Ascension St. Vincent Hospital - Indianapolis — Local services in Indianapolis

This place has been the most inconsistent with care. I wouldn’t recommend coming here if you need to be admitted, especially not to the 4th floor.

The negative experience with the nursing staff cannot be overlooked, which is unfortunate because there have been a few truly amazing people on the nursing and tech staff who have been beyond extraordinary. This place does not deserve them.

A majority of the nursing staff is incompetent, leading to constant delays in his pain management, which leaves him in so much pain that he starts to convulse. We can’t leave because he still needs to be weaned off IV pain medicine, but we can’t stop using it either because so many of the nursing staff, especially the night staff, do not listen, follow his chart, or seem to care. I should not have to track down a nurse before each scheduled dose of medicine to remind them, but every day—especially at night—we’ve had issues. The shift charges were the worst at first; his meds would be due around 7-7:30, but we wouldn’t see the next nurse until 8:30. Tracking down a nurse at 9 PM, 1 AM, and 5 AM every night after already doing so throughout the day is unacceptable. I understand that a nurse could be with another patient and that there may be delays, but when it’s been over a week of the same thing, day after day, dose after dose, this experience is beyond frustrating.

What’s the point of having a floor lead if they just sit at the desk and don’t assist their team? On the night shift of 12/5, the nurse (not his nurse, but I’m assuming the charge nurse) literally sat at the desk since shift change, talking to others about how she just finished school, has two businesses, and so on, while my husband was 30 minutes behind in receiving his pain medication. The night shift seems to follow a "nurse for themselves" policy, and every patient and their family must fight just to receive a baseline level of care. If we could leave, we would have days ago, but we can’t yet, so the cycle continues.

Another issue is that drs change his medication schedule and/or routine, but the message never gets back to us. After several days, he had a routine of alternating a few different meds every 4 hours via IV with one doctor from 11/26 to 12/1. On 12/2, we woke up assuming it was the same routine. The nurse and the new Dr , whom we hadn’t yet spoken with, hadn’t mentioned any changes. When it was time for his next scheduled dose of Ativan through IV, we asked the nurse for it, but she informed us that the doctor had changed his pain medication from every 4 hours to every 8 hrs. Ativan, which helped calm him between pain meds, had been removed from the system and changed to PRN (Pro re nata), meaning we needed to request it.

That nurse literally forced pills into him while he was convulsing. Later that day, we learned that the new plan was to add Oxy to his routine to stretch out the time between morphine doses. After speaking with the doctor, we understood her reasoning but felt it would have been helpful to have received that information at 7:00 AM when the nurse introduced herself, rather than at 9:00 AM, after he had already received the dose. We didn’t meet the new doctor on 12/2 until around 1:00 PM. After hearing it from the doctor, we understood the reasoning, but it would have been nice to know earlier. Overall, the doctor has been amazing, but the next day, there was another medication change we didn’t learn about until after the fact.

On 12/3, his IV pain medication was removed altogether, and we had to wait for a new order. Later that day, the doctor saw his physical symptoms and re-ordered the pain medication but as PRN. We understand that the goal is to wean him off IV meds, but it would have been helpful to know sooner. It is now 12/6, and his schedule has remained the same in his chart. We request the IV meds as needed, and we try not to, but the nurses are behind on administering his meds, which leads to us having to make that request for IV meds.

I’ve had to start writing down every experience to track the inconsistencies...

Feb 2023 had major spinal surgery stayed for 9 day when I finally left without discharge and pain medication. If someone can leave not caring about pain medication after a massive spinal surgery (Google most painful surgeries) know the place is terrible. I also have filed a complaint with them and only reason I ever got a response was because I kept calling for months. Which basically they aren’t even willing to give extra or retraining to their staff. There is zero accountability at this hospital. The care is about as good as what you could find in a third world country. IMO anyone thinking this place is nice or good either got lucky or hasn’t been to an actual nice hospital. I had never been to this hospital and sadly I had an option to use this facility or another hospital. I am soon having another massive surgery and this will definitely not be my pick. First they improperly moved me causing massive pain while in massive pain. They made little attempt to get my pain under control leaving me crying. 9 days I never made a phone call or even turned the tv on I was in so much pain. The day after surgery I reported I couldn’t feel my leg still (10 months later I still can’t and because a doctor not in their group took the time to run some test I do know why now) after reporting I couldn’t feel my leg nursing and PT yanked me out of bed while I was crying uncontrollably (thought I was literally going to die). They basically forced me (battered me no means no) to get out of bed. Had a. Yess refuse to leave the restroom so I could have privacy because she didn’t understand the actual protocol (I was not on any psych ward). Ooh yeah their showers didn’t even turn on, gets better I asked them to be turned on and was told I wouldn’t want them turned on because the inside was filthy and green better yet during covid it was used a covid room. 9 days no shower! Bed baths.🤢The room is not set up for a spinal patient either. A Walker wouldn’t fit between the bed and wall going to the bathroom on one side (the one side I had figured out how to sit up on because while busy forcing me to stand up no one taught me log roll) I learned log roll about a month after my fusion from a physical therapist not associated with this group. After all the yanking to force me up once I finally was up and my surgeon told me to walk hospital policy didn’t allow me to walk (which is the best thing a spinal patient can do). Ok I could walk but with the unavailable lack of staff I couldn’t. Then finally, my doctor had said I could go home. Which I was beyond wanting to go! I asked the nurse or kept putting me off where and when discharge was. She went and grabbed another nurse (charge nurse that night) who was very rude and aggressive so I started to record him and he started pointing at me and got very hostile. He went and got some office people (one lady with no medical training wanted to explain my situation to me 😂) it turned into an arguement where they called security. My husband was explaining the “ charge nurse” is actions and demonstrated him pointing. They said my husband was aggressive for pointing (demonstrating how their nurse was acting) and had to leave. My husband refused to leave me in their care and so we left in the night without medication, Left belongings (never returned), and without instructions! There was other...

I am speaking only of the adult wing of the hospital here. Unless Peyton Manning has also changed drastically, they get a solid 3 stars. Furthermore, I'm speaking only of the emergency department. When I was admitted in June, it wasn't terrible. The food was decent, staff was kind, and everything was clean. The ED is a completely different story.

I'm unsure what's happened to this department in the last few months, but it looks like it's been gutted. The nuns were bought out years ago. I spoke with a nurse about it and apparently some of the last few changes from that transition went into effect recently. You will no longer get a bed. Everyone is seen just behind the office doors for vitals, sent back to the lobby, then seen in the same tiny room in a chair, and then moved to a waiting room (not the front lobby) to await results which take hours.

All of these rooms were dirty and crowded. The waits for vitals, actually seeing a provider, and awaiting results were abominably long. And one older, grizzled looking man who took vitals was particularly rude, insisting I wear a surgical mask (which protects only from spittle entering an open body cavity) even though I was experiencing chest pain and shortness of breath.

Thankfully, my issues weren't such that I needed a bed, but there was a woman with a head injury that was given a blanket and two chairs as a makeshift bed in the patient waiting area. It was the most ghetto thing I think I've ever seen a hospital do. The nurse was obviously trying her best by seeing her up with the chairs and blanket, but Ascension itself cares nothing for a patient's well-being.

The doctor I saw was also incredibly rude, hardly intelligible due to accent, and refused to do a quantitative hcg even though I have a history of recurrent miscarriage because that's not what I was being seen for. He wasn't just rude to me, but was screaming at his own staff. The nurse I saw was a bit curt, but when I saw what she had to work with I couldn't bring myself to criticize her.

Lastly and most importantly, there is absolutely no privacy. If someone comes in with a sensitive issue, they are expected to share that with God and everyone in this tiny little area. The x-ray tech also has no training in HIPAA because she flat admitted to eavesdropping on my conversation. The whole set up is in violation of HIPAA, so I'm not sure who to blame for that one either.

The same x-ray tech admitted to the use of IVF and the intentional destruction of 6 of her children who were "less than ideal" embryos. I'm not sure of the legality in employing such a person (perhaps Catholic hospitals have no choice in the matter as Catholic schools do), but surely there's a clause about promoting such gruesome practices to patients.

And yes, she was promoting it. I asked for a shield for my x ray and that got us talking about my fertility issues. She was quite friendly and I'm sure meant no harm, but the fact is she killed 6 of her children whether she acknowledges them as such or not.

All in all, one of the worst EDs I've ever had the displeasure of being seen in. I will stick with Franciscan for my emergent needs in the future and I suggest the same to anyone who bothered to read this...