what a hospital is going to be like. Congratulations!!! I’ve never met worse receptionists in my life.

My child’s primary doctor had called the emergency department (or departnment as it says on the back of their sweaters) and told them we were coming and what tests to run and also what treatment to give my baby. This required an IV. My husband and I had to hold our baby while two nurses tortured her for 7 minutes to get the IV in. Part of the treatment my baby required was fluids and anti nausea medicine. They gave my baby the anti nausea medicine fairly soon after getting the IV in, but we waited for the nurse to come back with a saline bag and she never did. I had to personally go to the nurses station and get a nurse to come back and connect a bag to the line after 45 minutes! You would think that they would be busy. I observed them very busy indeed. Eating at desks. Laughing. Gossiping. Being on their phones. The list goes on. When it comes to wait times, they are worse than the DMV! Not to mention, the staff at the DMV is more professional.

Finally, we see a pediatrician. The hospital’s own personal pediatrician after we had been sitting in a room for more than 5 hours and my baby had two rounds of IV fluids and anti nausea medicine. The doctor walks in and tells me that my baby looks great and is sick because of the way I nurse. Well, I’ve been talking care of children (including infants) for 17 years. I know how to feed a baby and burp a baby. It might be my first time nursing, but I am confident I know what I’m doing. I’m sure all the vomiting and listlessness my baby was going through had nothing to do with RSV or maybe even a cold or anything else. (That’s sarcasm in case you couldn’t tell.) It’s not smart to blame a problem on the parents when the child is already sick and the baby isn’t even capable of holding down Pedialite.

Also, if they are going to put a plastic ID bracelet around an ankle, don’t buy the whole “look it turns it’s not as tight as it looks” baloney. It practically cut into the ankle.

Also, you have to pay for parking, $7. I asked them if they validate. They told me that you have to show your hospital paperwork and they wave the fee. Let’s talk about HIPPA!!! Have you ever heard of it? You can’t be forced to share your medical issues with anyone and no one can share them without your consent. Now this is a hospital. People go in there for all sorts of things. Like STD treatments and cancer treatments and AIDS and shrinks. Anything you can think of. You have to share confidential information to get parking waved? I bet people pay the $7 just to have their private information kept private.

My final issue with this hospital. I actually went through their ER 10 months ago. I was pregnant and had abdominal pain. After 8 hours of being in the ER and being mostly ignored they told me I was having a miscarriage and sent me on my way. Well, I have the most amazing and beautiful miscarriage in the world. Unfortunately we were billed for everything, even doctors whose names didn’t appear on my paperwork. Our portion of the bill was 4x as much as having a...

I remember when I was around 7/8 years old my mother became incredibly ill. My sister and I brought her to this hospital. It’s close by and you’d expect that they’d attend her quickly seeing how bad she looked. Well they didn’t, the nurses weren’t even paying attention to her and it took us forever to even get attended, and when she did they were apathetic about the situation. I could see my mother in so much pain, she couldn’t even open her eyes. THEY SENT HER BACK HOME THAT SAME NIGHT! They didn’t even keep her long enough for observation. You know what happened? We came back home my mother just trembling, trying to come up the 3 flights of stairs where we live. I was a child, my sister was a teenager and we were oblivious we assume that the pills and everything would help out. The following day my mother’s fever was higher and she went to the hospital TWO more times after but they seemed annoyed and sent her back?? So then after all that, she was getting worse so she decided to go to the doctors and remind you my mother had to work to provide for my sister and I. So if the hospital is saying she’s fine then she’s fine? But she went to her doctor to be reassured but she looked so pale, I’d never seen her that way, just was weak. Since my sister and I had school we couldn’t go with her to that appointment. But once I was out of school it was to find out that my mother had been sent to the emergency room accompanied by her doctor!!! Her kidneys had stones but the problem was that they GOT INFECTED MY MOTHER WAS LITERALLY DYING. She was in and out of coma, because of their delay, because of the bad and treatment!!! THEY ASSUMED RATHER THEN DOUBLE CHECKING! I was in second grade, I remember it so well I thought I was going to lose her and years have passed by but it was traumatizing and I remember how they told us after they don’t think she’d make it. It was because of her doctor, that she’s still alive. He was able to rescue her but it definitely made me fear hospitals. He was the one that took her case because they obviously didn’t care enough so he treated her there. Sadly this is the only hospital nearby for me. But I had heard that there were new people running this hospital, and you’d think they would know what they’re doing. I have gastritis, one day I came out of my summer job with a really bad pain I was afraid maybe it was an ulcer or something. It was too late to head to the doctors and I couldn’t take this immense pain anymore so I WALKED yes I walked to the hospital. I worked around there but it was a long walk and when I got there it was around 4, I left there at 12am. Waiting for a cat scan!!! Hello I have gastritis my stomach lining is literally inflamed and imagine waiting to be attended ALREADY INSIDE also not being able to have any type of food in your system because of the cat scan. I understand that but I have acid building up the longer they took, I was passing out, all they did was take some blood out and if I didn’t keep bothering them about how I needed to be seen soon. They would have kept me there longer. I could see people that came after me leaving and I was still there. PLUS they didn’t bother to tell me I didn’t have insurance so now i have to pay a load of money????? For a day that I didn’t even get treated, correctly? Thank you for my ruining childhood and now my adulthood. Don’t go here. I had the biggest headache I left there even more sick and thank God for my doctor and thank God for His mercy because I’ve been better. Plus the nurse was disgustingly rude and so I fired back to her because one she wasn’t even there while I was waiting she started her shift literally when I decided to walk out myself. Like after the cat scan they had me there waiting even more like what!?? I’m passing out but you know what I did? I called after I left and apologized to her for the way I responded to HER RUDE COMMENTS. THANK YOU LORD for making me a caring person and I can’t wait to be a doctor myself so I can...

My first visit there on March 13 couldn’t have gone better but now they get zero stars if I could put it as such. Last night I saw a great doctor for five minutes and a lovely nurse and after the shift change I received the worst care I’ve ever gotten. The second nurse was very unfriendly and didn’t seem to care about my pain level. I asked for water and never got it until 2 hours later. She was more than happy to be cheerful and friendly with every other patient within earshot. The second doctor was arrogant and smug left me in pain for an hour and a half and then accused me of “drug seeking” . I’m well aware of the opiate crisis in this country. I get pain medicine prescribed to be by my general practitioner only and I have received maybe two other prescriptions outside of that relationship from surgical procedures in the last three years. I don’t see a pain management doctor because the issues I suffer from don’t really require that specialty. No one seemed to grasp this. My physicians are all in communication and I have never once abused opiates and my prescription history clearly shows that. I forgot about one small prescription on my history which was provided by them on March 13th after a very painful albeit minor surgical procedure in their ER and this doctor Immediately and repeatedly called me a liar and a drug seeker. It seemed as if he took pleasure in this behavior and practically laughed at my reaction and pain. I asked to see a print out of what he was looking at so we could discuss it further and he refused. I had to get a doctor from the other side of the emergency room to do that for me so that we could review it together and prove to him that he was wrong. He still refused to apologize or acknowledge the fact that my pain level had not subsided. I will be filing a complaint with every single member of senior staff from the CEO on down. My general practitioner will also be providing a letter stating that I am not an opiate addict and I am carefully monitored and that is why he’s the only doctor that prescribes the medication. Drug seekers typically repeatedly go to emergency rooms with vague pain symptoms demanding IV medications and prescription medication to leave with. I demanded nothing I cried in pain and received no care, and when he finally came to see me he did not care to hear me out about anything I was there for. Being called a liar repeatedly caused me to have a very adverse reaction, caused me intense anger, anxiety and a great deal of stress and I am sorry for yelling and cursing. But my pain level was at a ten for hours, I had been crying for over an hour watching other residents and techs and nurses walk right past me with zero compassion! The only person who stopped was the security guard!! On top of being treated horribly and did I mention I’m diabetic and was never checked once for a blood sugar level or asked if I needed to take meds or drink water or eat after making clear I had not eaten much that day. low blood sugar can cause confusion and make someone quick to anger. Guess this doctor didn’t read my chart or skipped the classes on how to treat diabetics in the ER. and a random nurse shouted at me from across the room to shut up. And when I asked for her name upon leaving she called me disgusting to another worker she was chatting with. What!?!? I have never in my life been accused of drug seeking nor has anyone ever spoken to me like that in an emergency room. I am shocked after my first experience that this is what happened. And When I left the security guard felt so bad for me he gave me a Gatorade to help stabilize my blood sugar — not doctors not nurses — the security guard! Bless him. But I’m never going back there unless God forbid I’m in an abulance unconscious...