Ben Taub Hospital Emergency Room — Local services in Houston

My reasoning for coming in yesterday 4/8/25 was I had severe pelvic/ abdominal pain When I arrived it was 1:00pm when I checked in Walked up to the front desk at 1:20 pm they check my vitals. Sat down then at 1:50 pm I got called in for an ultrasound. The ultra sounded last 20-30 mins. Since they did a vag one and stomach ultra sound. Around around 2:30 pm I am brought back to the waiting room. 2 hours later 4:30 a nurse ask me to meet her a room and I walk in by myself. She tells me she is going to take some blood samples, and collect urine. That only last for 10 mins max. At 4:40 pm man comes out calls my name and lets me know he is "something in practice, or something in the field of whatever." which was irritating because I did not want to speak to a guy that was not my doctor.. but okay. He said let me know that "They are very busy and want to take patient in quicker, so they are getting more details to see how they can help." and that he would reply the notes to the other doctor. At 4:50pm I spoke to a doctor Naveed something sorry. 5:00pm we finished talking I just re explained everything that was said to the first guy.. At 6:10 the same nurse who took my blood/ urine. Called me and 2 other patients and took us to the back. Where all you could there patient in these induvial rooms that were separating us by curtains. 7:00 pm I am still sitting in this room and no one has seen me. I get upset and on the verge of tears I walk outside and they are nurses laughing, joking, playing, flirting, talking negative about patients. I ask them if anyone is coming out to assist me and the nurse just says someone will be there. I do not like the response, so I see the second doctor that I spoke to earlier about what was going on. He said that he would check to see what was going on. He comes back 10 mins later 7:10pm to let me know that someone from the OBGYN dept said that I needed to be taken in as an outside patient. And basically I would not be taken as an emergency. Even though I was getting updates from my phone saying that the ultra sound showed fluid in my uterus which is not normal. And my lab results were also odd.. But "no they could not help me." I express to him that my stomach is bloated and I have not had a period in 2 months and I am not an irregular period person. He express is "understanding to my issue". Which was complete BS however he lets me know he can get someone from the OBGYN dept to talk to me. At 7:30pm a women comes in and addresses she is from OBGYN she is extremely arrogant and condensing. But she begins to tell me everything the last doctor just told me. I ask her what is the cost and she ranges from $700-$2000 to do a surgery out of pocket for self pay. And she is also not sure exactly but around that cost. I get upset of course and the option of the GOLD CARD comes up and I say okay let me get registered because I need this surgery. And she says someone will be with you shortly. I was another 20 mins by now it is 7:45 pm. And no one comes out I go back out to reach someone. And I see the doctor Naveed something and he says he will check on where the registration lady is. Then at that point I am hungry tired, cramping severely, and just feeling horrible. I decide that it is time to go as they are verbally telling me over and over they basically cannot help me and will not. But... if I felt nausea, fever/ chills and vomiting to come back ..... I waited for about 5 mins for the lady to come out and screen me for a GOLD CARD. But Naveed something comes out and says that in 2022 I used that GOLD CARD and it is once in life time card . And I would not be able to try again for that card which may be true I am not sure, but how disappointing.

At 7:50pm I was out (I did not wait to get discharged I did not care since they did not care) and in tears that this Hospital is pure BS. They do not care about their patients and they will 100% send you home without anything (medication). They will just send you home to suffer one your own and gladly.

So...

First, I'll say that I'm very grateful for the necessary care I received at this ER. I will tell a bit about my experience so others can know what to expect.

The good: Nobody acted in a condescending way, which honestly I was surprised. On a previous occasion at a different hospital, I got actively harassed in a condescending way for being unable to afford to go to the doctor in the past and they acted shocked that anyone in America doesn't have healthcare, like I was so abnormal they couldn't imagine how this would possibly happen, which seemed strange to me that nurses would be unaware that a lot of people don't have access to healthcare in the US. Due to that experience I was expecting the same at Ben Taub but that didn't happen. Nobody acted condescending and no one harassed me about that so that was good.

Most of the staff seemed to be compassionate or at least neutral toward the patients, which was also good.

The place was busy but everyone was sitting down and nobody had to stand in hallways or anything like that.

They had interpreters available for different languages if you need that.

Overall the place was clean and I got the care I needed which was the objective.

The bad: Security is extreme. You have to walk through scanning machines like at the airport, and your bags will all be searched. There are a lot of police and you have to go thru security and register ID to even enter the hospital. I had no idea this kind of security was going on at hospitals.

I was there 10.5 hours. It wasn't just me, just about everyone was there for 7+ hours I think. So you need to bring your own food, water, and portable entertainment (headphones please) to last you for that long. There is easy access to bathrooms though during this so that is good. They had a little ability to charge devices but not much. But there was one outlet with 2x 3-prong plugs beyond that that you could hook up to if you had all your charging equipment/adapters with you. So bring that too. I don't think there was Wi-Fi.

Their system makes no sense. I'm sure there is some kind of logic to it, like probably serving all the worst-off patients first. But from the view point of the people waiting with me, basically it seems like they treat everyone a tiny bit a little along for 11 hours instead of finishing one person.

I got there, took maybe 10 mins thru security, then was seen by first tech relatively quickly, then some vitals were taken, and they told me what tests they thought they needed to run. Then after that nothing at all for 6 hours. The only thing done with me in that time was periodically checking vitals. Then they would come briefly do one thing, then go away for an hour. Then briefly do one thing, then go away for an hour. It wasn't just me, all patients were handled in same manner. When I finally got to see the doctor, she talked to me briefly then ran off after acting like she was going to get something to do a treatment. Then she never came back and I was left having to ask one of the techs where did she go, is there another treatment or not. Finally another dr came after maybe an hr and finished up but the dr leaving in the middle with no explanation was frustrating.

There was also a dry IV in my arm with nothing in it for the whole time and this seems like standard practice.

So anyway that is what to expect. I think they need to work on making their system more efficient and making it so patients can understand what's going on instead of waiting forever without knowing and doctors disappearing without notice during treatment. I suspect it may be a similar situation at other hospitals. But I did get the care I needed and I'm...

Coming here was a very traumatic experience. I came in with intense chest pains and was immediately taken back to registration. Upon arrival i was shamed on why i didnt want to take a $1,700 ambulance ride to the hospital instead of seeing what was wrong with me. I told the the lady i didnt come to be shamed but to be helped and by that time i knew the visit wasnt going to be good. They then placed me in a room with TWO MEN! One was allowed to urinate in the same room with me in it thats is DISGUSTING. They asked me personal questions about my medical history even asking for my social security number with these two men present in the room. They discussed other patients conditions in front of me and left charts laying around about others that if i was a nosey person i couldve read them. That's a HIPAA violation. After being there for OVER 9 horrendous hours with NO RESULTS I forced myself to get up and asked the staff how much longer by that time it was 3am & i had to work in a few hours (Mind you i had been there since 2 PM) . After catching them sitting around watching the Olympics they claimed they were waiting on test to be preformed that had already been ran on me ! I was given attitude by a older short Asian nurse in F Pod and given 3 sheets of paper with forged information on it. They did over 10 test and i got results for NONE of them. It's sad that i have to right this i felt neglected and went home thinking i was not going to wake up the next day. They listed 6 MDs on paperwork who have claimed to help me when i spoke to only two! Dr. Aaron Lassmann resident MD was the ONLY person i felt listened to me when he left i was thrown to the wolfs. I went home with NO LAB results best believe i will make sure my insurance denies the claim. You will not be paid out for test i NEVER GOT RESULTS FROM. Shame on the director of the hospital! Everything about this experience was unethical. I'd rather die than come here again. The picture attached is ALL of the test they preform they that i never got results for to take back to my PCP as instructed. NEVER EVER AGAIN...