Children's Medical Center Dallas — Local services in Dallas

Our newborn was sent there for a 24 hour observation after a BRUE although the last shift staff was great. There was a clear lack of communication and there was an overcrowding problem.

My issues are pretty basic. If another hospital is going to send you in for this. They should atleast know the capacity they have so that when you get there the process is less stressful for everyone.

When my wife was admitted to ER with our one month old on a transfer out of LP in Rowlett. She was placed with him in a ER room that didn’t even have a bassinet or anything for that matter anything related to a newborn. So my wife ended up holding him for 13 hours…. My issue with this is a mother that was just traumatized by the episode with her child is already mentally frazzled enough. Not the best to literally have only a child sized bed with rails he could defiantly slide through if someone wasn’t watching.

Baby’s get hungry, so you need to feed them… well they definitely were not set up for this. TAP water(not sterile enough for a newborn). They don’t have purified, so we settled with purified water bottles. And heating them under the sink water until the proper temp was achieved.

IF you have a Preme, make sure you bring formula. They don’t have NEOsure similac (yet they recommend this)

We were then asked the same exact question about the BRUE by the 3 different shifts (like restarting the process 3 times over) while we had already completed all tested by the first shift. No reason to ask the same question by 3 different teams. Lack of communication, and record keeping. Then just a long night of vital checks and that’s all.

All tests were inconclusive, which wasn’t a bad thing but it also lead to blood tests. Now a newborn preme should be poked for an IV to obtain a good blood sample. but you should make sure your going to get a clean stab and make sure your happy with the vein location and placement and confidence before you start trying to place it. The staff tried 3 times to no avail and by that time we had a screaming newborn who I was having to smack his chest at the end of each cry to get him to inhale again. The poor guy was literally bruised by the time with left from all the attempts to tie off his arm to obtain clearer views of the veins.

Finally Joseph one of the staff came in and literally looked at it spotted his vein location and didn’t hesitate went right in. Seconds later, blood samples for labs. A++ to Jospeh

After that we were told over and over we would get an observation room soon which we never did. So we spent the next 15 hours total sleeping on the concrete floor and my wife holding the baby because we had no bassinet to lay him down on. By hour 15 and no true observation we were done. Just bill insurance and discharge us.

We finally discharged and declined a room ( because at this point all tests were already ran 10 hours ago. What’s the point besides billing insurance for extra time.)

The last shift both the attending physician and practitioners were SPOT ON, 1.The attending discharged us, apologized for the lack of communication and was extremely nice. 2.The practitioner was highly intelligent and standing in from Amarillo. She gave us many tips, answered all questions and gave us tons of useful info. 3.The Vitals nurse also came in to get us discharged to because she realized at this point….. there was no point. She was extremely nice and helpful.

So finally the my conclusion of this, if you are going to take a transfer from another hospital make sure your have the capacity and the skill set on hand to execute the process without so many areas being sub par at best. And utter confusion.

Also work is work I don’t want to walk through the halls and hear about drinking and Jell-O shots being talked about so loudly you can hear the laughter from the room with the door shut. I get the human error, but not in front of patients or loud enough they hear every word.

Also don’t make me have to remind you after I have already signed the discharge papers to take the IV...

Edit: ive noticed theyve not responded to this review, i wonder why. 🤔 Id love for the directors of CMC to respond or be having talks about this. In fact, for an example, my brother had an incident with anesthesia that was serious because the proper pediatric cardiac anesthesia was not involved even though it was ordered and requested ahead of time. UTSW is great but just does not have enough resources and enough experience dealing with these precious med-peds patients. I know this is probably a fine line of legality having someone over 21 (on paper) being at a childrens hospital. But body composition, disorders, and diseases, and intelectual and cognitive level, need to be taken into consideration, not just a number on a birth certificate or else it could cause different legal issues with denying patients. I hope the reconsider these rules somehow or UTSW needs to officially combine with CMC for more smooth integration, communication, and interaction between the two facilities (as it says they already are) for the sake of these patients. Allowing for patients like my brother if need be, to still get care at CMC with specialized services such as specialized anesthesia, procedures with accommodations/modified, and/or consults with doctors who offer a specialized procedure that CMC does but UTSW does not (yes it exists)

Original post: My review is not on the staff and doctors of the facility as much as it is the admin and directors who are currently over it. The doctors and nurses are wonderful. They teach parents how to advocate for their children, they work on some of the most complicated cases and have saved many lives including my little brother. That is the reason this review has any stars at all. The doctors, nurses, techs, all medical personnel are 100/10 stars. ADMIN HOWEVER is only worried about politics, money, and probably some legalese while putting aside the health of the very patients that they saved years ago leaving doctors hands tied who want to help. Childrens helps many patients that have a multitude of special needs and congenital disorders. Many of these patients still need tests and surgeries to be performed at facilities such as childrens due to cognitive level, or body malformations. It used to be a long standing thing (at least with cardiology) that their patients could come to childrens med dallas as long as they need (especially in the special reasons i mentioned) Now, what we were told in 2017 is no longer true. My little brother has been passed off to UTSW as they are of the same system and childrens PROMISED they are just as accommodating... THEY ARE NOT... they try, they do try, and UTSW is (usually) very good but they are very much "no an emptying scan must be done with eggs or ensure" "no only 1 person is allowed with the pt" "no we cannot sedate for an ultrasound or CT it is never done" they ask us why cant we do it at childrens and it is because Admins will not allow it. Weve even had a doctor try to arrange a test to be done at childrens JUST A TEST AND HE GO BACK TO HIS DR AT UTSW and they said no its against policy. THESE ADMINS DO NOT CARE ABOUT THEIR PEDIATRIC PATIENTS AND THEY NEED TO STOP TELLING PARENTS THAT UTSW AND PARKLAND WILL ACCOMMODATE IN THE SAME WAY BECAUSE THEY DO NOT. The admins need to review their age policy and ammend for their pediatric patients they've had SINCE BIRTH with known issues that can be justified through records of needing the specialized care. At least being able to get testing and surgery done there. Especially if the doctor is with UTSW. They are "the same affiliate" correct? So they should be able to "crossover" correct? There is such a disconnect from the 2 facilities that I dont understand why Childrens doctors and staff say they are the same. They are not. Please be aware if your child is about to turn 21, and they have a cognitive level that requires children's med care, or such. You will be running into...

I never leave reviews anywhere, but I felt I had to for future parents of preemies in nicu. The Dr’s were really great. The surgeon Dr Reddy and his anesthesia team were awesome. The attending Dr made us feel really comfortable. They truly deserve 5 stars. But I gave 3 stars because patients in nicu mostly interact with nurses and respiratory. My baby was transferred here from Presby Dallas for a heart ligation surgery. The team at a Presby was amazing and I thought the treatment and care was like that at every hospital. My baby was a hard case because he had a large PDA that made his oxygen drop really low (dsat) and his heart rate to also drop (brady). It was so bad that he had to be manually assisted (bagged) to allow his lungs to open up again. He is on a ventilator and timing is crucial because these episodes happen very fast. My baby turns purple and he becomes lifeless. It’s something that is very traumatizing and causes anxiety. Well some of the nurses and some of the respiratory therapists did not know how to handle these situations. A day before his surgery I had the most frightening and terrible experience with the team that was on duty. I honestly thought that my baby was going to flatline before they got to help him like he needed. I was very upset at the responses I was getting from the nurse. It seemed like she didn’t care that my baby couldn’t breathe. I literally had to tell her what to do. I did not feel comfortable leaving my baby there and was really scared about the surgery itself. I thought everyone was the same. I finally complained to the charge nurse and questioned their ability to care for a preemie baby like mine. After his surgery his episodes were nowhere near as bad. I was a little relieved that I didn’t have to be a helicopter mom anymore. In my opinion, the nurses and therapists are very young and lack experience in treating difficult sick babies. Sometimes reacting to emergencies comes from experience and I did not see many older nurses there. They also lack compassion because they didn’t even write my babies name on the board nor used any of his personal items to cover him up with. The little things that make a parent feel comfortable with leaving their baby under their care, seemed to be the last thing on their list. Some of the nurses were very nice and very good at their job but we never had any consistency. The front screening security team was also very rude. We had been told in orientation that only one parent was allowed at bedside at one time but that we can switch off while the other waited in the cafeteria. Well we both get there the second day and my sons father gets kicked out and told to wait in the car. Mind you it is 10 degrees outside and frozen over. It took us so long to get there. They didn’t care about that. I questioned why I saw whole families walking around and their response was that they allowed it for special circumstances. Like my baby being there for heart surgery wasn’t special circumstance. I complained to the case worker and other staff and I was able to get clearance for both parents to be allowed in at the same time. This rule is very unfair as no parent should have to be left out of their child’s care. It’s already scary enough to have a baby that is sick. Maybe I’m just spoiled by the treatment at Presby, but the treatment at Children’s hospital was very disappointing. I was so happy we could be transferred back. 10 days was way more time than I wanted to spend at this hospital. And I’m not saying that it was all terrible but all the rules and training need to be revamped for future...