St. Joseph's Children's Hospital — Attraction in Tampa

My experience was last year with my 2 week old baby girl. When I first walked in I was put through a metal detector - which is understandable and appreciated for the area. Then I stood at the counter for 15-20mins where it said "children emergency check in" while staff just looked at me - finally someone told me to go over to the other side of the desk where they would check me in. Not once did the person who checked me in let me know to go over to her despite making eye contact with me several times. The wait after this was not very long to get vitals by the nurse. We were then placed into a room to wait for the doctor. When the doctor came in we discussed history and what brought me in. Overall the male doctor was nice but he said some things with a dismissive tone like "obviously there is something wrong" and "this doesn't just happen' - okay yes that is why I brought her. He recommended diagnostics to which I agreed to. He then stated that this would have to be a longer time than reported to cause a full color change around her eyes and mouth - I just let him know I was not sure how long the episode was. After which the nurses came in to get an IV catheter placed and get blood, urine and xrays. The IV catheter took well over an hour to place - they attempted 3-5 times each until one nurse came in and did it in one try. This was sad as my baby was just crying so much. I understand some times it is very hard to place an IV catheter so I was not upset at thisI was just distressed as a new mother. Overall this was not a fast process - I was in that room from the afternoon until about 7:30pm. In the middle of this the doctor came and reported that all diagnostics were normal which was a relief. He then did not give me any other option other than admitting her. I am an ER veterinarian - in a case like this admittance is usually recommended but it should not be the only option. He just said okay so we are going to admit her overnight for observation. To which I agreed. I would then wait several more hours until we were moved into the children's hospital upstairs. Once upstairs we were set up and she was placed on monitors. Someone walked into the room and started examining her. No introduction - nothing. This person went over the history with me to which I responded - "I assume you're the doctor" then she let me know that she was the doctor on staff that night. My baby started to get fussy and the doctor said in a very rude tone "are YOU SURE she's not hungry - you need to feed her every 2-3 hours and she should not be let to sleep overnight without being woken to feed". At the time I had an app that I track her feedings to which I responded that I fed her just under 2 hours ago - so according to her I was right on time. The nurse ran out of the room and got her a bottle and she ate it very well and quick. At this time I had been in the ER for well over 8 hours - 2 weeks PP and had NOT eaten myself.. So I started crying as this comment made me feel like I was a terrible mother. A plan was made for monitoring overnight and nothing else changed. I did not see that doctor again only the lovely nursing staff. At about 3:30am - nothing has changed and we asked to be discharged as the baby would not sleep and there was no where for us to sleep. The nurse said let me check with the doctor. When she came back she said "if you leave against medical advice we will have to call CPS and it is likely that your insurance will not pay for what we have done". I was shocked. I did everything for my child - she is healthy, happy and well cared for. So we stayed as we were given no other choice. The morning came and I wanted to leave ASAP. The day doctor did not come into the room until like 11am which 4 hours after I was promised he would be in there. This doctor was the only nice one that actually talked to me and not at me. This visit could have been SO MUCH better had the doctors talked to me like I was a PP mom/human vs someone that just brought a newborn to them. Bedside manner is...

I am extremely disappointed with the RNs and DRs sunday. My 4month old nephew was transported there from another hospital. My nephew puked so bad and was going unconscious. The only thing that was changed that day was going from distilled baby water to a refrigerator airbnb filtered water. He had 3 bottles and we brought them with us because, my baby also refused every single bottle made there too. My 4month old nephew almost died and this hospital said the 4month old had HIGH LEVELS OF ALCOHOL and that is why he went unconscious and puked. It was a 1year old birthday party there was no alcohol anywhere, so we knew that was not possible. These nurses and dr. Refused to listen to my sister who is a young mother BTW. They did not run any more test other than a brain wave machine hooked to his brain. The other hospital told st. Joseph's the possibility of a seizures (which i pointed out on the 911 call ) and possibly epilepsy. St.jospephs did no other test other than order a test for a heart murmur. His delivery dr and every single Pediatrician visit would have already pointed that out. Instead they put a cps case on my sister. The cps worker read to my sister that the 4month old baby was left unattended and ingested alcohol. My sister isn't even from here. The cps worker was very confused on why he was there and left. She called the other hospital in front of the cps worker there was no alcohol ingested they only used alcohol swabs, they did urine test also and bloodwork he was clean. hes a 4months old. These people were so worried about the wrong thing and tried to keep my sister until Tuesday. My sister has been in touch with her own babies pediatrician since the 911 call. She had him an appointment first thing Monday morning with his own pediatrician and already had him a referral everything he needs. The Dr. asked my sister "are you sure you werent partying"? Did a drink hand gesture and laughed. my sister said it was a 1year old birthday. There was no alcohol. All of this was being recorded which Jacqueline, My sister's RN pointed out. How silly, that was to point out, well It may be silly for you, Jacqueline, but it is evidence to me of the lack of care for this baby and not doing your diligence to find the REAL problem on what caused my nephew to go unconscious and almost lose his life. My aunt mentioned to us otw home from being discharged finally 🙌 that Similac formula were being recalled this month, actually for having bad bacteria and causing babies to have seizures and have terrible reactions. My sisters formula was on the the list. She brought the bottles and she asked them to please check them and they blew her off. These Dr's and the RN Jacqueline did not care. They are the reason why young Mother's hate going to the hospitals with their babies. They were not listening to her one Single bit did not care to get to the problem. My sister left there with absolutely no answers and a cps worker. She is at a dr who actually cares about him and listens right now which they were surprised she would make it to His dr. savannah ga is only a 5 hour drive. I will be reporting you both to the dbpr for malpractice. you should all be ashamed of yourself. Saying you care and wanted to mention your license lol. Rolling your eyes when we call another st. Joseph's employee, rolling you eyes when i was talking. Talking crap to another nurse and stopped when you saw me come around the corner. The unprofessionalism and lack of care from Jacqueline and the Asian dr was just unreal. Even if it wasn't the bottles, you gave her absolutely no closure or care. We still don't know why he went unconscious and acted the way he did because your dr said it was all just from alcohol, that didn't even exist. Then apologized for the confusion when we were...

Short version: My 2 year old was subjected to a dirty room, unnecessary vaginal UTI testing, and was traumatized when they administered oral liquid medication requiring her to lie flat on her back where she could of aspirated, but winded up choking.

Detailed version: We went there about 1am this past Sunday morning. There was only one family waiting when we got there, but we were seen ahead of them.

First, We were brought to a DIRTY ROOM to stay in. I regret not taking pictures. There was a dirty used bandage on the floor to the right side of the bed and on the other side of the bed on the floor near the sink was debris and what looked to be a clear open vile of some sort on the ground. Before I could say something the nurse had already closed our door and left. I regret that I sat on the bed with my 2 year old and noticed something at the foot of the bed about 15 min later. I got up with my child to look and there was something on the sheet. And part of the sheet was sticking together, but I don’t know with what. I stayed standing till a nurse came in and I requested another room. The second nurse claimed the room had been cleaned but clearly she was sadly mistaken.

Second, MY 2 YEAR OLD was given an UNNECESSARY UTI TEST which required them to use a catheter to get urine. They asked if she was potty trained and I clearly said NO and then they go on to explain kids around her age will get it when they don’t wipe properly. I regret not refusing the testing, but didn’t want to look like a bad parent.

Third, since that wasn't traumatizing enough for my child along with the nose swab test, They decide to administer oral liquid medication while she’s lying flat on her back. I told them, “couldn’t she choke?”and they said No which was a lie because she winded up choking. Two nurses and myself were holding my poor child down as they were trying to force medicine through her teeth as she is screaming, crying and scared. I regret going along with this, but they made it seem like it would be easy because lying on her back would make her swallow and IT DID NOT!!!

We winded up doing the suppository, which was the second option, which they should’ve given in the first place. That was fast and easily done with no problems. I believe they just wanted to add more money to the bill like with the UTI testing. I was so mad that I started googling about administering liquid medication lying down and read a child should NEVER be on their back because they’re at risk of aspiration or choking.

I did talk to the doctor about this, and she reaffirmed what the nurses were to do. and she even said she did this to her own child. And when I let her know that she could’ve aspirated, she claimed that this would only happen for people with disabilities or medical issues. But I read that people who are healthy can also aspirate. I wasn’t buying it.

They obviously got each other’s backs. Why traumatize a child when they could’ve done the simpler option??? Horrible!!!!

As we were leaving, I saw a dirty room with the lights off that had a sign on the glass stating it was a clean room. I see they are not on top of sanitation!

We have a St. Joseph’s 10min from our house, and I thought that going the extra 20 minutes to Tampa to a Children’s Hospital would be better and it wasn’t. We won’t be...