AdventHealth Orlando — Attraction in Orlando

I literally ran away from AdventHealth after what I can only describe as the worst hospital experience of my life.

I drove myself to the ER after having a really high heart rate for the past two days following a Seizure I had five days prior. I parked on the sixth floor of the parking garage and made my way down to the ER.

I arrived in the lobby for the ER at about 2:45pm, checked in and waited. The hospital was busy, but nothing crazy. I told the nurse at check in I had a high heart rate that would not go down and was recently told I have SIRS, a deadly condition if left untreated and that I recently had a seizure. They said someone would be with me. I waited for 30 minutes to be called to triage where I sat, alone, for another 45 minutes. Just as I was about to leave, the ER Dr. Donald T, comes and ask me what's the issue. I explain I have a brain stent and recently had a seizure and my heart rate will not go down.

He proceeds to tell me, "you sure it's not a shunt". I said, no it's a STENT, It was placed at that hospital and all of my records are with AdventHealth. His scribe points to her screen to show I have a stent. He then ask if I had been drinking or doing cocaine because that can raise your heart rate.

I did not find that funny as I don't drink because my sister died an alcoholic, he would know that if he read my chart.

He says he will run some test. He then tested me for ethanol & drugs.

I wait another 20 minutes and the nurse comes to take blood. I tell her I just was in the hospital and to avoid specific areas and that my veins are small. She makes two attempts and got a vein on the second, but blew a vein the first time.

She draws blood, & I'm told to go wait on the lobby for a room. I waited for three hours and within that time they had to redraw blood because it kept hemolyzing. By the time I'm called to the back I had been waiting for 5 hours.

I get to the back room and I'm in ER room 41. The nurse says she has to try to draw blood again because it wasn't a good draw the other times. No biggie. She draws, and it's a little uncomfortable. But she left and went on her way. As I'm sitting in the room my respiratory rate is dropping - remember I have a documented case of SIRS and it could lead to organ failure if not treated.

My respiratory monitor goes off for five minutes and no one came in. I forgot to mention I have asthma and they know that because it's in my chart.

I'm frustrated at this point at the lack of care. But then I feel my IV starts to have a sudden pain. It hurts to touch, which can be a sign of a blood clot. I call for the nurse she comes about 20 minutes later and says, "oh yea I'll have to leave it in and get someone to give you a new IV."

She walks out and in that moment I made the decision to disconnect myself and leave. I left with IV in arm, my aunts a nurse my mom's a CNA, and I have plenty of friends who work on the medical field who can help me take it out. I grab my backpack, overnight bag, and put on my sweater. I walk out the door and pass a nurse who said, "are you leaving?" And I say, "I'm not staying somewhere that treats me like an after thought".

I continue my walk from the ER room, through the lobby, passed cops and security, up two flights of stairs, though the conference area, to the elevator, get off at the 3rd floor to take the bridge to the garage, and from there get on the next elevator to the 6th floor of the parking garage. I passed hundreds of cameras, several staff members and that was it. If it weren't for my insurance restricting me to AdventHealth I would go anywhere else.

After three years of countless stays, they still don't know what's killing me. I've told them it's the brain stent they insisted on. Three years of just straight incompetence. I have given them so much grace. I've never insulted or cursed at anyone, yelled or mistreated anyone, but this was my final straw. As soon as I can I'm changing my insurance because AdventHealth, does not care about your health. They'll keep you for days with no care plan just to bill...

Our recent experience with the Advent Hospital system was extremely frustrating due to poor communication, unnecessary delays, and a general lack of urgency from the staff. I am a retired general surgeon. My mother is 98 and fell and broke her wrist. She was seen at an Advent urgent care and we were told she needed to be admitted to the hospital to be seen by an orthopedic surgeon, where she would be evaluated for surgery. I asked for her to be sent to the Rollins campus but was told no, she had to go to the Altamonte facility, where she was admitted later that evening but not seen by anyone until an occupational and physical therapist “evaluated” her the next day. Apparently, the orthopedic team was not interested in seeing a 98 year old woman themselves. Following OT and PT evaluation we waited to speak to someone from the orthopedic team. We were told by the nurse that he had been texting them and someone would see her soon. That nurse would not call them directly. After multiple requests, that nurse finally called a supervisor who, late in the afternoon, was able to put me on the phone with an orthopedic PA. Once I was able to speak explain that my mother was living independently and had not major medical problems, he agreed that she might benefit from surgery. Unfortunately, they only do that surgery at the Rollins campus so she would have to be transferred there for further evaluation. After finally being transferred to Rollins for surgery, we experienced more delays. The hospitalist, who had to ”clear” her for surgery informed us that he was at the Altamonte facility and it would be awhile before he could see her. He did, however, without even evaluating her himself, insist that she needed to be seen by a cardiologist. He proudly told us that he had put the consult in but also informed us that they had 24 hours to respond to this electronic request. All this time she was kept in bed, without food or water (based on decades old medical guidelines), waiting for decisions that should have been made much sooner.

I asked the nurses if I could talk with an anesthesia provider or the orthopedic team, someone who could actually make a decision. They said they would send a message. When we asked if we could talk to someone who would actually call these people, we were visited by the charge nurse who said that she was not paid enough to call the doctor’s directly. We never heard from the orthopedic team but the anesthesiologist said they could not see the patient until she was cleared by the hospitalist. Cardiology nurse practitioner finally came by, asked the same basic questions that anyone with one day of surgical/anesthesia experience would ask and said that she was OK for surgery. 15 minutes later, the cardiologist came by and said the same thing. The hospitalist came in around the same time, stood at the entrance to the room, never examining my mother and only entering the room when we told him my mother was hard of hearing. It was only in the operating room when my mother was actually evaluated by the orthopedic surgeon. The only bright spot in this experience was the surgical and anesthesia teams, who were excellent once she finally reached the OR. Unfortunately, everything leading up to that point was an exercise in frustration. Main Issues We Experienced: • Poor communication among staff – Messages were "sent" instead of direct calls, leading to long delays. • Unacceptable delays in specialist evaluation – It took nearly two days for my mother to be seen by the right people. • Lack of urgency from the hospitalist – Decisions were made without evaluating the patient in person. • Unprofessional behavior from some staff members – Particularly the charge nurse, who refused to escalate concerns. I would not recommend this hospital for anyone needing timely or well-coordinated care. The system seems broken, and the culture among some staff members does not prioritize the well-being...

Don’t let the glowing reviews fool you - this hospital is rife with incompetence. I went here while I was on vacation and having difficulty swallowing. I went in around 5 pm the first evening, they said in order to do a scope, I would have to stay overnight to “hold my place in line”. The ER doctor - Dr. Jerry - said they would “definitely” get me in the next day. They couldn’t give me a quote on how much it would cost because “Blue Cross Blue Shield (who I am insured under) always gives them fits on Sundays” for estimates. I decided to stay because it had been two days since I’d eaten solid food and I was struggling even with liquids, which was more concerning, otherwise I wouldn’t have gone at all.

They finally got me into a room, and my night nurse told me they would get me in first thing in the morning for a scope. Apparently, she was mistaken. The day nurse informed me that the doctors had 24 hours to respond to an order. Once again - I don’t live there, and I also didn’t want to stay two nights in a hospital because it’s going to be ridiculously expensive.

In the morning, someone brings me food - juice and jello. I didn’t touch it because even with my limited medical knowledge, I know that the usual protocol is no food and drink for 8ish hours before anesthesia. The nurse came in and asked if I’d been able to eat AND gave me a stool softener in juice (that I did not express a need for). It felt like a prompt, so I tried. I stupidly trusted that they knew what was best as it is their literal job. I didn’t have much (obviously, as I was struggling with swallowing) - a few sips of apple juice and probably less than a teaspoon of jello. I figured maybe since it was clear liquids it must be okay, and they wouldn’t be offering it to me if I wasn’t supposed to have it, right?

My grandmother called the charge nurse to check in on things because she was concerned for me being there all by myself, and after that, THEN they told me not to take anything else by mouth. EVERYONE that interacted with my care verbally acknowledged & knew that the plan was for me to be scoped from the minute I got there, and yet they allowed food to be delivered to me. They said they couldn’t scope me after that as I was an aspiration risk. My GI doctor when I got back home said for clear liquids, they only would’ve had to wait 4 hours, and I’d stopped ingesting anything around noon.

And on top of that, the day nurse almost gave me blood thinners because a vial had been left on his cart before he asked where they usually give it to me and I said they didn’t. He said “oh, they must have just ordered it”, (for an ENDOSCOPY? And when all my blood work looked normal?) and then looked at my profile and realized it wasn’t for me. He also advised that I shouldn’t take so many tums because it would give me osteoporosis, which is wild, considering a) I wasn’t taking them and hadn’t indicated such, and b) even if I had been, I was now here for the reason that I COULDN’T SWALLOW WELL. I think I would take my chances with osteoporosis over being unable to swallow.

I consider myself a pretty reasonable person - I do understand that hospitals are busy, and more severe situations take precedence. I wasn’t asking to be treated like a priority, just simply for clearer, more honest communication, so that I could have measured expectations and made decisions accordingly. I wasted time there that I could have been spending with the people I was on vacation with, or simply gotten an earlier flight home to be seen, which is what I ended up doing after it was all said and done.

Every single person that interacted with my care failed miserably at their jobs, but a special shoutout to Nurse Jan Michael, and the nurse over the observation unit whose name I didn’t catch (a white woman with cornrows) for being...