Ascension Seton Medical Center Austin — Local services in Austin

I had a huge fusion here on 11/20. It was a 9 hour surgery and I’m in rehab to learn to walk and get stronger.. I was on the 4th floor ICU and then 6th floor. My complaint is only that I was told I could not have Dilauded when my PA told me I could have it. Over the days to day three post op and they dropped my doses which was fine as they titre the dose down. It was day 4 post op on the 6th floor when I was stopped from using that med and nothing was put in place to replace it. They kept saying I could not go to rehab on IV meds. That was fine because I wasn’t moved to rehabilitation until day 7 post op. I was given Norco and Robaxin only. The pain was so intense. They asked me how many times I was up for walking?WALKING? I told my PA that I needed better pain management. It was horrific. My PA told me I wasn’t to stop that med and I could have had it. I told her I had asked and was told no. Keeping track of pain levels by day 7 I no longer needed it. A nurse told me I couldn’t have Dilauded. Not my doctors. Not the PA. This is NOT OK. Can't leave on this med? Then, the PATIENT IS NOT READY TO LEAVE PERIOD! A male nurse actually told me it was a written order. As well, patients need a way to directly message our surgeon and PA. The internet is RIDICULOUS at this hospital. I could not sign into the portal when in the hospital. A nurse needs to follow orders. Patients need a way to contact their surgeon or PA for issues like this. Medical professionals need to allow for the patient to guide them in meds as they heal and TEACH the patient to listen to their body- not to the day on a calendar. Create a chart for goals if need be. What happened to me was inhumane. My pain level was out of control and when PT arrived to make me walk I couldn’t and turned her away. She gave me attitude. How does one walk or move when they have had such a huge surgery with not enough pain management coverage??? Finally, the transfer to the rehab hospital was a disaster. I do not understand the rush to get me there so quickly when they were not ready. I had no pain meds from noon until 9pm that night as my records were not transferred. I suggest they transfer records and then send the patient. I was in tears and ready to sign out AMA. I have a cspine fusion coming up and I do not want to go back to this hospital. When I was on the 6th floor, I was moved in a wheelchair to X-ray and expected to STAND after such a large surgery and weakness as well as dizziness. Stand. I felt very unsafe because I am so weak from surgery. Finally, 6th floor is a busy floor. They need more nurses. I called and it took 89 minutes for a nurse. They are always cycling but when they leave it might not be until much later when they return. That is too much. My concern is the risk of mistakes as the RN is running all the time. As well, the nurse forgot one med and had to go get it. The focus needs to be on the patient and this is not happening when the nurse has so many patients and not able to get good information from that patient. It actually broke my heart because of how stressed she was. PLEASE fix the pain management system on the 6th floor. PLEASE. I had a doctor tell me she would not adjust my meds for Addison's Disease because she was afraid I was not going to fuse. HOLY COW!!! It was the first day in a room. I was on oral meds which included my steroids. I could not hold food down. It is an Addison's crisis. She was worried I would not fuse when the crisis from Addison's will kill me. My husband asked, "How would you feel if my wife died from Addison's AND did not fuse???" The doc increased the steroids ONLY TO 60. The problem? They took away the steroid IV in the ICU and started me on 40 mgs on the 6th floor. YOU CANNOT DROP A PATIENT THAT QUICKLY. It must be ABOUT a 10 mgs drop a WEEK. They worried about fusing? I almost died. Thanks for that. I gave birth two three children. I had forgotten that pain. The pain from this FUSION??? No. I can't forget. It was horrific and inhumane. As well, the doctors do NOT understand Addison's. I did...

Seton Main's ER is way better than St. Davids ER, but it still has a ton of issues. The first of which being their parking situation. It's like dire! I come alone most times and the parking for people who need to go to the ER quickly has been messed up for the last three years, but it's horrible in 2024-2025. I had to circle the entire complex five times and still did not understand the parking. You used to be able to park in this tiny lot surrounded by construction that was horrible getting out of but the road has massive potholes and all kinds of hazards. The last time I came here to the ER I literally decided to go to another hospital the parking situation is so bad.

The next biggest issue the ER admission process. It's freaking horrible. You give them your ID and tell them you need to be admitted to the er give them a reason the wait like an hour or more. They tell you to walk in sit down by the door and explain the issue in a minute then check your temperature walk back out and wait in the waiting area. I've waited for hours with a friend who was straight up a doctor and drove me over here and he was pissed the whole wait because my symptoms were so bad and there was no one else in the waiting area. The ER is a mess... a dilapidated mess. It's clear that they have just let the place go to hell in a hand basket. Chair cushions are ripped, torn, disintegrating. Walls have marks all over them. The floor is like the Florida Miami International Airport aka they haven't touched it since the 1980s. On top of that the bathrooms are like the size of small closets.

The staff was extremely rude, and really dismissive (doctors, nurses, etc). I've been trying basically a year to see a neurologist and it's impossible to see one apparently, so I have to go to the hospital every time my symptoms are horrible and all anyone does is give you the most basic neurology exam possible follow my finger, weakness test, etc. (It's a joke). I'm better off just drugging myself up at home and trying to bare the pain and discomfort, but I'm alone at home and if something worse happened what do I do? So I'm being responsible coming into the hospital right? Having someone keep an eye on me is what I need in those tough times, but no. Every time I come to this hospital I am given the runaround a new prescription for something that I already have and be told to basically Eff Off. Getting any kind of report, imaging CD, or medical records is the definition of impossible, and when you are waiting for an imaging test/scan they put you in a 10 x 10 room with eight chairs in it and seven other people including loud kids and tell you to wait for however long it takes till you are called back for the test. Usually about an hour or two.

Getting discharged is actually worse than getting admitted. The staff nurses mainly are to busy talking and laughing with each other to get you discharged the last time I was in there at the end of 2024 back in December I was considering just straight up walking out the door as it was taking 3 hours to just get my discharge papers that really had nothing of note on them (they never really do "follow up with PCP and neurology" - like no sh*t!) They put you in this very hidden corner with a standing cover in front of you and wonder why it takes so long to get discharged... it's literally the worst place to be to be seen because you cannot be seen. I had to go to a big group of nurses where he nurse who said would discharge me was just standing there talking.

Took another 30 minutes for her to give me the papers. It's unbelievable how bad most of the Hospitals near downtown Austin are.

The last thing I wanted to mention was the text you get from the hospital. Basically making you fill out all this paperwork on your phone. Billing, insurance, etc. I was in here once and was unable to fill out the phone stuff (they give you the same text every time you come in) because I was dizzy and a hospital admin came in and basically harassed me until I filled the form out on my phone.

I wouldn't go here if I...

Overview I have suffered many long hospital says including three open-heart surgeries, two valve replacements, heart catheterizations, and ablations, in many hospitals. My current stay at Seton Ascension distinguishes itself below all my other hospital visits. I was admitted May 10 by my cardiologist to determine why I was so weak and anemic. He strongly suspects that my heart valve is leaking, which he wanted identified and understood and a plan for repair or informed monitoring. I am anemic; he wanted to know if the leaky valve is the only cause, or if there is also leakage in the GI track. Summary This stay was frightening, frustrating, and ineffective in at least four ways: First, no one was in charge of my case. I was told my many nurse-practitioners and doctors that there was a collaboration of teams working on my case. Those included at least Gastroenterology, Nephrology, Cardiology, Heart Failure, and Heart Surgery. I was told that each team would do the tests and procedures that they deemed needed, and the committee would meet, and come up with a plan. Despite very pointed questioning of every member of each “team,” as to: (1) who was calling the shots; (2) who would explain to me the various test results as they rolled in daily; and (3) to whom I could address questions: I never got answers. After eight days, I never had any one to whom I could put questions. While at least two nurse-practitioners told me initially that they are the “quarterback” of their team, it was soon clear that none of them are calling the shots, that none of them had the ability to get me information, and none was able to tell me what was the “plan.” To the contrary the nurse-practitioners repeatedly, pointedly disavowed having any specific information about my condition and prefaced every response to me with “I’ll let the doctors answer that, I don’t want to misinform you.” No doctor, no matter with what team, ever had any information, even though several, including the Hospitalist and the Nephrologist and members of various different cardiology teams, daily came into my room, stood for 5 minutes, and asked if I had any information, before acknowledging that they did not. The one exception to routine was one time mid-week when the Cardiac Surgeon came in and sat with me for 10 minutes. He explained that he had no information, but wanted me to be comfortable with full-open heart surgery as the eventual choice because full-open heart surgery is definitive. He acknowledged that a fourth open-heart surgery would be dangerous, he asked me to squeeze his hands, said that I look strong. Second, there was no evidence of any communication among the numerous nurse practitioners and doctors, who had represented to me that they were either on my “cardiac team” or “GI team” or “general team.” Every day for the eight days I was there, at least four members of my teams separately came by, including the Nephrologist, the Hospital Internist (or Hospitalist) a member of the cardiac team, a handful of nurse practitioners (the Heart Failure Team, the Heart Surgery Team, the Cardiac Team) and others, to ask how I felt, and to ask whether or not I had been given any information. None ever had any information—and upon questioning by me—each admitted as much every one of the eight days of my stay. Indeed, when I left today, two separate nurses admitted that there were no entries in the chart for any of my echo cardiogram, transesophageal echo, left and right heart catheterization, or TRAVN CatScan. The doctor who did my Colonoscopy and Endoscopy, however, told me that any GI bleed looked insignificant and suggested I stay off ibuprofen and all NSAIDS and that I take Protonics (Panoprazole) for at least a month. Third, the nursing staff appears to me to be either so overwhelmed or untrained that they appeared callously indifferent to requests. Every day I have had requests completely ignored. I routinely requested ice or juice and had to wait an average of an hour and a half to get it even though the locked...