Greenwich Hospital — Local services in Greenwich

Before writing this review, I called and left voicemails last week for Patient and Guest Relations but no one returned my calls.

Please do not ask me to contact them again!

This review is for the maternity department only:

I delivered my baby last week at Greenwich Hospital, something that I had planned ever since I found out that I was expecting. I heard good things about the maternity department at Greenwich Hospital and, thus, pre-registered with the hospital to deliver there. I was eager to receive the best care for my baby and for myself. From the moment that I stepped foot in the maternity ward I was greeted with judgement. Beginning with labor & delivery, I had a nurse speak to me in a condescending manner as if I were a child, all while going through labor!! I could barely get a word in and wasn’t even offered a cup of water in the 2 1/2 hours with this nurse! I informed her that I, too, was an RN, BSN and that this baby would be my fourth child. Despite that, she didn’t care to listen and this was the tone with most of the nurses for the remainder of my stay, nurses that felt they know more than you and constantly correct you (tell you you’re holding the baby the wrong way, breastfeeding incorrectly, etc.). The nurse at L&D informed me that visiting hours were from 10am-8pm but refused to open the door to my teenage children that wanted to see me before 7pm and was incredibly rude to them and my mother, telling them that I wasn’t “accepting visitors”.!!!!!! At 7:30 the new excuse was change of shift.. of course. When the new nurse on shift allowed them in by twos they had a total of about 5 minutes each with me, in which we were all in tears and incredibly upset. She then told me I had to send them home!! After delivery, I was taken to my postpartum room, which became a revolving door for hospital staff. As a medical professional, I understand the need to assess, take vital signs, etc.but the experience was overwhelming and could have been better coordinated. The worst part was the discrimination that we experienced from one of the L&D doctors. I received an unexpected and unannounced visit from a social worker. She informed me that she was referred to me by one of the L & D doctors due to my “ 3 prenatal care visits” . I was questioned if I had the means to provide for my child , if I needed resources and was asked about my living conditions, if I had a job, maternity leave, etc. I was left feeling as if she assumed I was incompetent. I offered to show proof of appointments, lab works, ultrasounds, etc. and had asked her to wait for my husband but she hurried through her questions and left. I was totally blindsided by this and of course shocked that not one staff member mentioned her visit to me. When my husband arrived at the hospital I informed him of the situation and we asked to speak to the charge nurse. She admitted that socials workers were only referred to patients when “red flags” appeared and were not a standard of care for all patients. We appreciated her honesty and this confirmed the discrimination that we faced was based on ethnicity/race and solely towards us. It was appalling. She and our shift nurse denied this, of course, and “I’m sorry you feel that way”. I asked to check out early, the very next day after giving birth, due to the extremely uncomfortable experience all throughout my stay. The staff didn’t hesitate to discharge Before discharge, I was handed a discharge paper to bring to the pediatrician for the baby’s appointment the next morning. On it, I find that the doctor labeled me as refusing essential medication for a “positive” result for a test that I never even took!! I was also labeled as having a “lack of prenatal care”…! Infuriating! I brought this to the attention of my nurse at the time and charge nurse. They corrected the mistake, changed the language and immediately and shredded the other paper. Overall, this was a terrible experience that I will carry with me for the rest of my life. Don’t go here unless you are paying out of pocket and...

Greenwich IVF and Fertility Center (Greenwich Hospital Fertility) discarded four (4) equal-owned, frozen, stored Embryos without my knowledge or consent. This occurred in January 2020. I only found out about it, on my own, on May 23, 2022. I helped create the embryos with my significant other in October 2015. They were stored at the IVF and Fertility Center ever since. I was always involved with all discussions about the embryos. I always had a great relationship with office staff, admin and managers. Our doctor was great who did our procedure, I believe it was Dr. Witt and Dr. Laura. It was very easy to to to pay yearly storage payment, never missed payment, we never have any disagreements with staff. I never had a concern that there would ever be an issue nor catastrophic, horrific, malicious, secret, been silenced, medical mistake that occurred with our unborn babies. I never thought a nightmare of this kind would ever become a reality. Years later, after my significant other and I created the four unborn babies, unborn human beings, we broke up. The embryos were sought to be destroyed. I wanted them persevered to have the opportunity of more children later in life. I signed a new consent contract in January 2018. My new contract stated that I wanted the embryos preserved. Not destroyed. I was told how to go about changing my mind and adding my new consent to the original contract by Greenwich Hospital. The new contract was completed with the help of an attorney, notarized by a third-party then signed, made legal. Notarized again by office staff at Fertility Center. It was accepted and made legal by Greenwich Hospital, IVF and Fertility Center; Overseen by Yale New Haven Health Services. Storage Facility managed by Yale medicine. This new consent contract of mine was added to the original contract, making it part of the overall contract as one. I was told “nothing will ever happen to those embryos without a court order.” That was the office manager that I knew for years. The other equal owner of the Embryos had an opportunity to change her mind, and she stuck with having the embryos discarded. So they sat. The unborn babies sat on ice, awaiting a decision with the hopefulness position of having their right to life persevered. This, since they are human beings. And all human beings have a right to life. Greenwich Hospital doesn’t think so. They discarded my Embryos without allowing me an opportunity to stop the murder or have an attorney get a court order to have a protection order placed on the embryos until further notice. They didn’t even tell me it happened. I never knew that my hope of having more children later in life with my DNA already attached would be tossed to the trash with no care. Last year when I called to check on the unborn babies, as I always did. I couldn’t get anyone to help me. Something was wrong. It took five days for someone to call me back, which had never happened before. And as the office supervisor called me, since the office manager was too busy, as the begin to speak, I knew that is had happened. I freaked out. She said “well we sent you a letter.” A letter? You sent me a letter? I never received a letter. I was sent a copy of the letter that would’ve been sent in Nov 2019. This letter was extremely vague had no signature, no title of who signed it, no department listed of origin. I only knew it was from GH because of the small logo on letterhead. Moving forward I tried to find out what happened. No Answers Director of Patient Relations YNHHS emailed me, actually, she emailed me no one ever ever called not one person, she emailed me and said she was going to be my point of contact. Allow her some time to find out what it happened. 7 weeks later said, “the questions you have and the answers you want are someone else’s private healthcare information, you get none”. HYPAA? Recently, 3 years after the murder, found a 2nd letter that was sent by the same person who penned the 1st. 2nd Letter had handwriting in it too. I now see what and why Greenwich Hospital is...

I'm writing this review nearly two years after delivering my son at the Greenwich Hospital L&D. I have sat on this for several months going back and forth with myself on whether to post it, and am ultimately deciding to do so to inform other parents-to-be considering this hospital. I originally chose Greenwich because of its affiliations, amenities, and reputation. My experience turned out very different from what I expected. The facilities, food, and amenities were great, and some of the nursing staff were spectacular, especially L&D nurse Daniel (the best! very empathetic, patient, and communicative) and the postpartum nurse Kelly (such a helpful and comforting presence in the chaos of acute postpartum at the height of the Covid pandemic, before vaccines). There were also some not-so-great staff, whom I still think about today, years later. It is important to note here my identities: I'm a brown, young Indian woman with an ethnic appearance. I don't know if it was these identities, or the staff's personal stances/values that affected my experience so much, but the short story is that I was not given adequate pain management for a very long time, in the 43 hours I labored for. I requested pain care many many times, and only after request 3 or 4, did the L&D nurse attending to me realize that I had developed a pretty serious infection that was likely underlying the pain. This nurse, Mary Jean, appeared to have conservative views regarding the necessity of the epidural, and when I expressed my pain early on, she interpreted this as a low pain tolerance, or maybe she thought I was being dramatic. Whatever the case, I remember early on, her telling me "I didn't need the epidural yet," and discouraging me from seeking it early into labor. She explained that it was important for me to feel contractions. I understand this, I get it. What I don't get is how her personal views should apparently override my own bodily and health autonomy. I asked many times for someone to check what was going on. Each of these times, Mary Jean noted my request and said she would raise this with the doctor on call. I know there were other mothers on the unit that day, and that things take time, and I don't expect or want staff to drop what they are doing to come to me. But it would have been appropriate to do that eventually, within a timely manner. When they did eventually realize I was not being dramatic, and that something was wrong -- the serious infection I mentioned earlier (which by the way, no one told me at the time, and only after googling it months later did I learn it could have easily been fatal for me and my infant), I remember a dozen staff rushing in, telling me I had to deliver the baby right away before the infection affected him. I'm not going to go into the details, but it was not pretty. It did not have to be like that. Thankfully, my son is happy and healthy, but things did not need to go the way they did, and I'm posting this here because I don't want any person to have the same disempowering, traumatic experience I had, all because one nurse thought I was exaggerating my pain.

I often wonder how things might've turned out differently, had I actually been taken seriously by Mary Jean, or by the OB who ultimately delivered me, Dr. Grano. Anyone considering her: if you want a down-to-business, no-time-for-questions doctor who will efficiently deliver your baby but make you feel like you are wasting her time while she does so, then she's your person.

If you're BIPOC, young, or hold any marginalized identities, then from one brown person to another, be aware that some staff here are medically conservative, and may impose their personal values surrounding pain relief on you. Other staff are amazing-- nurturing, warm presences that nurses should be. But always, advocate for yourself. Your pain is valid, and real, and I hope you listen to your body and advocate for it, even if others don't...