Intermountain Health American Fork Hospital — Local services in American Fork

This review is for the birthing unit, and all of the stars off are due to the lactation support. I decided to switch to the midwife group that operates out of this hospital, and I'd heard good things about AF and natural birthing. That part went OK, but the lactation support single-handedly destroyed my ability to breastfeed for this child. As a first-time mom, I went in only knowing basics and did not have any breastfeeding-experienced family support present. I've learned a lot more since then, and all other lactation professionals I have related this story to have been appalled. When my daughter turned out to have jaundice, I was given a bottle to supplement without being told of alternatives like at-the-breast supplementation - a very basic no-no for establishing a supply, but I was inexperienced and did as I was told. They failed to diagnose her tongue and tip tie, which were inhibiting milk transfer. Since she was sleepy from the jaundice she was missing feedings, and when the LC saw that the tubing was broken on the flange kit I was given, never offered to get another so I could double pump. I never understood just how much I should be pumping due to her sleepiness/lack of sucking because of the supplementation, and while the LC on duty took the time to go have a talk with our pediatrician after she found out he'd suggested formula instead of donor milk to clear the jaundice out faster and gave my husband and myself a long lecture about how ONE DROP OF FORMULA would totally change our baby's gut, no one followed up or helped me with technique to be sure I was able to establish a supply with a sleepy, supplemented baby. When we went home with her bilirubin still high, they handed us a pack of formula, anyway, and discouraged looking into breast milk sharing. What's more, when my milk started to come in on the last day, I asked whether the feel of my breasts was normal. I was told to massage them until it hurt to get rid of "blockage" - but that caused so much swelling that milk couldn't come out well for a couple of days. As I became familiar with my breasts after, that level of "lumpiness" is normal for when I'm engorged. By the time I found GOOD support and started the mission to rescue my milk supply, it had nearly been three weeks and the best period for establishing supply had passed. After months of wasted time I could have spent snuggling my baby and hundreds of dollars spent, I have a half-supply. That dreaded ONE DROP of formula they took the time to lecture me about has turned into months of feedings needed because I never received proper support in the hospital. Aside from the lactation - but contributing to the issue - my two day stay felt like a marathon of interruptions. My husband and I were inundated with material we were supposed to read or watch before leaving the hospital, all while having to deal with the new baby and many tests, visits, vital checks, etc. It made it confusing to know what issues we really needed to pay attention to as first-time parents (like building milk supply) and was stressful. Most of the mountain of information turned out to be extremely basic, as well, and I believe is more to legally cover their behinds than organized in a user-friendly and focused way. If nothing else, please take an opportunity to re-evaluate the way your lactation support is organized! First things first - she can't breastfeed if the doesn't...

My wife was having severe abdominal pain so I took her to the American Fork ER (this was right after lunch, approx 1:30pm). During her stay in the ER, there were 2 significant issues that need to be looked at by the hospital administration:

After the initial pain meds wore off, my wife was in severe pain again - the Dr told the nurse to go ahead and give her some pain meds. She started to do that, but couldn’t get the scanner to scan in the bar code on my wife’s wrist band. She called in a male nurse, and they looked at the computer together, but still couldn’t get it to work. She finally walked out, and the male nurse continued to fiddle around with it. He finally just turned the computer off, waited, and then turned the computer back on. Then he just walked out of our room without saying a word to us. This took about 20 mins, and all this time my wife is in severe pain waiting to get the pain meds. About 5 mins later I finally walked out to the nurses station and just asked if anyone would please go in and give my wife the pain meds. The male nurse said they were working on it, and would get to it as soon as they could. Bottom line is that is took 40 mins for my wife to get the pain meds after the Dr told the nurse to give them to her. All this time she is in severe pain, and not one of the nurses gave a damn. I’m sure if it had been their spouse, they would not have allowed their spouse to be in pain waiting for 40 mins. If the process does not allow patients to get pain meds unless the scanner is working, there should be a fall-back process to get the patient those meds if the scanner is not functioning. Again, if this had been one of the nurses spouses, I’m sure they would have found a way to get the pain meds to them.

After my wife FINALLY got her pain under control, they discharged us with a packet of papers stapled together. The first few pages at the top were her prescriptions. We left the hospital and went to our pharmacy in Lehi. When we got there, the pharmacy told us that the third prescription was not for my wife, but was for another patient. It was the correct prescription, just for a different patient. I asked them if they could call the hospital to get the correct prescription. The pharmacy said that they could not take the prescription over the phone, but they had escript (or something like that) that the hospital could send them. I called the ER and got to the nurse who gave us the prescriptions, and she said that they could not do escript, and that I would have to drive back to the hospital, bring the wrong prescription back, and swap it out for the correct one for my wife. So I drove back to the ER, got the correct prescription for my wife, and then back to the pharmacy where all 3 were finally filled.

Forcing patients to wait unnecessarily in pain, and giving patients prescriptions for other patients, should be unacceptable in any hospital. While I would rate the nurses a 0, the Dr seemed to care, and diagnosed the problem and got my wife feeling better. For that I am grateful. The young men who took my wifes’ blood and wheeled her into her CT scan where also very nice. And my wife said the the lady who did her CT scan was also very nice. Thus, the 2...

Unfortunately I went to American Fork hospital and definitely it seemed they wanted to do anything but help with my injury and pain And said you'll have to see your own Doctor but I am severely injured and They said we add American for a hospital don't do any mri's or cat scans Unless it's life-or-death I asked for something so I can be comfortable my pain level was a 10 and they recommend Ibuprofen or some kind of anti-inflammatory. They kept talking to menarcotics I repeated myself several times I'm in a lot of pain can you help me with The pain I'm in I'm not looking to get a prescription for anything just help me I'm in a lot of pain right now. They again recommended go see your own Doctor we can give you ibuprofen. I can buy ibuprofen myself I don't need a big emergency room bill for the Doctor to give me ibuprofen and deny any MRI's or x-rays toSee exactly what the problem is and how bad it is. I was told x-rays won't show anything just bones but another hospital said we can see swelling and damage other than just bones. Unfortunately maybe American Fork hospital is for people with Insurance that pays Generously for procedures and the insurance I had they prefer not to work with I thought doctors swore to help the sick with That Determining the kind of service provided. Initially I said if you cannot fully examine me I don't want to go back there to be told hogwash and then given a bill. In the end this is exactly what happened and the pitbull collection department ladies said you saw the Doctor you're gonna get a bill whether you like it or not it seems like a scam in some way. Shame on American Fork hospital they did not even look at the injury they would have seen the bruising from the torn muscle on my hamstring They did not look at all. Basically they said we can't help you you need to see your regular DoctorAnd I said something to them and signed where they wanted to saying if they don't investigate or investigate or look at the problem with all of their tools they have available then I'm not payingSo I'm signing but my stipulation is I want to be examined completely not shown the door and then a billikely weeks later. They had me sign in 4 or 5 different areas and I repeated my language and took pictures of it so that they understand I was serious They kept telling me not to take pictures Eventually when I left they had rent cops follow me all the way and I said it's pretty obvious you guys are following me what's your problem they said nothing just wanna make you get out of here and I'm gonna let you know don't come back here if you're gonna act that way. I said you don't even know what happened being crooked that people shouldn't tolerateYou're not a police officer they said we can call the police I said but you're not a police officer anyway you look at it you're Security With no Power you're like the health of health inspector. No offense but get over yourself. I've been going to the...