Orlando Health South Lake Hospital Emergency Room — Local services in Clermont

Had to go to ER because of a trip and fall incident at 12:30am. Security was thorough and quick. Waiting area was very clean, they had tvs on so you had something other than the pain to focus on, that was appreciated. Woman who checked me in was very nice and efficient. There were only 4 other people in the waiting area so I was seen within 10 minutes of arriving. First nurse who set up my vitals was very nice and so friendly, she took all my information of how I came to be in the ER. After the woman left, a gentleman came in next, I assume he was another nurse, he proceeded to ask what happened and I told him what I told the woman who came in before him. I know this is a teaching hospital so I figured the different people coming in could be in training so I didn't mind repeating the information for the first two people. The gentleman said another woman would be coming to get me for xrays soon which she did. This woman had such a great personality, she had me laughing even though I injured my chest. She really did a great job taking my mind off the pain. The woman explained that xrays would need to be processed and looked over by a doctor so it would be an hour wait. She took me back & forth in a wheelchair and helped me back to the bed. Now I know it doesn't take 1 hour for Xrays to be processed but I figured the doc was in with other patients and that was the real reason for the long wait time. Like clockwork after 1 hour a doctor came in, he said his name and proceeded to ask what happened. I told him what I told the 2 nurses, I told him I had severe pain in my chest from falling hard down on to the top of a large shopvac. The doctor listened to my back w/a stethoscope then came to the front and listened w/a stethoscope over right breast and then without so much as a warning took his fingers and pushed hard into the middle of my breast bone. The jolt of pain had my hands up pushing him away. I told him to please not do that again because its extremely painful in that area. He said he had to push down hard in order to know if there were any air pockets in my lungs. I would later research this at home and learn this is not how you look for air pockets and that he could have seen it on the xray he supposedly looked at which I am now guessing he didn't or he could have listened for a crackling noise via the stethoscope. I was not happy w/this doctor at all. He didnt greet me with a smile, he looked bored and annoyed to be there. Why would he come in and ask what happened when I just got done telling 2 nurses and watched them enter the information into their laptops? He offered pain meds but I declined only because everything from IVs to pain meds are expensive in a hospital, so he told me to go home & rest, take tylenol and motrin as needed & if I heal in 3 weeks, it was a bad bruise and I got lucky. if I take longer to heal its a hairline fracture they couldn't see on xray. I asked if I should be putting either heat or cold compress on the injury, he said at first cold then switch to heat after a couple days. That should have been in his after care instructions not by me asking. I gave 4 stars for the hospital support staff who made my visit a pleasant one and that's saying alot because going to the hospital is never pleasant. Lol! For the doctor he gets zero stars. Please teach your doctors to verbally walk through their actions so it helps keep the patient informed every step of the way. Also it would be helpful if you hired doctors with a personality. Fake it till you make it is my motto. They represent the hospital and are frontline customer service. I need to know that the doctor helping me wants and likes their job and to help others get better, it makes for a better...

Ok, so the may be a LONG overdue review which I will try to keep short and sweet because boy do I have some crap I put up with from this location but I think my circumstances should be spoken on and unfortunately even though the worst case scenario I had with them was years ago, this hospital hasn’t changed much.

Be VERY cautious when coming here, and make sure to stand up against something you think is wrong.

I have had a history of spontaneous collapsed lungs, happened since I was in middle school. My first EVER emergency room trip was to this hospital the first time my lungs ruptured. They admitted me to Arnold Palmer and the ER did a great job at caring for me when all I thought was I had a pulled muscle after a severe hiccup fit.

Now here’s where it gets scary, my second rupture was so severe that the ER staff had to perform an immediate chest tube. I was a minor at the time and was concerned and confused what was happening. Needless to say , between the temporary tube and the rush around me, it was a TRAUMATIC event for me.

Fast forward MANY numerous visits for phantom pains and a third collapsed lung…nurses and doctors started to treat me like the ‘boy who cried wolf,’ mind the fact that I was a young kid who was TRAUMATIZED by having such an experience of a tube shoved in my side to save my life and severity of the previous collapse. I had gone in this time and doctors said “Nothing on the X-Ray.”

This did NOT seem right to me…so I left and went to Blue Cedar on 27, sure enough, Blue Cedar ER found a rupture on my lungs that South Lake had somehow ‘missed’ and I was admitted for a pneumomediastinum. This was rupture number 3.

To shorten this up, my fourth rupture was also missed yet again by South Lake and found by ANOTHER hospital and the doctors shook their heads that South Lake had not only borderline told me that I was dramatic with my ‘phantom pains’ (which I did have several incidents that were simply phantom pains from the chest tube) but that they also treated me down right like a problem.

I was indeed a medical case because there were many other things that I ended up being in and out of this ER for but with each visit, I was treated more and more like some crazy girl who wanted to be sick and not like a patient. Doctors were always blatantly sarcastic with me.

I started using and only going to Advent Health after multiple terrifying and horrible experiences with South Lake and had I been old enough I would have caused more of a scene with them because it was down right neglect.

Nurses were hit or miss but at the end of the day, I have to say tread light when you go here and if you don’t trust their judgement, go somewhere else. The genuine fear I have of doctors now thanks to South Lake is a nightmare and real struggle when I try to get health check ups just because of the many horrible hours I spent here....

Run like it is the plague, if my leg was chopped off and this hospital was around the corner or I could go to another hospital an hour away, I would rather go to the hospital an hour away, when my wife was pregnant and she wasn't feeling good and we came here, they underplayed how she was feeling, we waited hours in the waiting room with each nurse giving us attitude, after we finally got a room, a pretentious male nurse with a ponytail came up to me and said "See she got a room after all, good for you!" after she was finally seen they said it's nothing and sent us home, turns out she had high blood pressure and we rushed to Winnie Palmer to have an emergency C section, that's number 1.

Here is number 2, my baby was diagnosed with RSV, three days ago she was breathing heavily with her ribs showing, chest caving in, nostrils flaring, and oxygen levels low, we rushed to this emergency room, panicking for the baby to be seen, an EMT or Nurse came to us and told us it's okay my baby had RSV it's not as bad as you think, everything will be okay, the lady at the desk taking our information heard this and just figured it's not an emergency, so we stood FOUR HOURS IN THE WAITING AREA until we were finally seen by the doctor, do you know what happened? everything wasn't fine and okay, I am typing this now in the Arnold Palmer Hospital because my 1 month old infant was rushed by ambulance and admitted into the hospital, we have been in here for 3 days while the doctors and nurses have been keeping a close eye on her, breathing treatments, oxygen, albuterol treatments. But this emergency room said everything is okay and we're over reacting, but what I hate the most is because they asked us, "is this your first baby? Haha yeah that makes sense" like we are over reacting parents and we shouldn't care, but yet here we are 3 days in a hospital with a breathing tube.

I tell you this and I am not over reacting I mean this truly, do not come here, no matter what, find another hospital, find another emergency room, you are wasting your time and breath coming here, you will wait for hours to be seen, you will not be cared for, you will have nurses who feel themselves too great to be here, you are below them, if I could give negative...