Massachusetts General Hospital — Local services in Boston

Call the neurology department, press the options for what you need, you get a scheduler that turns out is not the person you need to talk to, explain everything you're calling about in detail because they asked, then they offer to transfer you to "clinical staff" once they tell you that they are actually the ones you need even though you presed the option for "new patient", because you're a NEW PATIENT. Which is apparently who you actually need to talk to about the matter I was calling about. While on hold the call just disconnects -- I call back, press the option for "clinical staff" this time, wait on hold again for the music to just stop playing while on hold, but the call is still going just silent now ---- hang up & call back AGAIN, and again press the option for scheduling staff this time, since apparently they're having phone issues, get a different scheduling staff person the third call now by this point it's been like 30 minutes just to get nowhere, RE-EXPLAIN EVERYTHING I SAID TO THE FIRST PERSON because they have no clue about any of it, get told that they would try to transfer me again but would wait on the line too until they're sure I was connected, THEY TO, THE STAFF MEMBER THEMSELVES, couldn't get through to whoever is the appropriate staff ---- offered to send a message and put a note in my chart asking the appropriate staff to call me back. This all was on Friday morning on August 30th, then the WHOLE FOLLOWING WEEK WENT BY..... No call back! (Now Sunday night and will have to try calling again on Monday)

Is this the kind of care you would want, OR EXPECT when going to a hospital?? MASS GENERAL HOSPITAL too, of ALL PLACES?! I imagine not. I would love to see how well I would've faired if I or someone else was having either an emergency, or worse, something that IS an emergency, or at the very least something serious, but if the patient didn't know or think that, how they would've faired with this level of disorganization and poor intercommunication between staff IN THE SAME DEPARTMENT!

I haven't been to Massachusetts General Hospital in many years, but I can say before, and definitely now, I was never particularly wowed or blown away by them, or the lack of results they get you, and is yet another hospital that markets themselves as leaps and bounds above others, probably that their "physicians" are too, and their treatments are.... News flash Mass Gen, none of that matters if a simple call back (about a simple matter no less!) isn't able to happen after 3 phone calls, talking to 2 staff members ABOUT THE SAME EXACT THING, them sending the appropriate staff a "message", and putting a note "in your chart" to contact you back, and then a week goes by and, nothing!!

How are patients supposed to have confidence in you guys with any range of far more serious health issues if you guys can't even manage that properly? This is what happens when basically all clinics and hospitals now are heavily bureaucratic in most things, run like a COMPANY FIRST, and a medical clinic SECOND, and that simply trying to get a message to someone, communicate something about an insurance matter, whatever, requires you to talk to multiple people, and likely even if you had had a chance to speak with somebody directly, who if they were the appropriate person, and tell them whatever you need to tell them, then the handling of the matter usually needs to usually go through 3 departments, 4 people's desks, 2 levels of approval, and all in all everything is heavily OVER PROCESSED, DISORGANIZED, USUALLY WITH CERTAIN STAFF BEING COMPLETELY UNAWARE of interactions a patient had with OTHER staff about the SAME MATTER ---- LEADING TO ISSUES LIKE THIS!!

Would not recommend them just off this experience alone. Hopefully other people have better luck than me, but I'm sure most people reading this immediately recognize how issues like this, unfortunately, are all too common for the majority of people in the medical system.

Absolutely atrocious handling of the MOST BASIC FUNCTIONS POSSIBLE within a...

This review reflects my treatment experience at Massachusetts General Hospital--Northampton Massachusetts branch. (MGH now includes various branches across the state via purchase and merger.)

I had a rather serious emergency room visit and immediate admission to the hospital after a routine lab test showed a very serious and unexpected kidney malfunction. (Blood creatinine -- a toxin -- at 6.3 mg/dl. This is about 5 times normal. And is a very serious health condition, indicating kidney failure, and my GP's office told to get to an ER right away.)

Firstly, let me report that the nursing staff was very good. A bunch of nurses, and also some enthusiastic young nursing students, well equipped for their profession, with a real caringness.

Ditto, the physicians in the emergency room and hospital. I think many of them were residents and interns, and they did a good job.

Where the hospital really messed up, is that they rushed to get me out the door, and it sent me, who they knew lives alone, home while in a fainting-prone condition.

I was in the hospital for about 3 days, and on the first day actually fainted. I continually told the staff during my stay that I felt woozy, and prone to fainting if discharged.

The discharge coordinator had initially told me that if I were in the hospital for 3 days and it was unsafe to return me home, then a standard option with the Medicare I have would be to discharge me to a nursing home for a bit, so I didn't fall, etc.

During my stay, a physical therapist walked me down the hall, then up and down 5 stair steps two times. I informed him I felt dizzy after the first up and down trip, so he brought a chair, I sat on it, until I was able to walk up and down those 5 steps the second time.

Despite this, the physical therapist apparently wrote his report indicating I was not eligible to be transferred to a nursing home.

On discharge, I protested that I felt like I may faint at home. I also pointed out a special medical reason I might faint: to prevent further kidney damage, the hospital had withdrawn, and told me to not resume treatment with, a drug that had been given to me for the last 23 years to control fainting. (Unknown to me at the time, there was an additional medical reason for me to faint. The hospital at started me on, and told me to remain on, tamsulosin=flomax, a drug whose prescribing information has conspicous warnings about it causing fainting.)

The person making the decision, (a P.A. and not a physician) insisted he could not send me to a nursing home as the physical therapist had deemed me home-ready. So they sent me directly home on about the 3rd day.

Anyway, I got home. At day 2 home, I actually did faint. (No injury to me that I can detect. I bent up at least one plastic bottle that was on my bathroom floor, and urine spilled over the floor as I was emptying the urine bag, but there was no detected injury to me.)

Anyway, the Massachusetts General Hospital visiting nurse was here the same day I fainted, and really was uncomfortable that I was at home. As was the nurse-practitioner at my family practice. Further, the MGH visiting nurse on that day measured my blood pressure, and found it dangerously low and she noted there was a risk of fainting with this low blood pressure. However, we all decided if I took an ambulance to the ER, they would likely just keep me waiting for 10 or 12 hours, decide I had no critical medical needs, and send me home at 2 in the morning, with no available way for me to get home.

--

It's now over a week that I've been home. I fainted the 2nd day home, as reported above, and over about the next week the faintness has subsided, so I no longer feel at high risk of fainting.

But I feel that P.A. at Massachusetts General really goofed in discharging me to home rather than for a few days first at a nursing home. If my faint at home had gone differently, I could have been really seriously and...

We have used the Massachusetts General Hospital franchise for a number of years, and at a number of their various locations. My son has autism, with other complex medical issues, and overall their service and treatment for my son has been impeccable. Their knowledge and family support at the Lurie Family Autism Center has been stellar. I am forced though, after a recent emergency room visit to give one star. While visiting Boston for a doctors appointment and leisure activities my son had an autism meltdown requiring an ambulance ride to MGH ER, at, when upon arrival, arrived completely calm and responsive. Our wait time to see a medical doctor was quick, and a cursory examination was done to medically clear my son. I thought we were getting discharged, but my 11 year old son was then transferred to a psychiatric area with adults. I explained to the nursing staff that the "special psychiatric" locked rooms would cause an increase in his anxiety, and since he was calm and relaxed we didn't need to be there. My request was ignored. We arrived at 5pm. We were examined by a female fellow with very limited knowledge on autism. Protocol at other hospitals we have been to have followed current recommendations in that those diagnosed with autism thrive better in their own environments. She decided to make him stay the night. I asked for a room that wasn't a "locked" room, one that had a chair for me, and that my son needed supper. They said no chair, and they couldn't help with dinner. My son remained calm and baseline the entire evening. Throughout the night I filmed my son so I could text his father, who was very worried. At 11:00pm, I was approached by head of security who explained that I could not use my phone to take pictures for HIPPA reasons, and that she would need to see all the pictures on my phone. I explained that my pictures were for his father, and that all pictures taken were done from the privacy of our locked room. I further explained that the three receptionists were "snap chatting" on their phones for a period of about 20 minutes in the public area, which I think would me more of a HIPPA concern. The unfortunate side of security pulling me away from my son needlessly was that he was terrified when I left the room, had an anxiety attack, requiring a shot of Haldol to relax him. For sleeping arrangements my son was on a narrow stretcher, and I sat at the end. The following morning we were evaluated by extremely knowledgable staff who discharged us immediately and apologized on behalf of their colleagues for having us stay needlessly. They were the polite, courteous and genuinely sweet. Upon discharge I asked for a shower for my son as he wet the bed and they said it wasn't possible. We left the hospital at 11:00am, for the 2 hour ride home with a wet son, who still hadn't eaten from the day before. If you need an emergency room for your child with autism, do not go to MGH. While their autism clinic in Lexington is top notch, their knowledge hasn't transferred to their Emergency room at their main campus. For a hospital with such amazing accolades I find it unacceptable. Without a doubt if my son had a brain tumor, or diabetes for sure our treatment would have been better, we would have been offered food, better sleeping accommodations, better access to medical staff, and I'm sure a shower. My son was not treated like a child with complex medical needs, he was treated like he was a bother. Do not choose this emergency room for autism...