Palomar Medical Center Escondido — Local services in Escondido

Don't believe the negative reviews, I've read them all, if you had to wait in the ER a long time and then in the end you found out that there was nothing wrong with you and were sent home then it sounds to me like the staff did a perfect job so quit whining, believe it or not there are people with more priority ER issues than you.

Nobody is back there playing tiddlywinks they are doing things like stopping the bleeding and saving lives. If you want it to go faster, then pay it forward and be really brief when it's your turn to be helped.

You may have been waiting here "8 hours" (which is 4 hours in real time) but my wife and I have been here for a week and all we hear over the intercom is code blue every few hours because they're dealing with everyone who got sick because they or someone else didn't listen when doctor said wear a mask and stay six feet apart.

Medicine matters, paperwork matters, even checking you for something that you probably don't have matters but they are doing the best they can. Doctors and nurses get brakes and lunch too and it's important that the doctor walks around having a cup of coffee, he needs the mental break so he can do his best work and the coffee so he can give more energy to you, how dare you complain about that, let the man have his coffee, he deserves a Pina colada. Everyone here works harder than all of us, nobody's playing on Facebook or goofing off like we all do at work. Here's what I saw in my week there.

If you're given the choice between Kaiser and here for non-ER treatment and you don't need the NICU (for premature babies), go here and if you're given the choice between here or Tri City for anything, go here. If it's an emergency go to Kaiser or here, whichever is closer.

Staff member after staff member kept saying this is where they chose to go when they had their baby or their surgery and that we're in good hands and it's much more relaxing and nicer here.

The rooms are like really nice hotel rooms with full wall windows with great views especially at night. There's a feeling of gentle tranquility in the rooms that's very calming. Did I mention this hospital was built so each patient gets their own very large room unlike all the other hospitals in so Cal?

But the biggest difference is the staff. They all go above and beyond, are kind, caring, extremely talented and hard working. While the CNA/techs and doctors are all above and beyond and everybody keeps telling you if you need anything to let them know and tempting you w/ various beverages making sure you are comfortable, 99% of the time you interact with nurses, they are your entire experience of customer service.

Every single nurse we had (a new nurse every 12 hours for a week so I'm guessing we had all of them at one time or another) was not only above and beyond for my wife as they nurtured her back to health they were also extremely accommodating to me, often doing things that I said I could do that weren't necessarily nursing. For example, one of the nurses noticed while my wife was talking about her nausea that my wife swept her hair away from her face. I saw it but I've seen her do that many times over the years and thought nothing of it. The nurse not only gave my wife medicine that took away her nausea but also offered to brush my wife's hair and put it in a hair tie in this loose, comfortable way so it wouldn't fall in her face nor make her hot (she was on medication that made her hot).

Without listing every thing that every nurse did, I will say this; at other hospitals if you don't eat your food nobody notices it and an orderly takes it away. At this hospital, the nurse asked if the food didn't agree with you and offered alternatives instead.

At this hospital people try to match the energy of the room, if they see you relaxing they come in real calm and leave the lights dim, if they see you sleeping but have to wake you they apologize for having to wake you. At other hospitals they bust in the room turning on every possible light, bringing their three cup of coffee...

They are the reason my mom is dead because they didn’t care to take proper care of her. My sister and I had a meeting with a CCO after my mother‘s death and they sent me a letter after the meeting saying sorry. They didn’t care to follow up with adult protective services or call the cops or even acknowledge that my mom was off her schizophrenic medicine one doctor when she first got there said she needed to be admitted and then after three days they released her. How can the first doctor say she needs to be admitted and isn’t mentally stable and then 3 days later the other doctor say she’s stable and they have no beds? She was mentally like a toddler and beaten up and scared. She needed help.Even though she was beaten up and airlifted, and the doctors could tell that she was not OK The nurses seemed to care more than the doctors and the CCO. Also before talking to the the Cco of the Hospital spoke to two of the head psychiatrist of Palomar Hospital and they were shifting the blame on other doctors. Stated that he wasn’t there and doesn’t know the situation and I told him that there are cameras in the hospital and I was showing the doctors the videos of how my mom was scared. They said that they didn’t have enough bed but later after her death, we found record showing that there were beds available during those three days. Even the higher ups of PH don’t care. Knowing that she was off her medicine and the doctor in the beginning, said that she needed to be admitted and wasn’t stable. The full medical records that we found showed the truth. this hospital could’ve prevented my mom‘s death. They did note that they called adult protective services and they were aware. My mom wasn’t safe and she was in danger because she was beaten up airlifted later she was killed. Because Palomar Hospital failed to treat my mom and they lied to us that there were no beds available. When I have the medical records that proved they had beds available and they could have treated her and kept her safe instead they released her. She was later murdered in her home . Not to mention, Palomar Hospital didn’t even follow up with adult protective services to see if they even checked on her and didn’t even contact the police even though she was airlifted beaten up. all I know is that they did not want to help my mother except for the first doctor after my sister and I got the medical records were shocked that they lied to us and they just didn’t care to help our mother even though she had insurance.. they were treating her like she was a homeless person, and they didn’t want to help her. Anyone would know that she was in danger, even showing her the recordings of her saying she was scared and how someone got mad at her in her house which I cannot disclose. The person that beat her up they were allowing to keep calling her. We are trying to get her into a continuing care unit however, the continuing care unit said that she would need to be admitted into the hospital and stable on her schizophrenic medicine. And the result that they did not help my mom it ended her up in the morgue if they would’ve just done their job and helped our mom she would still be alive. I could post the medical records, but I think that after speaking with so many people at the hospital I’m just exhausted from everything and if they cared, they would’ve listened to the first doctor. Nobody is stable and safe mentally after three days of being in the hospital. The fact that they lied to us that they didn’t have any beds available for my mom and then later after her death, we were able to get her medical records. It’s clearly stated the nurse is calling and they did have beds available. They just wanted to send her back and we couldn’t take her to a continuing care unit without her being admitted into the hospital and stable on her medicine. I will post the letter that the COO sent me and my sister just apologizing for our loss and that they’re gonna make a new protocol when they call adult protective services to follow up with adult...

I was recently taken the the ER after being in a car crash that totaled my car, and almost me. I was never even examined or treated for any of my wounds all over my body--except they, x-rayed my knee, only because I pointed out the blood coming through my pants (they never wiped off of my knee or dressed the wound), during which, the guy turned my fractured leg (that I didn't know about yet) side to side in all kinds of ways. And my leg was not x-rayed. I had extreme bruises & bloody areas all over my body that they never looked at or cleaned up or dressed or put ice on. I kept trying to point out what I could see to them, but they had no interest (except a couple of men enjoyed taking a peak under the corner of my lace bra, acting like two children who had never seen part of a breast before [not caring that it was covered with blood and bruised]). They just put me on a gurney and pushed it against one wall after another in freezing cold hallways in front of open doors for many, many hours. Nobody ever did anything but a CT scan of only part of my body, and taking blood samples. I was freezing, shivering, in immense pain, extremely traumatized, and never got care. And they told me to move around in ways that I couldn't move and then admonished me for not being able to move that way. They also poked at my abdomen like a kid poking at a bug with a stick, and chastised me for not being able to open a heavy wooden restroom door very wide. My purse was also "searched for weapons" by a cop. I couldn't believe that this was how car accident victims were treated--like criminals--instead of getting healthcare. I even said this to the cop, who yelled at me in return. Instead of receiving care, help, and compassion; I was being treated horribly. When I was put on the CT scan table, I was handled all over the place, turned to the sides, and literally left with my head hanging by my neck, completely off of the table for awhile, crying for help. Even inside of the CT scan machine, it was so tight that it was hitting my arms/hands repeatedly. I asked for a wheel chair, because lying down was too painful, but was ignored. Nobody understood that my entire back muscles were all pulled out of place (along with having extreme lung pain), and lying down flat, and being expected to be able to sit up & stand up & down from that position was excruciating and almost impossible. I needed back support--to be sitting up in a wheel chair. I was never examined or put in a room. I was never put in medical gown, which would have exposed my wounds. If it wasn't for my own bottle of water and my jacket, that I had to use as a pillow for my neck, I could not have made it through the experience at all. I asked for help getting home, but was only offered a bus pass!!!!!!! I was literally in NO condition to take a bus, nor do I know any bus routes or times. I asked MANY times for the blood thing to be taken out of my arm, but it was a long time until someone actually did it (not "my nurse"--who was cold, uncaring, inattentive, and unhelpful [and used a tourniquet to take blood when I had internal bleeding and injuries, which I don't think is supposed to be done]). It was only the people working at the desk who helped me to charge my phone and figure out how to use Uber for the first time that I could get home. And it was the people at the desk who helped me to get something to eat (I hadn't eaten since Cream of Wheat at breakfast that day, and it was evening) and some water. And it was only after disrobing after getting home that I realized how bruised, bloody, & injured I was/am. And I also appear to have a fractured leg, which I didn't notice until the next day. But I no longer have transportation to go to see a doctor about it, and no one to heIp me, and I feel far too traumatized to deal with it. It's been a month, and my leg is still swollen and discolored on the side/front. I am SO ANGRY at my treatment--or lack there of!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope I never have to set foot in this horrible place ever...