Northside Hospital Cherokee — Local services in Canton

I’ve never had a problem with Northside Hospital Cherokee. However, this time I have experienced a true concern for my stay at Northside Labor & Delivery. I was induced Monday at 40 weeks pregnant due to a medical concern of Gestational Diabetes. I stayed in labor and delivery trying to give birth and then had to make the tough decision to have a c-section due to concerns for our baby’s health. After healing I was transferred to post-partum recovery where I was supposed to be focused on healing and taking care of our newborn baby. While I was there I was put in an extremely uncomfortable situation. On June 20th I called the nurse station to get assistance to use the restroom. Do to the epidural I did not have full function of my left leg yet and needed some assistance. So the lady at the desk informed me that I would have to wait bc they were in the middle of a shift change. I waited then my day nurse came in and introduced me to the night nurse, Lisa. Lisa came off very rushed and the day nurse was asking her to help her assist me to the restroom. The night nurse refused saying she had a patient waiting on her. The day nurse then told her that’s okay and her other patient can wait. But she was extremely insistent and then proceeded to go in the hallway for whatever reason and when she came back she said “see they are needing me already.” The day nurse then told her again they can wait. Unwillingly Lisa helped the day nurse take me to the restroom and I was explaining to Lisa how the day shift helped me work through my recovery and she told me that we aren’t doing that. She told me this is how we’re going to do things and proceeded to tell me to reach and do things that I was currently unable to do due to my procedure. My mom, sister and husband were in the room and Lisa stepped out of the restroom leaving me to follow her instructions for my recovery instead of what I was actually needing. While she stepped out the restroom I heard her mention to my family that she can tell we are related bc we look alike. Then she proceeded to ask my husband if he was the brother and jokingly he said yes I am the brother to which they all laughed. Mind you I can hear all this from the toilet in the restroom bc the door is not all the way closed. So then I call Lisa back to assist me and she does so reluctantly. When I get back to the bed the handrail that I grab to ease myself down was not locked which made me brace myself and hurt my incision from the surgery. Later on in the night we get a knock at the door and it was two charge nurses, Will and Carolyn. At this time we had my sister in law and her husband visiting us when they ask them to leave the room and that they need to have a conversation with us. So they leave the room and then Carolyn and Will bring to our attention that my husband had made his staff feel uncomfortable. I asked what exactly was said that made them uncomfortable? They told us that Lisa had brought to their attention that he made a joke about being the brother/husband of my child and that she felt like she was being tested. I then confirmed that they were addressing us over a joke that she insinuated? And they confirmed they were. Mind you Lisa is a YT lady and we are not, so of course she has the privilege to tell this lie and think she will get away with it. So then Carolyn and Will tell us that Sarah who is our other nurse or tech (whatever her title) mentioned to them that my husband spoke to her in the parking lot. I asked them what did he say? They did not know….so you mean to tell me they are now bringing up another scenario that is not based on facts and addressing us while I just had a baby and am postpartum! So the complaint of Sarah is that he spoke to her in the parking lot but she didn’t know what he said. All he said to her while looking for parking was “Thank you for taking care of my wife and baby, I appreciate you.” So for her to turn that around to make it seem as if he said something terrible to her is insane! He literally thanked her...

Labor & Delivery Incident with MEGAN, CHARGE NURSE CARRIE AND Dr. Higgins. I was sent to the Women’s Center/ Labor and Delivery due to me being 8 days postpartum, which I delivered my child via cesarean. Upon arrival at the ER I was immediately taken back to a room due to my high blood pressure levels sky rocketing. Once I was placed in a room in the ER they had my blood pressure being checked via machine every 15min because it was spiking and fluctuating drastically. However, the doctor decided that I would do better over in Labor and Delivery since another big part of my problem was the preeclampsia and he thought that could be driving my blood pressure levels up still.

I arrived at the Women’s Center or Labor and Delivery, and was met by “Megan” her work cell number for that night, October 2nd night shift, was 45296. This is where the problem began. She was awful, nasty, condescending, and she knew she could say whatever she wanted HOW she wanted without any repercussion, and she did just that! To be spoken to like a child because I used their blood pressure machine ONCE to check my blood pressure, which they were NOT monitoring upon my arrival, was concerning. Though she had checked it once I felt it had gone back up and decided just to make sure I was safe. Megan felt that her one time was good enough, and as she stated “I checked it and it’s fine!” Even after explaining that my blood pressures fluctuate and that I was admitted to Northside September 30th due to blood pressure fluctuating. So, feeling how I felt I decided to hit the blood pressure button on their machine to see if I was okay and sure enough my blood pressure had spiked! Megan came into the room aggressively and stated “DON’T TOUCH MY MACHINE AGAIN”, which left me puzzled. I decided to bring this to the doctor’s attention, while she was in the room and proving me right! She spoke to me and continued to yell, state that she did in fact have an attitude, rolled her eyes ECT all in front of the doctor. She became so uncontrollable with her temper that her charge nurse, (Carrie) stepped in and had her leave the room. Carrie immediately had her back and stated I was in the wrong. Dr. Higgians witnessed this behavior as well; including her charge nurse Carrie and they backed up her bad behavior. Dr Higgians and Carrie the charge nurse made it known that I shouldn’t have touched the machine to check my fluctuating blood pressure, and that I was deserving of that treatment and behavior displayed by Megan. Megan’s attitude was as arrogant as it was because she knew she would be backed even if she is in the wrong. I didn’t deserve to be spoken to like a child because of me wanting to know my blood pressure. I didn’t deserve to continue to be spoken to in a nasty manner in front of staff, and it shouldn’t have been supported by her superiors. Her superiors made it known due to the handling that they were siding with her. The charge nurse and doctor blamed me and I personally feel that if I don’t say something she will continue to display this behavior because she is in a position of power over a patient. I tried to leave because I no longer trusted individuals that would see someone be so awful and rude then proceed to act like it didn’t matter. I no longer felt safe with them. It didn’t help that the charge nurse Carrie continued to attempt to force me to sign a medical waver stating that if I leave then it’s against their advice while letting me know that she didn’t care if I walked out of there, she just wanted that paper signed. Extremely scary that she is a charge I hope that I will never have another experience like this again. No one is deserving of that sort of treatment. (Update)Dr. H did call me personally to give me my lab results, which was different. He called twice. The results could have been posted on the patient portal. He called to give me my He acknowledged that I shouldn’t have been spoken to in that manner. I appreciated...

I have been a regular with Northside Cherokee for years. And throughout the years the same issues come up. Staff that can’t put on a blood pressure cuff correctly… but don’t care as long as they get a reading. And doesn’t matter which department or what “contractor”. Don’t get asked my religion and when I go in it says “refused to respond” on the note, really??? Their staff don’t look up medications that are being administered, seriously that is nursing 101, doctors document on patients without ever laying eyes on them or if you are in patient and go over your records, it is the EXACT same note day after day. Patients are not always informed… I have found things in my medical records I was never informed of nor were my family, and my favorite is that your information is always wrong and no one can communicate between places or see anything. I have been a Northside system patient since 2014, yet no one knows my baseline, no one looks up basic medical protocols for my rare disease, and HiPPA is an afterthought. They violate more patient privacy than I thought possible. I was a nurse for over 20 years and the information staff should have access to they don’t, they don’t use Epic so of course no one can communicate between contractors or other hospital systems like Piedmont or Emory or Wellstar. You have to sign the exact same piece of paper just going to a different office and there is no centralized billing. Nothing talks to each other. But if you want peoples phone numbers, birthdates or their diagnosis just sit anywhere in any clinic or hospital office or in the ER waiting area and you will hear everything. The infusion center has wonderful new chairs but yet no call lights. The ER if you are lucky you won’t get a doctor who basically treats you like you suffer from “female hysteria syndrome”, and the sad part is looks like this is GA medical norms. But on the other hand I have amazing specialists and that is why I come to Northside repeatedly, not because I trust the hospital, but because I trust my doctors who are associated with Northside or have privileges. And filling out their dumb surveys does nothing, nor does filing complaints… nothing changes… so maybe a public review will get them to understand that you can claim that everyone is a contractor so you can’t be held accountable, but when every “contractor” repeatedly performs the same mistakes you start to wonder if it is actually their Policies or lack there of, of actual Northside? There should still be standards and policies amongst all “contractors” that function under Northside. And you need to make sure your staff are able to provide quality not just quantity care… and yes I understand there is a healthcare worker shortage, but maybe that shortage is caused by the constant politics and greed the medical systems have become. People don’t become Doctors and Nurses to be subject to the highest bidder, they do those professions because they actually want to care for people. Do an accurate diagnosis, provide accurate treatments, not perform “cattle” medicine where they cattle them in, spend as little time as possible throw any medicine that might do something to cattle them out quickly to increase revenue. I hope you take this seriously and maybe make some good changes. I don’t expect a complete turn around, that takes time, but it’s the little things, get accurate vitals the right way, provide better privacy, and patient safety is always...