Wellstar MCG Health Medical Center — Local services in Augusta

I will start with the positive things that occurred during my stay at this medical facility. I gave two stars ONLY because when I first got to the hospital via ambulance and got admitted, the staff was very attentive and provided me with the necessary medical care that I needed without question and/or hesitation. I was in a very unfortunate car accident as a PASSENGER in someone else's car. After I had surgery on my broken leg, we were bombarded by doctors, nurses, and other health care professional assigned to my case with questions about insurance and how they were going to get paid. literally, EVERY SINGLE DAY I was in this hospital, a medical "professional" came into my room at the crack of dawn asking me about my health insurance. My mother and I had already mentioned to them that my health insurance through my job had lapsed due to administrative error at my HR department and that WE ALREADY made the necessary steps to reinstate the health insurance and that it was now on the administrative team to get the ball rolling. even after all of that, we STILL were met with doctors suggesting that I go home because they were "no longer doing anything for me medically", their way of kicking me out. doctors allegedly put in an order for me to have my bandages changed EVERY DAY after the surgeon came to remove the initial post-op bandages. The surgeon never put in an order to get the bandages changed everyday according to the nurses. When we asked the nurses to change the bandages per doctor's order, we were met with attitude and complete disregard for what we were saying. while I understand that nurses have to follow doctors orders, they take an oath to provide the best HUMAN SERVICES to patients and that is NOT what happened at this facility. This specific scenario concerns SHIRLEY, an RN on 4south. she was very dismissive to questions my mother had concerning my care, as my mother was my advocate. When I finally got discharged, I was not sent home with ANY medical equipment to assure my safety. The social worker (SILVIA) was not sympathetic at all. She was sure veto say, you're gonna get a bill, and its gonna be high! She handed my mom a list of DME companies, and that was all. My mom had a couple of questions for her the next day (discharge day), but could not get her to pick up the phone or return a call after my mother left messages. I wasn't given a walker, crutches, or a bed-side toilet to assist me at home. It was all paid for by my mother.I also was not given all of the medical prescriptions that I needed and were listed on my discharge papers. they sent me home with narcotics (known to cause constipation), but no stool softeners to counteract with the narcotics. The only person that cared enough to send me home with after care and information was ASHLEY, the nurse I had on my last day. she was working on 4south. I would also like to mention the lack of compassion concerning my care. Doctors would come to my room and ask me the same two questions everyday and that would be the last I would hear from them. I understand doctors are busy and I'm not the only patient they have, however when you have doctors that are pulling out their phones and playing with their apple watches while you're asking questions about your recovery plan, its hard to believe they actually give a damn about your care. while the doctors continuously and frequently hassled me about my insurance, there were some notable staff members that made my stay a bit more comfortable. on dayshift, I would like to give special thanks and appreciation to NURSE JASMINE (float pool), NURSE KIM, NURSE MORGAN, NURSE ASHTON, NURSE ASHLEY, PCT ANN, AND PCT ANTONIO BATTLE. on nightshift, NURSE DOMINIQUE, NURSE ANTHONY, NURSE BEVERLY, NURSE TAFFINI. Also, Dr. McCullum, in the trauma bay was so supportive and informative. Dr. Bouchi was sincere, even though he had to do the unthinkable of telling his patient they had to leave. I can't forget Sarah, the liasion of Walton Rehab that tried to get me placed into her facility before I...

Had parathyroid surgery in July of 2023. When arriving, I looked at this facility from interstate ramp and thought I was in the ghetto. I am a retired critical care nurse for over 35 years and have worked at large medical centers in several states and this facility is of the dinosaur era. It is filthy dirty everywhere I went. Everyone except for one nurse in outpatient surgery were complacent and slow moving, non caring and dismissive. Very little concern. I had an appointment for lab work at 10 am, CT at 11am and an appointment with doctor at 2pm. Lab work appointment was on time but whoever the supervisor was, he decided to yell at everyone in front of patients. CT was supposed to be at 11 but it was almost 2 pm before I was seen and when leaving, everyone in waiting room was gone and people were cleaning up. It was like they had forgot about me. . Because CT was late, I was very late seeing the doctor but I never saw the doctor. I saw the fellow. I didn’t see the doctor who. I had never met or talked with until minutes before I went into OR. He was the most arrogant, egotistical, loud mouth that I had ever met in my life and I have been around thousands of doctors throughout my career. I wanted so badly to get up and leave at that moment and wish that I had because my throat has never been the same since surgery from this so called world renowned surgeon. Don’t know if it was his fault or the anesthesiologist. As soon as I was awake, I left. I would never in a million years go back to this nasty place. If I needed thyroid or parathyroid surgery, I would go to Tampa, FL which is where I wish I had gone in the first place. If I could give my experience a minus , I would. This is the worst hospital I have ever encountered in every way. and the state of Georgia should shut it down. The employees could care less about the patient. The care is below standard. It is possibly the dirtiest hospital I have ever seen and the employees as well and it is obvious that there is no dress code whatsoever; dirty scrubs and no one knows if they slept in them or even washed them, dirty hair hanging to their butts, long fake nails which carry staph and E.coli and God knows what else, shoes that looked like they walked through a swamp, and no one gives a damn about anything. Makes one wonder how on earth this hospital passed any accreditation.

And please AU, do not insult me with your canned response. If you really cared, you would actually make changes because from what I am seeing, you are not providing even adequate health care. Between the inadequate care and the horrific billing department, this facility should be...

Long story of mistake after mistake. GI doc ruptured my spleen during colonoscopy. I was told it was gas. Later that evening went to ER, kept passing out and had horrific pain. upper left quadrant. Waited two hours t had an XRAY and told no perforation and they would keep me overnight to watch me. I insisted they do a catscan and told them I thought it was my spleen. Finally, they did the cat scan and 5 docs appear and say my spleen had ruptured, I needed emergency surgery and a transfusion. I asked to meet the surgeon when in the operating room -was told she was in the other room and never met her. Never met the surgeon while recuperating. Told the nurses while recovering my urine was deep red. They said it was the medications!!! Left the hospital 4 days later and felt worse and worse as the days passed. Went back to ER and told them I felt terrible and looked yellow. Went to the ER again and said I had unrelenting pain. They told me I was constipated. 7 days after surgery, the GI doc told me I looked horrible. I felt I was dying. He took blood and said I was severely anemic and needed another transfusion. Back to the ER (now my fourth visit) only to find out they had given me the wrong blood during my emergency surgery (the nurse mixed up my sample) and I had a reaction to the wrong blood I had received during the surgery. Nobody called the surgeon, nobody tested to see if I had developed antibodies to the wrong blood. Could not get a hold of my surgeon (called twice.) Two more trips to the ER, another stay in the hospital and finally met the surgeon who said it was a mix up, I did receive the correct blood. I insisted on speaking to the blood bank who confirmed I received the wrong blood during surgery. This hospital has too many interns and residents in the ER and not enough oversight by attending doctors. I could have died twice had I listened to them and not insisted on the catscan and receiving the wrong blood during surgery. oh, and they gave me the wrong vaccines despite my bringing the list of vaccines I had already been given to my appointment post op. They gave me vaccines I already had, and now need to wait a year to receive one they should have given me. Bottom line- Augusta University Medical Center has issues and standard of care (competence) and patient safety are two of them. I would not recommend them. They realized the seriousness of their mistakes and acknowledged the issues and said they have implemented new quality control procedures. But,I would not go there if...