UH Cleveland Medical Center — Local services in Cleveland

4/2021-6/2021. PTSD was not the first thing I expected to receive from UH’s handling of my father’s glioblastoma diagnosis, but that is what I received.

In April 2021 my father checked into UH Geauga after symptoms of a stroke. The doctor there walked in and said, “this doesn’t look good.” And then sent my dad downtown. We waited at UH Geauga until 4 am before a transport showed up.

The next morning, UH Cleveland calls us to inform us my dad doesn’t know what year it is and that he was just in patient holding and they didn’t have a room for him.

Finally gets placed into the brain unit. We waited five days in the hospital before any biopsies or further tests were done.

The day of the biopsy, Dr. Andrew Sloane met my mom and I in a very public waiting area and told us my father had 0-2 months left to live and that his tumor was the worst possible tumor anyone could have, followed by how less than 1% of people survive from it. Then he simply walked away, and my mom and I were left to figure out what to do.

They kept my father in the recovery room because they couldn’t find him anywhere else. They made us tell him the news again, in a very public place.

After a few days of being in a hospital room with slippery wood floors, we were able to take him home.

Dr. Andrew Sloane does not have bedside manner and either does his staff. We were reeling from the news, and we’re treated by very cold staff members. To make it worse, UH did not even have any of the right phone numbers to contact us. They got mad at us for their error.

Instead of starting a treatment plan, they continued to delay. For two weeks, we waited. We went into meet another oncologist and we were so worried that they would be mean to us, too. However, the assistant named Brian was not nice. My father was not able to move the right side of his body, and Brian says, “what’s wrong with you? Did you have a stroke?” In a very condescending way. Clearly the records would show what his condition was. It was just awful.

We switched to the Cleveland Clinic and we were able to get in and get the mask right away for his treatments to start. Despite that, we were informed to go back to UH because they had a different treatment we could try called proton radiation. The person handling the insurance part of it was gone to a family funeral and no one else was there to help push anything through. Therefore, a treatment for my dad was delayed again. We got told by Sloane’s office staff when we called, “oh we knew you’d be back. The Clinic only sends people home to d*e.”

Desperate to help him, we ignored their attitude and pushed through to UH. At this point my father had already lost all mobility on his right side of the body.

The team then said they would no longer be able to do surgery and would need to get another scan. They said they couldn’t schedule a scan and that everything was booked. My mom had to look for our own scan and said what about Geauga and then they scheduled him or else again they’d delay it.

UH said they needed to double the radiation. They said to make up for lost time and that it was something that they do in Canada. They also for a period of time told us that we couldn’t start treatment until proton was approved then told us we could do regular until proton was approved.

The day finally came for his first radiation treatments. We rolled my dad down to the Seidman Cancer Center at UH. They said my dad was too fidgety and that we needed to give him Adavant. They made me give it to him to relax him. Finally, they rolled him back for his first treatment.

After 15 minutes, he came back out and was not waking up. They said it was from the medicine and that he’d eventually come to. They rolled us to a nurse practictioner named Sarah Burke (sp) and an assistant to her learning. My dad, was using one hand and snoring loudly but his eyes weren’t opening. They said he was fine and to load him into our car. My dad was around 200lbs and they somehow expect my mom and I to load him into the back of my car with him...

my husband severely broke his tibia and fibula, with the bone nearly breaking through the skin. He was sent via ambulance to the Portage location, where we arrived and were placed in a room. For 45 minutes, my husband was left in excruciating pain without any pain medication. The nurse, Leanne, who was incredibly unfriendly, insisted that she could not administer anything without approval. I asked how we could get that approval, and she said it required a physician’s signature, which was apparently impossible to obtain because they couldn’t locate the attending physician or nurse practitioner. My husband was left to suffer, hyperventilating, sweating, and writhing in pain while I had to chase down staff just to get someone to sign off on something as simple as pain relief. I understand that things get busy, but this was beyond unacceptable.

Eventually, a doctor from a different department helped get him seen, and we were informed that he would need surgery, which could not be performed at Portage. They then told us he would be transferred to the Cleveland Main Campus. We live in Kent, and while I asked if we could be transferred to a different hospital (Akron), the doctors insisted that we stay at UH Cleveland for faster care, promising that he would be transferred at 12:30 AM. They didn’t show up until 2:30 AM, and he arrived in Cleveland around 3:30 AM.

Once at Cleveland, the lack of communication and disorganization only worsened. My husband was placed in the trauma unit, and I spent the next few hours asking questions and trying to get updates, but every time I asked for status or clarification on his condition (including if his shoulder needed surgery), I was told "your surgeon would have that information" — from multiple staff members. No one provided us with updates; I had to seek out every piece of information myself. After hours of waiting, he was finally taken to Pre-op.

After his surgery, the lack of communication continued. We were told we’d have to wait for a bed in recovery since they were all full. We waited over 4 hours, with no updates unless I asked for them. We were told nothing about his condition post-surgery until I finally tracked down a nurse who informed me that shoulder surgery was not necessary after all. Additionally, I was told by the nurse that decisions about his discharge were “up to trauma,” which contradicted what I had been told earlier, where the surgeon confirmed my husband would be going home after surgery if there were no complications.

After waiting yet another 1.5 hours because the room had not been cleaned (turns out the person cleaning had left midway through), he finally got into a room at 10:00 PM. The next morning, my husband discovered through his chart that his shoulder injury was a dislocation, not a fracture. No one had communicated this to us. Physical therapy came in to evaluate him but aborted the session due to concerns about his blood pressure — though later, the actual doctor said the numbers would have been fine to leave.

we were told that physical therapy must clear my husband before discharge and due to some higher BP numbers since surgery, they’re not comfortable working with him. We made clear that he wished to return home, and staff retested his blood pressure and said let’s see what we can do. We live a hour away with limited family and 3 school aged children at home. Despite the repeat test, physical therapy declined to proceed, citing a “risk of raising it further”. We even asked to follow up with his primary doctor closer to home regarding blood pressure and therapy. . Still, we were told that leaving without PT clearance would be considered “against medical advice” and could result in our insurance denying the entire claim. This felt less like medical care and more like coercion to stay another unnecessary day for what was an in-and-out surgery.

My husband clearly stated he wished to go home. He was fearful that if he left AMA, he may not receive the proper documentation needed for his short-term...

I want to first say that a handful of nurses did try to do their best and make him comfortable and provided good care to my Dad. I do want to thank them in advance, as most of this review will be negative. Don’t send your loved family members here. This hospital sucks, period. They have no clue how to run a hospital; generally don’t care about patience (besides a few very good nurses) and only care about insurance payments. I did get to see how a proper hospital is ran, my Dad was in treatment at the James at OSU, the doctors, nurses there were plentiful, would answer your questions, seemed to care, had time for you, went above and beyond. We saw nothing of the sort at Case Medical Center. I would travel from several hours away and never saw a doctor. Supposedly they came around in the mornings, once a day. They never communicated to family members what was going on, treatment etc. By the way this was in the ICU, let me spell that out, INTENSIVE CARE UNIT. No doctors, period. I just wish my dad was strong enough to still travel to OSU and not to the disaster which is Case Medical Center. Yes I do understand my dad was very sick and had a small chance of living, he did passed away at the hospital. However that does not rule out the bad service he received there. We had to flag down nurses to get any information. We have to go above and beyond. As we almost never saw the same nurse on back to back days, so they didn’t know his history or condition until they looked it up. When we asked can we see a doctor or speak with someone, they stated the doctors make the rounds in the morning and to catch them at that point. Nurses worked 12hr shifts, most were overworked and the area seemed understaff for being an intensive care unit. One of the less desired nurses, I had overheard argue with another employee that the rooms were not staffed with the necessary supplies. Very unprofessional to have an argument within patient’s family members, pretty much sums up how our experience went. My dad was eventually moved from the ICU to the normal hospital area. That area was atrocious at best. 1 nurse to about 20-30 rooms it seemed was the staff to patient ratio. They did have a “nurse in training” sit with my dad the entire first day. She knew nothing medically and just read a book to him, amazing medical staff. A day later he was back in the MICU. Also to note the hospital is fifthly, in his room there was a spill of fluid that dried, it took them 3 days to clean it up. The floor looked like it wasn’t swept in a week. No one seemed to care. Now it gets really interesting, so my dad is suffering from Leukemia and Myelofibrosis, and they send in an eye doctor to evaluate his eye condition. What are you kidding me? Finally on the 9th day I got to see a doctor, for about 2-3min. The “doctor” asked my dad “do you want us to put on the respirator if you begin having breathing problems.” First of all, my dad is drugged and in no way able to clearly answer that type of question. Second, they should ask the family. How dare they even ask that type of question to a person who may not have a clear mind due to the drugs he is on. There entire attitude was well you’re hear too long and we need this room/bed for other patients. My dad was able to answer yes he would still like to received help, otherwise that would have been over for his treatment, thrown out on the street (hospice). And finally the last straw, when my dad was on a respirator/air mask he kept taking it off as it made it more difficult to breath for him. The STAFF/HOSITAL tied down his hands and made him wear the mask for several hours. Several hours later my dad passed away. We did not give them permission to tie his hands down!!! We are angry at the ** care my dad received. Finally, when speaking with the funeral home and persons said and I quote: “We get a lot of business from them (Case Medical Center).” I wish I could go back and choose another hospital, at least my dad would have received better care elsewhere, unfortunately too...