National Park Medical Center — Local services in Hot Springs

Drs will either ignore you and hide your medical information from you, or yell at you that you are wasting their time and send you home to whatever fate.

I went in for pain in my side and stomach. They brought me back in the ED and got me approved for a dose of morphine. The pain lessened but didn't go away entirely. When the dr came he seemed to go through everything, but he was short with both me and my grandma with me when we we're trying to answer his question. He ordered a CT and that went fine but after that, it was over an hour with no word. That would be fine if we couldn't hear him in the office talking nothing about work for most of that time. When he finally came back, he said it was probably just my period pain and anxiety. I accepted it and didn't think about it until recently at my disability hearing when they said that this visit I am talking about showed that I have moderate diverticulitis. It was not in my notes, not in my discharge papers, and no one said anything to me. How long has this been going on with me? How many times could I have solved my "period pain" with a liquid diet and some antibiotics? And how many patients have had a problem like this hidden?

Just over a year ago my grandma came here for an emergency with heart problems and vertigo. She got a stint and found out that her magnesium had been the lowest that most of these doctors had ever seen. Magnesium being one of the things that helps your heart run. She was kept for nearly a week the first time. She needed magnesium infusions multiple times, including under an hour before she was discharged. 3 days later she was back with low magnesium. They kept her for 2 or 3 days and sent her home again, once again still needing to give another infusion right before she left because it was still classified as too low. The moment she tested in normal range, they had her sign discharge papers. The next time she came back was about a week later. Her diverticulitis was acting up, her magnesium was low, her bp was low, and she could barely walk. They found internal bleeding form the diverticulitis, and that once again her magnesium was dangerously low. This time she needed blood transfusions and more and more magnesium. Finally they thought to find out exactly why she was losing magnesium. They sent her a nephrologist for some reason. He was possibly the rudest person in this state. He sat down and started spouting off that she was wasting his time and that he had more important things to do. He disappeared and that may be the first time I've ever heard my grandma cry. When he came back some days later he said that there is nothing wrong with her and that she needs to stop wasting hospital time. She was there for 2 more days and as soon as they thought the bleeding was done, they started trying to discharge her again. They never found out why she was losing magnesium, and they flat out said they weren't looking anymore. They sent her home after another transfusion, still not knowing why she is losing an essential electrolyte. Our PCP let us in for several emergency appointments with her once she also realised the hospital basically sent her home to die. She set her up on about 1500mg a day plus slomag. For reference most adults need to take in 300-400mg. It was enough to keep her level, or losing it slowly enough that she could come in once a week for a magnesium infusion at the Dr office. Recently she came down to about 1000mg a day plus slomag with no weekly infusions. No one knows why she is still...

DO NOT GO TO NATIONAL PARK. I have had 2 close relatives admitted to their facility recently and can write a book on their incompetence, lying nurses, doctors with no ethics and on and on. They need to be closed down. I have many pictures to prove my stories but I don’t want to disclose them at this time to protect my family’s honor. Recently had to get my family out of there AMA before they killed him. The coward Dr. Eric Monte, ENT screwed up on the patient’s orders for lab work prior to CT scan at HealthStar and was told by HealthStar that Dr Monte was the one who messed up. The patient had been to Urgent Care, NP ER and also admitted to CHI and no one helped him. When he was found unresponsive the EMTs took him to NP AGAIN! He spent 8 days in NP in ICU and in MedSurg. Hospital even lost the patient! When I called his room some lady answered. Called switchboard and Nurses station and they didn’t know where he was. I had to call the Administrator’s cell number for her to locate him! I have to give Kudos to the ICU nurses he had the first icu room. They went above and beyond and even was mad that Dr Monte hadn’t come to the floor even when patient was bleeding out of his throat and left him several messages which were never returned! She finally had to call the Hospitalist, Dr. DeLuca and report what was going on. I had to approach Dr DeLuca myself and ask him WTH is going on? He said that the patient is so bad that no one will treat him. Said no hospital would accept him in his condition and that Dr Monte blamed patient for not seeking help sooner and not keeping his appointment with him. I explained to nurses and Dr DeLuca that I was the one making and taking him to his appointments and that HealthStar would not let him keep his appointment since Monte didn’t order the labs in time! Patient also saw his PCP several times during all this. Dr Kota had called me and said there was nothing they could do there and would LifeFlight him out of state if they could find a cancer doctor to accept him. What a bunch of BS. There are hundreds of cancer facilities all over the US. I told her I will take him myself somewhere if your lousy hospital won’t find him a place. Then she said that we would have to take him ourselves by car and if he bled out, oh well, it happens! Does she really believe in Christ? Did she take the Oath to help patients? I told her to her face that NP has a very bad reputation and I would take him. Then they said no, you must hire an ambulance. Hired an ambulance and paid for it and then ambulance refused to take him! Why? Could not get any straight answers from anyone. I think they knew I would sue them. Took patient out AMA and I don’t give a rip if they don’t get paid for 8 days there. Got to other facility and sure enough he started bleeding out and couldn’t breathe. Coughed up many blood clots. He would have died if I hadn’t got him out of National Park. Now he is getting the CORRECT care for his illness no thanks to the TERRIBLE DOCTORS at NP. I have 2 RN nurses in the family and one Hospitalist and I have worked at a hospital too, by the way and I let them know that. I wouldn’t take my dog to them! The other hospital did more in 2 hours than NP did in 8 days! Do not let your family go there. Refuse the ambulance if they are going to take you there. I have started writing complaint letters to all the necessary government officials too. I promise I will write another complaint about the other family member and attach photos and name names....

This is a long and unnecessary story. I ordered flowers for a friend that was diagnosed terminal. I contacted the nurses station NPMC to verify that my friend was still in the hospital before I called the florist. The person that answered the phone said she was still there. She never indicated that the patient might be going home later that day. So I ordered her some flowers in hopes it wld lift her spirits for a moment or two. The following day I called and spoke to my friends mother and ask if her daughter liked the flowers I sent and her mother said they didn’t get any flowers before they left to bring her daughter home. I called the nurses station and asked if the flowers had been delivered. Yes, they were delivered but since my friend had been released they just threw the flowers in the trash! The vase was still there but the flowers were gone. No one from the nursing station ever reached out to the family to see what they wanted them to do with the flowers. I was very upset that my dying friend did not receive the flowers that I sent. Throwing the flower arrangement in the trash was the most inconsiderate thing anyone cld have done much less it being done by the very nurses that were put in charge of her care. I find it hard to put into words how this situation made me feel knowing that my friend died not knowing how much her friendship meant to me. I was sick with a respiratory infection and did not want to take a chance on spreading my illness onto my friend. I contacted the nurses on Saturday afternoon and my friend died on the following Monday. I contacted NPMC Admin ofc. and they took my information and passed the it onto the correct department. The lady from the complaint department was very sympathetic, apologetic and understanding. I asked her who was going to pay for the flowers I paid for and had delivered to the nurses station that never reached the patient it was meant for due to the lack of empathy, compassion and common courtesy the NPMC nurses station showed to their patient. She said she wld check into whether NPMC wld reimburse me for what I spent for the flowers. That was months ago and I have not heard back from her yet. Their actions were very inconsiderate, uncaring and cruel. These are the very ppl that take care of you or your loved ones while in NPMC. It must be such a heavy burden put on the employees at the nurses station to see to it that the flowers sent to a dying patient in their care receives them. I paid the florist $60 for absolutely nothing. The florist took my order, made the arrangement and delivered it to nurses station. They fulfilled their obligation to me. I find it hard to believe that anyone wld just throw out a bouquet of fresh cut flowers. It’s even sadder to think someone took them home instead of doing the right thing. NPMC showed no respect to their patient by neglecting to take responsibility for the problem that their employee(s) caused. Maybe if they wld stop and think like a person of the community they serve and not think like a business only caring about profit that they wld see how wrong this whole situation is. I have always thought that NPMC was the best hospital in Hot Springs for a lot of reasons but now I have to rethink...