Corewell Health Grand Rapids Hospitals - Butterworth — Local services in Grand Rapids

I am writing to bring to your attention a recent experience I had as a patient at Butterworth Hospital (Corewell Health) in Grand Rapids, MI, which I believe underscores the critical need for immediate improvements in emergency care protocols and decision-making processes.

On Monday, June 3rd, I visited the Emergency Room due to escalating stomach pain that had persisted for several days. The pain was localized in the right side of my upper abdomen. Upon admission, I was seen by a physician’s assistant (PA), who conducted tests to rule out gallstones and gallbladder issues, including an ultrasound. The results were inconclusive, and at the recommendation of multiple surgeons, a CT scan was advised to rule out appendicitis or other potential causes, especially since I have type II diabetes. However, despite the clear guidance from these surgeons, the PA dismissed their concerns, attributing my symptoms to a viral infection and opting against the CT scan.

The PA then proceeded to discharge me, despite my expressed concern of appendicitis and the strong recommendation from the surgical team. The PA told me “you’ll have to wait for many hours longer before I could get you a scan, I don’t think you want that!” I was advised, honestly forced, to follow up as an outpatient and to return to the ER if my condition worsened. The PA's decision was framed as a matter of expedience, suggesting that her role was merely to “ensure I wasn’t dying" before discharge, rather than addressing the potential underlying cause of my symptoms.

Two days later, on Wednesday, June 5th, my condition deteriorated significantly, forcing me to return to the ER. This time, after looking at my records, the triage nurse immediately questioned why I hadn’t received a CT scan during my initial visit, emphasizing that it should have been done as a standard procedure. After insisting that I would not leave without a CT scan, the staff complied, and the scan revealed that I had appendicitis, requiring immediate surgery. Unfortunately, before the surgery could be completed, my appendix burst, leading to severe complications, including blood poisoning. What was initially expected to be a routine laparoscopic procedure turned into an extensive surgery, during which 30% of my colon and a significant portion of my small intestine were removed. My recovery has been long and difficult, with ongoing health challenges as a result of the delayed diagnosis.

Throughout my recovery, I was repeatedly asked by surgeons why I hadn’t undergone the CT scan on Monday, as they had intended. They expressed their frustration and disbelief that this entire ordeal could have been avoided had the PA heeded their recommendations.

In the aftermath of my hospitalization, I reached out to the patient advocacy department, requesting a meeting with the ER leadership to discuss the errors in my care. My intention was not to pursue legal action but to engage in a constructive dialogue about the mistakes made, with the hope that this could lead to better outcomes for future patients. Unfortunately, after months of delayed communication, my case was passed to risk management, which refused to arrange a meeting. More than three months after my surgery, I was informed that the leadership did not believe a CT scan was necessary on June 3rd, despite the clear medical consensus to the contrary, and that no meeting would be happening and that they “certainly would not admit to any wrongdoing or failure to provide standard of care.” They cleverly filed any needed medical records and paperwork to adhere to their opinion. I almost wish I hadn’t given them the heads up that I was investigating the case further…this clearly gave them time to manipulate records and prepare their staff with scripted responses.

Stand up for yourself when seeking medical care. Trust your body, trust yourself! If the ER is busy, you will not be top priority, clearing the...

I’m sure you’ve all heard of the movie Nightmare on Elm Street, well this was a Nightmare on Michigan Street.

The vast majority of staff at Butterworth are skilled caring people, but you throw in a clinker or two and things go sideways. Last week my 92 year old WWII and Korean war veteran father was admitted to Butterworth to address his aggressive cancer diagnosis AML or ”An aggressive (fast-growing) disease in which too many myeloblasts (immature white blood cells that are not lymphoblasts) are found in the bone marrow and blood. Also called acute myeloblastic leukemia, acute myelogenous leukemia, acute myeloid leukemia, acute nonlymphocytic leukemia, and ANLL.” The staff was nice enough to allow my 91 year old mother stay with my father, and we appreciate that. They had been there several days and things were going well, my father early on in his stay, had made clear that when he went into the bathroom, he didn’t want to have any staff members in with him. Everyone understands their intention was to aid him if he fell, but he is old school and modest and we thought everyone understood not to invade his privacy.

Just last night (August 1), again he was entering the bathroom and the young lady staff member attempted to join him in the room, he asked her to leave and my elderly mother told her not to go into the bathroom with him. The young lady got upset and was very aggressive, she kept telling my mom to get out of her face. Again, my elderly mother has medical issues also, she is nearly blind with macular degeneration: "a degenerative condition affecting the central part of the retina (the macula) and resulting in distortion or loss of central vision. It occurs especially in older adults, in which case it is called age-related macular degeneration." She stands close to someone so she can see them. The staff member called Butterworth security, and she was escorted out of the hospital, with no car (she can’t drive because of the macular degeneration). They did drop her off at the Renucci House, were she got lost, because she can’t see, she finally made to the front desk and checked in.

I’m unsure how my diminutive elderly 91 year old mother was a threat to anyone and thrown out of the hospital without being allowed to say goodbye to her husband of 71 years. The staff way over reacted, I hope the administration will address this so it doesn’t happen to someone else.

UPDATE: After talking with patient relations, I asked for someone from their office to stop by my fathers hospital room to talk to my mother, they agreed. The lady also told me she would be sending out a letter to my mother concerning the misbehavior of it's staff, still nothing. I was foolish enough to think they would attempt to fix the problems addressed in my original post. huge...

My wife and I went back to this place to give birth to another child and it was a nightmare scenario out of a bad movie. Now we have deeply held religious convictions that do not allow us to wear religious head gear of any sorts.

Right at the front lobby there was a security guard impersonating a police officer. He was incredibly rude and threatening and acted as tho he was a doctor accusing us of lying that my wife was in active labor. I told him he should try to maintain a degree of professionalism and to not be ridiculous, that if he could not articulate a lawful or moral reason why I should wear religious head gear to just simply threaten to hurt me and I would do whatever he wanted. This made him very upset. After a while they stopped bothering my wife about the diaper but were creepily obsessed with getting me to wear one.. After I made it clear that he would have to break the law to get what he wanted from me I was allowed to take my wife to her check in room where a nurse was very upset with the guard saying she was wondering if they would have to deliver the baby in the lobby. She was very empathetic to our plight and warned us that staff would become increasingly hostile. In the delivery room we were surrounded by staff while my wife was in labor nude from the waist down and they were all threatening to harm me if I dared take my wife to post partem, this was extremely alarming. After my wife delivered our son she immediately fired the hospital being entirely disgusted with their twisted Dantes inferno version of customer service. So then the hospital switched gears from threatening us if we stayed to threatening us if we left. We were told they would file a false report with child protective services I belive in order to intimidate us into continuing to allow the hospital to milk our insurance. We began announcing that we were worried for the saftey of our own bodies and that of our new born son, that we would like to know with clarity if there was any plan to harm us or place us in cages if we attempted to leave, the staff member we were with told us she could not answer that question!!! After that our nurse, a very lovely woman assisted us in escaping by merely being with us as we left the hospital. If I had the financial wherewithal I would sue the windows off that place. It is inadvisable to frequent this place unless you are in total agreement with EVERYTHING they say or do and have NO opinions on how you would like to be cared for. The nurses were beautiful wonderful normal people like us but every personality in an authoritative posistion were bigoted, intolerant class supremacist who have no respect for customers or human rights for...