Geisinger Lewistown Hospital — Local services in Derry Township

UPDATE: 10/30/2022 We just received a letter from the Geisinger Lewistown patient liaison that came as no surprise. The review resulted in finding no shortcomings on the part of the hospital. It's a complete abdication of responsibility and a failure to take much needed action. Imagine that you have fallen twice in a month and the second fall resulted in a broken hip, you have high fevers (up to 103.6) every single day with night sweats, dizziness and vomiting. You languish in Geisinger Lewistown for 9 days as the hospitalist ignores your questions, talks over you and treats you disrespectfully. You are told all test results are normal and reminded that you are taking up a bed that is needed by other patients. The hospitalist wants to discharge you but cannot until you have 24 hours without fever. Was medication increased to make that happen? We do not know. At the first 24 hour period without fever, you are instantly moved to a physical therapy facility and spend your first night there with high fevers, night sweats and vomiting multiple times. This is not quality care, or responsible care on the part of Geisinger Lewistown. We are so thankful to the Valley View facility for bringing in an Internist who interviewed my sister, reviewed test results and immediately ordered a leukemia test at Geisinger Danville. The good news is that my sister responded well to the first 28 days of chemotherapy and will begin her second round this week in the good hands of a hematologist from Geisinger Danville. Geisinger Lewistown, you failed us completely and have refused to take action or apologize for poor treatment.

UPDATE: 9/21/22 We called the number provided in the Geisinger response to this review and spoke to a patient liasion for Lewistown hospital. The second day she was at Valley View Rehab Center, their Internist saw her, asked comprehensive questions and ordered bloodwork. We are most grateful for his thoroughness and care. After reviewing the results, he sent her to Geisinger Danville and the next day she had a bone marrow biopsy. We just learned yesterday that she has acute myeloid leukemia. (If you look up the symptoms, she had every single one.) The Lewistown hospitalist who dismissed her, disrespected her anytime she tried to ask questions and who readily sent her to rehab for physical therapy totally missed the diagnosis, even though both doctors examined her bloodwork. (Please read original post below.) We were told by the patient liaison that the matter would be taken seriously and they would get back to us with findings and resolution. I will continue to update this review. *Original post: My sister was admitted to Geisinger Lewistown for the second time in just over a month for fever, dizziness, and slurred speech. She fell and injured her head the first time and this second time, she had a broken hip. The Care Coordinator was professional, but the hospitalist doctor was arrogant, non-communicative and disrespectful. Tests included 3 CT Scans, an MRI and a sonogram plus bloodwork and other tests. They were unable to find the cause for the fevers (103.6 degrees at one point) or the speech issues and the cause of inflammation and infection. No diagnosis, no treatment. Why was this case not reviewed by the Medical Director of the hospital? The result? After the first 24 hour period without fever, she was quickly shuffled off to a rehab center to free up her bed at the hospital (The hospitalist had commented on how many patients they had and the need for patient beds.) I wonder how the doctor and staff would treat someone if it was their own family member. I would think Geisinger would be very concerned about their reputation and the quality of care this facility provides. It was very disturbing. She has now been transferred to another facility thanks to an Internist at the physical therapy facility who did additional bloodwork and had some concerns with the findings. She has been transferred to another hospital. Please keep her in...

My family experienced the traumatic loss of my father at this hospital a couple months ago... unfortunately, the experience was made even more stressful because of some of the nursing staff. We were originally told by my dad's care team that he was being placed into a "hospice type" room and that since he could pass at any given moment, the normal hospital visiting hours wouldn't apply to us, and that there would be a waiting room we could use across the hall from my dad for as long as we needed to. However, once my dad was actually put into the "hospice type" room, everything changed. We were suddenly being told by nurses that the hospital doesn't actually have a hospice floor and that my family was "taking up too much room in the waiting areas" and "leaving trash around the hospital" which was absolutely NOT true. Some of the nurses even questioned my mom's decisions about my dad's care, insinuating that her decisions were "unethical". One nurse even had the audacity to tell my mom, "You know your husband's dying, right??" We were also blamed for "allowing children to stay overnight in the waiting area", which was another bold faced lie. We purposely did not allow any children to stay overnight at the hospital because we felt it was too traumatic for them to witness everything their grandfather (my dad) was going through. Any handy dandy security camera in the hospital could easily prove that no children spent the night in the waiting areas.

I wanted to give myself time before writing this review, to make sure I wasn't overreacting and just looking for reasons to be upset with the hospital. But it's been a couple months since my dad's passing now, and I still feel like my mother (and the rest of us) should not have been treated the way SOME of the staff chose to treat us.

I really wanted to trust this hospital, and maybe they do excel in other areas, but please please PLEASE consider a different location for in-patient hospice care if you can. Watching a loved one die is hard enough on a family. They shouldn't also have to deal with rude and unwelcoming staff on the floor their loved one is currently dying on. It's truly no wonder some people choose to pass away at home, where they can do...

This place is a joke!!! My fiance went in to the ER for a severe toothache from 2 abscessed teeth. Her whole face was swollen and there was drainage. We sat there for 21/2 hours and the only thing they did in that time was take her blood pressure. Upon arrival they told her that the doctor's just did a shift change and were a little behind. After 2 hours went by and nobody ever came in she rang the call bell to see why. They came in and told us the same thing they said 2 hours ago. The doctor's just did a shift change and they are a little behind. Another 1/2 hour went by and still nothing not a checkup from a nurse or anything. At this time there was literally 5 nurses in the room to discharge the person beside her. Does not require 5 people to do a discharge and they were all talking about doing housework. Iade a comment to my fiancee and jokingly saidaybe I should light the trash can on fire and see if we get any assistance then. One of the nurses heard me and started flipping out and told us we had to leave. When we asked why nobody has come in she responded with a toothache is not an emergency and proceeded to tell us we had to leave. I said we were not leaving until she was seen. She called security and they threw us out. That right there is refusing to treat with is illegal. On top of that 2 years prior my fiancee was pregnant and she knew something was wrong and came to this hospital. Again after hour and hours waiting they did some testing and said nothing was wrong. The next morning shewent to an appointment in Danville and they said our baby was filled with fluid and they had to do an emergency c section or he was going to die. If it was not for that appointment and real doctor's instead of wanna be losers we would have lost our son. This place is literally killing people and getting away with it!!!! I would not recommend this hospital and it's worthless staff to my worst enemy. So if you don't care if you die then go here!! If you want to stay alive then go anywhere else...