SUNY Upstate Medical University — Local services in City of Syracuse

Honestly very disappointing for a hospital that is held in such high regard. Upstate has a million posters about the care that is given and the family support that they encourage-and yet, they have a very bizarre way of showing it. I understand Covid and RSV protocols (I work in a hospital)…so I do not mind masks being implemented and certain rules. However, to only allow 1 person in the rooms at a time is not only heartbreaking for family’s…but it creates an issue when my under 18 yr old sibling wants to come and visit my father. On top of that, we waited for my father’s surgery to get called and since it was before 11, the hospital wouldn’t let us even go into the cafeteria without a visitors pass. When you have families that have been dealing with health issues for months and you have to sit in a hospital at 6 am on Christmas Eve, the least you can do (since you won’t let anyone in the patient rooms) is allow them to grab a bagel from the cafeteria. It’s the bare minimum. The hospital also informed my father that they “already accommodated us” for allowing my brother, mom and I in his room last night to see him when they said they’d have to get him into high priority surgery unexpectedly. Thank you so much for letting us see him for a max of 45 minutes; however, please do not use that to make us feel like we inconvenienced you….its awful for someone to be alone in a hospital during Christmas.

I can go on and on about multiple facets of this hospital that are beyond frustrating. The ED is gross, overcrowded, unorganized and run by nurses who couldn’t care less about you or your family member. If you are somehow able to get their attention (which is impressive if you do) you will be greeted with extremely rude and uninterested nurses. They use the excuse “this is emergency medicine…we keep you alive to get you to the people who know more ha ha….” Except I see it as lazy medicine. I understand you are a trauma center attached to a walk in side with constant flow into the hospital….but at least pretend that you want to take care of patients.

The techs on multiple med surge floors are lazy and have bad attitudes as well. The rooms are not kept clean and it is very evident that unless you are receiving treatment that falls under a specialty service (pediatrics, L&D, oncology, etc.) that you are not considered a priority.

The communication between the hospital staff is concerning as well. I feel like a very large inconvenience to ask any questions at the front desk or if I call up to the floors. There was also questionable decision making between surgical team members and hospital staff that ended up being back tracked on…..which communicated to my family that we can’t be certain about anything that is shared with us.

I could say more…but ultimately this breaks my heart. I work in the healthcare field and am pursuing a career in it and I had very different expectations from this massive and beautifully built hospital. Care comes first…but it hasn’t felt...

My mother was sent here from Oswego Hospital after being diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. By the time she was admitted into Upstate, she was on a ventilator and was not able to breathe on her own, due to the cancer in her lungs. She was admitted into the MICU unit at Upstate and stayed there 6 weeks. During this time, her care was second to none! The RN's in the MICU unit, Kim, Grace, Steffan, to name a few and every single one of them, were amazing! The care was so personalized, at times I felt as if they were taking care of their own mother! The nursing staff expressed a great deal of compassion for what my mother and her family were going through, which I thought was awesome! The oncology team was also great, her cancer is incurable and very resistant to radiation but they did everything they could for her and laid every option on the table for us! The MICU doctors, in particular Dr. Manta, were excellent at explaining what was going on! Being that I am not educated in the healthcare field, they cannot simply read charts to me and have me comprehend them. Dr. Manta and the rest of the MICU team took as long as necessary to explain the details and made me feel much more informed! The palliative care team treated me very good, I was traveling 45 minutes each way to get there, almost everyday. They gave me fuel cards to ease the financial burden and food cards for their cafeteria/cafe. Normally, I would never eat food at a hospital but I must say, even the cafe is good! Received a substantial discount on parking, which helped A LOT over the course of 34 visits. I cannot comment on the ER or any other branch of the hospital but as for MY experience at Upstate, I will say it was an excellent one! Unfortunately my moms insurance company forced both the hospitals and our hand at making her move to a nursing facility, she is struggling there now. Wish she could have stayed at Upstate, recommend this place for anyone who needs care for a...

The absolute WORST experience. Incompetent registration workers who messed up my personal information over three times during my stay, my bracelet had to get changed several times. Nurses DON'T CARE, except for a select few. TERRIBLE experience with getting blood drawn and having IV's, multiple and I mean MULTIPLE times the nurses couldn't draw my blood and had to call someone else so I've got needle marks just about everywhere from their incompetency. A patient should be able to rest after a stay, instead I'm calling around trying to fix my personal information because I can't log in to my patient portal. Finally was able to after they had to change my name in the system AGAIN, and when I log in, I see the registration worker completely BUTCHERED almost all of my personal info as if she was a first grader who didn't listen or spell anything correctly. I did not get wheeled out like everyone else does, instead at time of discharge they gave me my heavy bag in my extremely tired and sore arms and sent me walking off the floor and out to wait for my ride on my own. Honestly this hospital should be sued. Stop trying to hire people for diversity purposes. Hire competent people who know how to read, write, and spell and actually have a work ethic. Terrible, horrible, awful, intolerable care in every sense of the word from patient care to registration and information. They want your money and that's it. Impossible to get a hold of anyone to straighten out my info, and when i did, all of them except one woman said "I don't know, I can't help you". Then don't work there if you can't help me!!!! Get a job at a grocery store...oh wait you probably wouldn't make it there either! Absolutely DEPLORABLE. God forbid anyone ends up here, no rest for the weary...