West Chase Houston Hospital — Local services in Houston

I had surgery at this hospital on Feb 16 2023. The surgery was a mess, but that's on the surgeon. As for my experience with the hospital, recovery and discharge were a disaster. I woke up from knee surgery with no ice on my leg, my DVT device wasn't on, and they had no crutches for me. They called my friend back who was working from home at the hotel (there's no cafeteria/comfortable lounge for visitors to wait) and said I was ready to be discharged....even though I had no crutches. They had my friend call an uber and I questioned the nurse on why she did this since I still had no crutches. In the end, I was there for a few more hours as they had to drive someone to Sugarland TX to get crutches for me. My surgeon's nurse had escalated this all to the director of the hospital who came rushing out to apologize as I was getting into an uber a few hours later. Crutches are a necessity after knee surgery. It was in the post-op orders. They should have been prepared.

Side note: one thing I will say is that the anesthesiologist I had at this hospital was absolutely wonderful. Very caring, and worked hard to tailor the anesthesia to me based on my past medical history. I usually always get nausea after surgery. This is the first one I've had where I didn't throw up once post surgery.

Fast forward to today I'm now getting a diagnostic arthroscopy with a new surgeon to try and figure out what went wrong with the Feb one that left me significantly worse off and with more damage. His office has been sending requests for my surgery records from Altus since April 13. It's now May 24 and we still have no records. They faxed 3 requests and left numerous voicemails. I've been following up with voicemails and emails and keep getting shuffled around from person to person. Most of the time though, I get no response at all. I have another surgery on June 5 and we need those records before it. I'm convinced that the medical records department at Altus does absolutely nothing.

I finally escalated it today by speaking with the operator/front desk representative, Antur (sp?), who has been an absolute angel. She doesn't have access to the medical records herself but she spent a half hour helping me by gathering all the information, summarizing the issue in an email and cc'ing everyone and their manager. I'm now hopeful that after 7 weeks, I'll finally get those records faxed today...but trying not to hold my breath because at the end of the day, it has to be someone in the medical records dept who actually sends them.

Maybe my disastrous experience in the recovery room and with discharge was a one-off fluke? But if you are ever in a situation where you are getting surgery/care somewhere besides Altus, I would strongly recommend you think twice before getting anything done at this hospital. Because the chance of you ever getting your medical records is low. And that's with multiple people spending lots of time on phone calls/emails/following up. My surgeon's office left numerous voicemails with the medical records dept, as did I, and it might as well have been...

I would NOT recommend this hospital, especially if you or a loved one is undergoing surgery and needs proper care and support during recovery. My loved one had knee replacement surgery here and stayed one night on the inpatient floor, and the entire experience was incredibly frustrating due to disorganization and poor communication from the staff.

When my loved one was first taken to the inpatient floor, we were told that only one person could go into the room to avoid the chance of infection, and that we needed to sign in. That was fine and understandable. However, we were then told we could wait in the waiting room, but when I left and came back, I was not allowed back up. I was told I couldn’t wait in the inpatient waiting room and had to go down to the lobby instead. I was also told that I could only come up to the inpatient floor when the patient room had no visitors. When I tried to swap with the visitor in the room, I was rudely scolded by the front desk receptionist. I explained that I was just swapping with someone, and she, in a very condescending manner, told me I needed an escort to go to the inpatient floor. I was treated rudely because the STAFF had given ME conflicting instructions. How does that make sense?

Another issue I encountered was when I tried to go into the nourishment area, something I had already done previously. I was told I wasn’t allowed unless I had a staff escort, even though I was simply trying to grab a paper cup of water. Why this required an escort is beyond me.

Additionally, during my loved one’s stay, the nursing staff were loudly arguing right outside her door in the middle of the night, disturbing her sleep and negatively impacting her recovery. This is completely unprofessional, especially in a hospital setting.

On top of all of this, it became clear that the hospital doesn’t have enough equipment to properly treat patients recovering from surgery. The whole experience left me questioning the hospital’s operational efficiency.

Ultimately, if you or a loved one need a surgical procedure and want clear instructions, respectful treatment, and coordinated care, I highly advise looking elsewhere. This facility simply does not meet the standard of care that should be expected in such a...

Very quiet and accommodating hospital. Clementina and Jennifer were very attentive after my surgery. I was allowed to make my own decisions about pain control and was up and ambulating with mild discomfort after my surgery. However, there were some nurses and medical assistant that could care less. Clementina and I went back and forth about pain meds when I came from recovery. At the end of one exchange she walked out the room saying “whew” out loud to which I responded “whew” back. Her attitude changed for the rest of the morning. I asked one medical assistant on night shift about a shower, she said people don’t shower after these surgeries. She didn’t offer any other options. I was told where all my linen was as if I was to change my own bed each day by one medical assistant. One medical assistant at night was very good, even introduced herself. Nurse Aisha told me to drink plenty of water even though I had large bags of lactated ringers hanging , I followed her advice like a dummy and it lowered my potassium levels. I had to take 2 huge potassium pills every two hours before I could be discharged. When the doctor pulled off my incision dressing, nurse Felicia gasped as if she was looking at the most grotesque site. I didn’t understand why she had to even watch while the doctor checked my dressing if she didn’t have bedside manner training. There was another nice night nurse that came in after Jennifer, her name maybe Kathy, she was so kind and made sure my pain was managed because of her I slept so well that night. Also the food at this hospital is horrible. I had a tuna salad sandwich that tasted like tuna water sandwich. I told my husband to come get me before the...