Cleveland Clinic Weston Hospital — Attraction in Weston

Patients Beware! I was referred to Cleveland Clinic by doctors from USF & UM after 5 long years of endless tests and doctors. Both told me at this clinic I would have team of doctors assigned to me to figure out what is happening. All I know is that I have an unknown auto immune disorder that is effecting me neurologically. I was a healthy female in her mid 30’s when this all began, so this has baffled all of my doctors. In 2018, I began having silent strokes (obviously unbeknownst to me). Then in 2020, I began losing my vision, after an MRI ordered by my Neuro-Ophthalmologist, they discovered a cluster of silent strokes still no cause. When I called, I was transferred to the Neurology department. I provided a brief explanation and specifically stated that “I was calling because I was told I would be treated by a team of doctors”. Whoever I was speaking to said “yes, you will see the neurologist on staff that day, bring all your medical records as this will be a consultation. They will then consult with the neurological department to order testing” I was extremely optimistic.

I live 4hrs away and I assumed this would take a full day, so I took the day off work. I jumped in my car at 7am, alone (since no one can come with you due to COVID), armed with my binder loaded w/all my records, organized in chronological order w/tabs to mark my many MRI, MRA, X-ray, ERG, EMG, & TEE Echo reports. After checking in, I was brought back by a nurse to see the doctor. She did all the nurse things, which she seemed less than enthused to be doing but she appeared to be pregnant so I gave her a pass. It wasn’t long before Dr Afashani came into the room, wearing what appeared to be a standard paper mask that is worn in the medical profession, however it had a hole in it, allowing me to see the second layer. This was a red flag, since I am a walking compromised immune system, but I continued on (this place is supposed to be the BEST right?!) He asked me the standard “why are you here today” question, so I began to tell my story. He cut me off, after rolling his eyes, and said “no, why are you HERE today, what is going on NOW?” I replied “well I guess my strokes”. He then argued with me about the findings of my other doctors with a condescending tone and stated that I “don’t look sick”. He did a basic neurological exam that took about 5 minutes. He then proceeded to tell me I have nothing wrong, 30% of the population has unexplained strokes. Obviously shocked by his lack of empathy, I began to tell my story again and asked if he would like to see my most recent blood work (less than a week old) that showed a high SED & CRP. He refused to look at it, saying he didn’t need to. He told me to send, by snail mail, the 1 missing MRI CD from 2020, never bothering to read the report I had in my binder. He said he would review it, although he doubts he will see anything, and sent me on my way. I was in that building for a total of 28 minutes. I walked out to my car crying. After several minutes of frustration, I decided to go talk to someone about the horrible level of service I had received. No one knew what I was referring to when I asked about this elusive “team of doctors” everyone kept telling me about, including someone who had actually gone to this clinic for this “team” years earlier. After crying, speaking to the poor woman (who was lovely btw) at the information desk, she made some calls and handed me a business card to make a complaint. During this conversation she mentioned that this program (or team) I was looking for might be in Ohio but she had never heard of it in Weston. As I was leaving, I took a chance and called the Ohio clinic. I spoke to the switchboard operator for about 30 seconds, asking about this “team”, she knew exactly what I was talking about and connected me to the “National Consultation Program” FINALLY!! Within minutes, I was registered into the program. I will NEVER go back to the Westin clinic. The only person with any empathy or knowledge is sitting at the...

I experienced so much incompetence and dishonesty which almost cost my dad his life. This is going to be detailed review so I’m going to split it into sections.

My dad had heart surgery (his pericardium removed) which was supposed to be a few days recovery. We were at the hospital for 25 days.

Post surgery recovery: within 48 hours of heart surgery, they gave him multiple depressants (oxycodone, keppra, Midazolam) which caused his blood pressure to drop and almost killed him, forcing them to intubate him and put him on a ventilator for 6 days (my family had to do 24 hour shifts to make sure they didn’t mess up again destroying all of our sleep schedules). Its pretty obvious you’re not supposed to give someone who just had head surgery multiple depressants that say on the labels not to mix with other depressants. Instead of admitting they made a mistake, they just put in an allergy (he’s not allergic, and did not have hives inflammation or any other allergy symptoms) to avoid liability in the case that he died. The intubation and being unconscious for 6 days after heart surgery caused a lot of issues with his throat, muscles atrophying, and greatly extended the amount of time both in the hospital as well as his recovery since his muscles were completely atrophied at the end of the 25 days in the hospital

Food: absolute trash. We would tell them every single day his preferences and they would bring in food he specifically said he didn’t like the next day (also terrible nutrition etc. I’d just go out and get him real and healthy food every day).

Nurses: most were sub-par some were good. They have a timer on the wall to measure nurse response time - but the nurses have a system to beat it and make it look like they have reasonable response times. Every time you hit the nurse call button, a random nurse will come in and turn off the timer and say ‘I’ll tell your nurse’ (they never do) and about 40 minutes later (if they don’t forget) they’ll do their job. The system they have is I, as a nurse will turn off your timer when I see it and in return you’ll turn mine off when you see it. This makes it appear they’re responding to needs within 30 seconds when in reality it’s 40 minutes if you’re lucky. This was not all nurses but it was the majority, and all of them are apart of the system.

Also he would have bowel movement every day and the nurses weren’t able to remove the automatic addition of laxatives and every night we would have do deny them. I don’t have to explain what giving multiple laxatives to someone with healthy bowel movements that’s stuck on a bed with unresponsive nurses would do. They weren’t able to stop the medications from popping up every night.

Also, there were some specific things they would say they would do (draining his lung 3x a day which is a pain). It was such a pain that they just wouldn’t do it and put on my chart that they did. Me and mom did shifts all day and we only saw them do it one time each - we did not miss it 3 times daily for almost 2 weeks.

Case manager: completely incompetent and could not tell me why he was not being discharged to rehab. I nagged them until they finally did their job and sent discharge documents to rehab.

Security: way to turn an absolutely terrible situation into unbearable. This place is Fort Knox where you have to deal with prison Gaurds every time you re enter this facility.

My dads stay at this hospital almost cost him his life. There were times when he was on the ventilator were I accepted that there was a strong chance he wasn’t going to make it due to the heightened risk of pneumonia the longer someone is on the ventilator etc. the surgery did go well but everything after...

If I could give it 0 stars I would! This statement pertains exclusively to the billing department of Cleveland Clinic, Florida, and in no way reflects upon the medical professionals, including physicians and nurses, who provide clinical care at the facility.

On or about December, I contacted Cleveland Clinic to schedule an appointment with a specialist. I was informed that, as a new patient, there would be a waiting period of approximately two to five months, so I received an appointment for February. Due to the severity of my symptoms at the time, I advised the scheduling representative that I could not wait that long to receive care. I inquired about how to become an established patient in order to expedite future access to medical services.

I was informed that I would need to be evaluated in person to be considered an established patient. I agreed to schedule such an evaluation and indicated that I would seek urgent care elsewhere for immediate treatment, given my then-current condition.

On the day of the scheduled appointment, I informed the initial intake nurse that I was no longer acutely ill and that I was present solely for the purpose of becoming an established patient. I was evaluated by a nurse practitioner, as the attending physician was unavailable. I reiterated to the nurse practitioner that I was not seeking treatment for an illness, but rather an initial evaluation to establish care at the clinic. Following a routine examination, I was discharged.

At no point prior to, during, or immediately following the appointment was I informed that I would incur a hospital facility charge, a surgical charge (despite no surgical procedure being performed), and a physician charge. I acknowledge and accept that a standard evaluation may carry a physician charge; however, it is customary and reasonable to be informed in advance of any additional charges, particularly those involving facility or surgical billing codes.

To my surprise, I later received a bill in excess of $630 for this visit, which included charges for hospital and surgical services. I was especially concerned to learn that a visual inspection of my nasal passages—performed without my consent for surgery or indication that it would be billed as such—was classified and billed as a surgical procedure.

Upon contacting the Ombudsman and Billing Department to dispute the charges, I was advised by the Florida supervisor Hema that the Cleveland Clinic “apologized for the miscommunication,” but that no adjustment to the bill would be made. I questioned how such charges could stand when I had not been informed of them nor consented to any services beyond a wellness evaluation. I received no satisfactory explanation other than the assertion that Cleveland Clinic will not re-evaluate the charges I am being billed for.

It is my position that billing a new patient for hospital and surgical charges in the context of a routine wellness visit—particularly when the patient explicitly communicated the nature of the visit in advance—constitutes a failure to obtain informed consent for billing and a lack of transparency in patient financial responsibilities. Shame on Cleaveland Clinic for conducting medical services in this manner putting a patient's wellness last and just charging without providing treatment. To date a still have never even received a diagnosis or...