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

It all started with the OB/GYN group (Women's Group) insisting on inducing (triggering the birthing process before the due date).

They brought this up on our first OB appointment and continuously hammered it home throughout our pregnancy. To the point that my wife abandoned the same birthing plan she had at Wake-Med 3 years earlier. They pushed this, despite of the fact that her pregnancy was completely uneventful and without any complications. Nonetheless we trusted in our Doctors and their “science “… Red flag… they would not schedule their “medically necessary” induction on the weekends.

On our last OB appointment (November 7, 2024) my wife was told that she NEEDED to come in that night ( 2am) for a medically necessary induction. Despite a normal pregnancy without complications.

When we arrived we quickly found that the L&D unit was inundated with patients and their census was abnormally high.

Why would our OB have us come in to a unit inundated with patients , in the middle of the night for an induction, when the pregnancy had no complications? …I will never know. However, greed and profit are high on my differential of reasons.

This decision was the trigger that cascaded a host of dangerous and neglectful medical decisions and practices.

Blood all over our bathroom didn’t steer us away…it was the literal definition of neglect and poor medical judgment that lead me to pack our bags and start to head out the door.

The staff was frantically paying the price of a “ push them through” culture seen too often in the medical field. They were doing the best they could under the terrible circumstances imposed by the OB group and the hospital pushing patients into an already crowded unit.

Again… we had an uncomplicated pregnancy. We would have been fine waiting for two, three or five days later when the volume of patients was more manageable for the staff. If our OB group was so concerned with a potential complication… a simple daily office visit and bedside ultrasound would have been more than adequate to monitor our pregnancy while we waited. But instead of doing the work. they chose the easy pay day instead. at the expense of their patients and the staff…And the hospital allowed it.

When I packed our bags and got ready to leave the on call OB doctor showed up. Of course AMA form was brought up, but as a consolation prize the only medical treatment she offered was a Percocet. For some reason she thought it would be a good idea to give a breast feeding mother who had labored all day and was up all night a narcotic. I can’t even begin to list all of the things that are medically wrong with that suggestion. My already drowsy and weak newborn could stop breathing after drinking his mother’s milk. By the way, never mind about our concern for our newborn. “the pediatrician is busy with all these patients and they have 24 hours to see a newborn so they’ll get there when they get there”.

When The pediatrician showed up. she didn’t seem to be too concerned with the fact that our child seemed exhausted and wouldn’t eat very much. She regurgitated her learned talking points and made a point to boast about her 20 years experience but never stopped to think and actually consider the possibility that this was abnormal.

A staff member suggested we suction before feeding and that made all the difference.

There were no rooms available so We weren’t even in the appropriate specialty floor. For example: if you put a cardiac patient in an orthopedic floor bad things can happen. Therefore supplies and routine procedures were unavailable. Yet everyone seemed so shocked that we felt unsafe and wanted to leave.

Let our experience be a lesson to the public and always go with your gut. Protect yourselves and your family first.

And remember that most medical facilities have a profit first culture. They may sprinkle some charitable deeds once in a while in order to camouflage themselves but don’t be fooled.

Thank you! to all the staff for their support and encouraging me to write...

Delivered my baby here on 4/7/25, was released 4/9/25. Overall my experience was ok. The doctors in the OR were fantastic and made sure to guide me every step of the way during the procedure which was very helpful in calming my nerves. When we got to our room, the nurses were ok. My PCT that I had to endure for the first day or so by the name of Nicole was very transactional and rude . My husband and I did not care for her attitude at all. My last day there, she started getting a little nicer, maybe she picked up on our vibe towards her but she definitely switched up her attitude at the last minute, however she had already left a bad taste in our mouth by then. Of all the nurses, Amber was by far the best and I wish I had her the entire time. She was so respectful and helpful, offered to provide me with compression socks and even found me a postpartum band. She was very down to earth and just a total sweetheart. The other two nurses I had prior to her for the first two days were ok. I didn’t care for how swiftly they were moving with my baby in their arms, and overall their bedside manners weren’t good. They came off like they were making sure to get their jobs done and weren’t that friendly. They also repeatedly offered me to take Oxycodone for pain, which I repeatedly declined. I looked up the side effects of the medicine and wanted to know why in the world would they think it’s ok for me (a breastfeeding mother to a 1-2 day old baby) to take such strong narcotics that will make me sleepy, dizzy along with the other possible bad side effects that were listed. Plus, I was there by myself until the evening due to my husband having to work, so who the heck would be watching my baby? I definitely did not feel comfortable with them doing so. The only other issue I had during my stay was the number of people who rudely barge into your room offering different services. I had the photographer, a person from Resources, and a person coming in to offer prayer services all come into my room barely asking if it were ok to do so. The photographer was very rude, and came into my room while I was breastfeeding with little to no clothes on offering services. This is the second hospital of BayCare that I’ve delivered at and each time the photographers in particular barge in rudely and also have a weird, moldly smell that follows them. I’m not sure what company they’re from but my experience with them has been the same each time. I feel that their should be a checklist provided to new parents asking what services would they be ok with coming to the rooms so that it doesn’t come off so intrusive. The lady from Resources who came by was also very rude; when she saw that I was breastfeeding after I told her that I was feeding when she asked if she could come in (after she was already halfway in the room) she stated with a light laugh “I’m sure you can multi-task since this isn’t your first go”…excuse me? So apparently they’re able to look at your records, possibly insurance as well to make a determination on who to visit, which is what I felt the entire time was happening. I told her I was not interested and asked for her to leave. Bottom line, my experience wasn’t bad but it definitely could’ve been better. Hopefully the next new mom/dad experience will be...

I wanted so badly to give this place 5 stars. I finally thought I had found a place with true concern and care for there patients in Tampa and didn’t think it was possible. Following a miscarriage and over 1.5 years of heavy bleeding to the extent of anemia and dangerously low hemoglobin— I was seen as this hospital for hemorrhaging. They kept me overnight to observe my blood loss, provide me with iron and fluids, and truly make sure I was okay. During this visit they found a large tumor which needs to be removed for any of my symptoms to resolve. Dr. Andrew Walters did everything in his power to set me up with my first of a three month round of medication to help me. He set me up with follow up care as well to eventually perform removal surgery. I was finally going to be able to live a normal life again. I thought. That was until I came in this Monday and was in the care of Dr. Mims. I have no idea how anyone could be so rude and lacking of compassion to another woman just experiencing loss of a child. I was seen by her due to needing follow up care for my medication. The Baycare hotline told me to come in to receive a referral or a follow up dose and ultrasound. Instead of this I was immediately yelled at and spoken over to be told I’m not experiencing an emergency (I’ve been bleeding for 2 months straight) and slapping her hands together to tell me she’s gonna give me discharge paper work and I need to leave. Be minded I’m very depressed following this loss and was speaking call and low to the extent the nurses beforehand asked me to speak up at times. She goes on to disrespect the doctor who treated me saying he made a mistake and she refuses to give me the same medication he gave me because they don’t receive reimbursement and she’d be loosing money. That he doesn’t work at this hospital he just fills in and I’m more than welcome to go drive to Trinity to see him. Goes on to tell me the side effects when you skip a dose are rough so I might as well just get off of it and live with this tumor that’s ruining my quality of life. “All the more reason to get off of it! :)” When I was brought to tears and asked why she was being so rude to a grieving woman she said “I’m just giving you information, and I’m sorry you don’t like it. This is not an emergency and I refuse to treat you in my emergency room again slapping her hands together. When I asked to speak to someone to file a grievance she brought in the nurse manager who wrote down my concerns on a piece of scrap paper and offered me no form or resource to call and report this. This is utter lack of care and refusal to treat which is unacceptable and medical malpractice. I have no idea what happened to this doctor that morning or what personal grudge she has against the doctor who treated me, but there is no reason to treat a human in need in such a way.

Editing to add: The medication is just to shrink the tumor for removal. You would think I was asking her for narcotics. TLDR: I paid 1,500$ to be screamed at, talked over, gaslit, and to have hands clapping...