Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center — Local services in Hershey

Sorry NO HEROS HERE... On April 7th I had to run my husband to his family doctor as he was having COVID related problems. The Doctors office had us arrive and enter via the locked back door, to make sure other patients were protected. His Doctor started to do an evaluation and realized within 5 minutes he needed to call 911 and an ambulance to get him to the Hershey Medical Center ASAP. Had a fever, blood pressure in danger low area, and the list goes on. Family Doctor made sure Paramedics were aware we're COVID positive. My husband needed oxygen in the ambulance for the ride to the Hershey Medical Center. Arrived @ the Hershey Med Center 11:44 a.m. I ran in to make sure my husband was properly registered. Shocked my husband is wheeled into the waiting room in a wheelchair, check him in, made the staff aware we are both COVID positive. To my surprise told I could wait with him asked where & was told “in the waiting room.” I picked the far back corner initially away from everyone else. Now they did take and pull blood from my husband and back to the waiting room, chest XRay… asked multiple times, was told we had to wait for a COVID bed to open up, getting concerned as there was an older gentleman who obviously just had brain surgery waiting by us, an 85 old lady in a wheel chair, pregnant female, 92 yr old man thought just had mini stroke, infants, just to name a few. @ 3:41 p.m. told a COVID bed was opened “just being cleaned” they would have a room in15 minutes. They only 1 single bathroom available everyone used, including myself COVID positive. Multiple X's I asked the cold callus, non-concerning staff about their protocol of allowing COVID positive people to be sitting amongst others wearing their green tags saying covid free & have not been exposed to COVID. The waiting room was full, for about 4 hrs there lady throwing up in waiting room so the far waiting room was packed. Around 5 I asked about the COVID room that was just needed cleaned & was told there was a car accident needed the room. I questioned them & said you told me the reason we have been here in excess 5 hrs is you must keep COVID people in COVID room, now traffic accident took your COVID room? I was told in the most snottiest terms that my husbands acuity level was not that required immediate attention. Around 5:45 notified front desk that we would be leaving & requested all the paperwork the paramedics brought in with my husband’s. A nurse name of Krista was who I dealt with who had the ugliest, most distasteful personality that lacking all bedside manner. Even though I made sure they knew I was taking my husband to another hospital they insisted the IV line they inserted need to be removed first, total non-caring individual….wait a little more. I drove my husband to the Holy Spirt hospital. We got there and he was seen by a DOCTOR within 10 minutes. My husband’s vitals were so bad they gave him an EKG immediately, chest X-Ray, blood work. Seeing as we were COVID positive they had us wait in a separate waiting room to protect others in emergency room. Within hour of being in the Holy Spirit Hospital my husband was in a room working on being admitted to the hospital. As my husbands’ condition was so poor, he spent 4 days in the Holy Spirt Hospital and required 50% Oxygen. Amazing how the Holy Spirit Hospital and my husband’s family physician saw very concerning issues with his health, yet Hershey Medical Center saw no issues? I will NOT call anyone a hero who intentionally and knowing allowed others, many in high-risk categories, to be in a position where they could be infected with COVID due to their actions…they showed they are more of a ZERO that day. For the record I spent a week in the Hershey Medical Center 40 years ago, there with kids with broken bones and stitches… this is not the same hospital that cared and really treated their patients, this is a large corporation who does not care of giving the people walking though their door the best care possible. I will make sure I always go elsewhere...

Dr. Vates had an attitude with me and was very dismissive. I'm guessing it's because I have an anxiety disorder and so none of my complaints were taken seriously. This is the reason why most people with mental illness do not seek help for anything, or keep that information to themselves. In the future, I will not disclose my mental health information. I went into the ER for severe unbearable chest pain that wouldn't subside, and a feeling of being strangled, in my throat; also having a bad cough, bad breath, severe digestion issues, including IBS, and hot flashes/cold sweats, extreme difficulty breathing. All UNBEARABLE, all still persisting now. As someone who is high functioning with severe GAD, I am often ignored and dismissed, so it isn't something I'm unfamiliar with. The reason I'm writing a review is because he lied to me, and it could have cost me my life. I have GERD symptoms, but I suspect that I may have a hiatal hernia. I explained to the doctor that Prilosec had caused me severe mental disturbances, and I quote, "that I can not make it through." He said and I quote, "You didn't give it a chance to work." I told him that I absolutely cannot be prescribed to H2 blocker OR PPIs because they both have associations with excaberating anxiety, and depression, which I also suffer with. Prilosec made me feel my lowest of all time and made it impossible for me to function day to day (people with anxiety have lower pain tolerance, and higher sensitivity to medications). I explained all of this. He proceeded to give meds to the nurse for me to take. He told me he would only give me an antacid, Pepcid, mixed with Lidocaine, and two other pills to help with my headache. I asked the nurse, "Is this an H2 blocker?" She said, "No". I have a witness who was there and heard all of it. I took the medicine, trusting them, and was told I'd pick up a script for Pepcid the next day. (Remember, he described Pepcid as an antacid to me). So I picked up my script this morning, which was only supposed to be $4, as the doctor told me, and it turned out to be $20. More than I can afford right now, and as I told the doctor, because I'm out of work due to my illness. Now, I googled Pepcid quick just to double check side effects, and it is described as an H2 blocker. Thankfully I'm going to set up a PCP soon and hopefully get a referral to see a GI doctor. But my symptoms are severe, and unresponsive to all medicines I've tried, even Tums and Pepto Bismol, WHICH TYPICALLY POINTS TO A HIATAL HERNIA, not to mention I believe I have a sliding hernia that may have presented in the past, but that I eliminated with diet and lifestyle changes, but that I believed may be back with a vengeance because I had relapsed into previous bad habits. He also said that HE would give me a referral to a GI doctor, and give me a phone number, then came back later and said only a PCP could do that. This is all after waiting nearly 10 hours to be seen. If they had told me upfront that I could not be referred to a GI doctor from the ER, I would have gone home, AND THEY KNEW FULL WELL AT THE FRONT DESK that I was being seen for digestive issues and possible hiatal hernia. They also refused to do any x-ray or scan of any kind to look at my insides to see if I had a hernia. If my hernia becomes strangulation, I could get an infection and possibly die. They offered me NO HELP whatsoever and I'm sure will deliver to me a huge bill, probably around 2000 dollars. Absolutely disgusted with the whole ordeal. I also strongly suspect that this doctor told the nurse to lie to me, most likely because he probably thought I was simply having an episode or something, which just goes to show the discrimination and outright neglect sufferers of mental illness experience. A hiatal hernia can become a extremely dangerous health issue if left untreated, and Dr. Vates has allowed me to leave his care with no treatment whatsoever that would actually help me, and no referral to someone who can. As others have said, I was treated differently after disclosing...

This is a long one so stick with me.The first instance was involving my mother when she was rushed to the ER for heart failure. Her diabetic needs were ignored, she was treated like garbage in the ER, and they transferred her to a HELL HOLE of a "rehab facility" that frankly shouldn't even be in business without the permission of her or her family. We fought so hard to get them to not transfer her to Amoroso because of how horrible of a place it is but they did so anyway, which she still to this day suffers PTSD from. The social worker we had couldn't have cared less. While she was in the ER once, one of the nurses was laughing at her, treated her like she was a bother, and spent more time on her phone than caring for my mother. During that same visit after removing her IV, the nurse just left the room and my mom's arm was bleeding so much that it began to flow onto the bed. She waited 30 minutes for a nurse to come back and address the issue. Now that her husband is currently a patient there, it took days for us to even talk her into going to visit and she ended up having a panic attack while she was there because of the bad experiences she has had.

Next, I was personally seeing a neurologist there for my Chiari malformation. I suffered a concussion back in February & had a useless visit with my neurologist. I asked her for an updated MRI since my last one was in 2023 & she said it wasn't necessary. That day I self referred myself to Johns Hopkins, had an appointment within a month, an MRI a few weeks after that where they found that I had 2 herniated disks that were pressing on my spinal cord & that I had significantly diminished cerebrospinal fluid flow. Needless to say I am no longer a near patient at Penn State.

This past Wednesday, my great-grandfather (technically my dad) was rushed to the ER due to heart attack symptoms. They said originally that it was mild heat-stroke, but he was also had a ventricular arrhythmia. They originally had him scheduled for a cath procedure that Thursday. They spent most of the day prepping him & not allowing him to eat, & ended up not doing it because the "staff was out for the holiday." He was then had to stay the rest of the weekend and wait until Monday. Over the weekend he had two more episodes of the arrhythmia. Then Mon, he is prepped yet again, and AGAIN is not sent for the procedure as they wanted records from UPMC from when he was 46 (the man is now 92) and he has had many other procedures at Hershey since then. If they wanted records from UPMC why not put in the request SOONER than the day of his catheter procedure. When visiting Monday, the doctor then said that they weren't going to do the catheter now because they ASSUME that his issue is being caused by previous scar tissue, and will go ahead with installing a defibrillator the next day (today, Tuesday). We get a call saying that they are no longer doing the procedure today. The doctor himself said that this is a life-threatening arrhythmia, so why isn't this being prioritized?? Is Hershey going to pay for these extra days he has been admitted to the hospital after getting the run around for almost a week now?! Probably not. Multiple family members have rearranged their work & personal schedules around because we want at least someone to be there for him. He and our family have gone through days of anxiety to only be told that YET AGAIN a procedure has been rescheduled. His wife, my mom, now in end stage heart-failure is also having much unnecessary extra stress due to this CHAOS. Hershey REALLY needs to get their operations & patient care in order because their quality of patient care has gone down the tubes. My mom has mentally not been the same since her negative experiences & I will never forgive Penn State Health for that. Change needs to happen with this place. If you care for your loved ones, especially if they are elderly, take them elsewhere, because here, at least with my experience it seems that elderly patients...