KU Medical Center — Local services in Kansas City

Been going to the hospital for years all of a sudden the last three years I can’t even get a cardiologist appointment. I was seeing my cardiologist for the last eight years with no problem until he retired and the last Year before he retired I couldn’t get appointment with him and I am an established patient! THEY ARE taking on too many new patients instead of taking care of their established patients and because of that you can’t get appointments. My surgery was scheduled and two days before my surgery they told me I need to see the cardiologist and I can’t even get to see the cardiologist.

I’m about ready to change all my doctors to a different group. Both KU and Olathe ICU and their ER you can wait for hours Before you’re even seen by a doctor. At KU, I’ve waited 10 hours to talk to a doctor. I was there at noon and didn’t get out of the hospital 11pm and I didn’t see A doctor until 10pm and got to the ER around 1 PM. The nurses are rude in ICU and at KU and Olathe. While I was in Olathe ICU they were at the nurses station,they were slamming doors in the middle of the night on purpose, cause I complained about the noise. So when I went back to the ICU because I had another brain aneurysm, I told him I didn’t wanna go to ICU because of the way I was treated. Olathe Hospital and KU are one hospital now but the computers are not connected. Are their fingers broke? So what did they do before they have computers? They have a phone don’t they? Can’t they call each other?? SO they wait till the last minute To get information because their computers aren’t connected so your surgery gets canceled. The stress alone and I’m a heart patient Is taking a toll on my body just trying to get a appointment Or to talk to someone that knows what they’re doing….schedulers need to be Retrained or the doctors have got to stop taking on new patients because they’re established patients can’t get an appointment. You have to be dead before they see you in the ER at KU. YOU sit there for 10 hours in pain. Why, buy all the hospitals in Kansas City if you can’t handle Patients That IS are established with KU. It’s all about money, not about Patient Anymore. I’m thinking about going to Shawnee Mission Hospital and changing all my doctors. I’m just really fed up with this stress of KU doctors and not being able to get appointments AND the way the staff treats you like you don’t have a brain and you don’t have feelings. I’m starting to feel like a robot that I’m having all this surgery because it Is a training hospital. Now the nurses don’t come in when you’re at a doctors appointment they just stand out there at the desk same thing with the hospital. You see the tech more than you see the nurse and the nurse acts like it’s a inconvenience when they do come in, especially at the hospital, but not at the doctors appointments. The nurse is always been nice. They said they started taking over Olathe Hospital because they wanted us to get closer to our appointment so we didn’t have to drive so far and that’s a joke because I can’t even get an appointment with anybody in Olathe cause I’m not established Patient with Olathe doctors but then KU owns them go figure. I can go on and on, but I actually think they’re gonna start losing people if they keep things the way they are instead of being there for the patients are there for the money the more patients they can get in their hospitals and doctors the more money...

This is going to be a long one: We started going to KU because I heard such great things about the staff. While I have no complaints about the pediatric dept or the Olathe Women's Health which KU owns, all were very friendly, their billing office is atrocious. I have for four months now been on the phone nearly every week trying to sort out the mess. Usually I get one of three responses: it's not their fault I need to call my insurance, it's another departments fault, or they don't know what went wrong but "now it's fixed" and it's never fixed. It hasn't ever been fixed. Customer service also needs better training, as I get a difference explanation every time I call, leaving me on a wild goose chase trying to hunt down the proper office. Just today I had to call AGAIN because I just got another bill claiming it's uncovered. When I called I was told it's because my primary denied the claim, but that I have to call every time that happens so they can submit to my secondary. So why is it the LAST time I called I was told any denied claims get automically sent to my secondary and I have nothing to worry about? I also applied for financial assistance and that has been a mess in of itself. It was denied because it was "missing documents" but no one called me to tell me. When I checked online it kept saying under review so I didn't call. Now I'm being told I have to resubmit for each of us, but not until I have a large balance on my account because it's retroactive, but I can't wait for a big balance because the mess from the hospital messing up the billing means all of the claims are taking a while to come back. But don't worry I can set up a payment plan, except I can't because the amount per month is to large for me to pay until my assistance is processed. You can't win no matter what. I've done the best I can to work with them, give them the documents they need, call whatever depts I need and because "hospital policy" im going to have to call them every freaking time something takes to long or is a little off to basically make sure they do their job and I may still be...

We've had many great doctors and nurses, however, I've got some current major complaints!

A nurse named Rachel D. in pediatrics essentially accused me of being under the influence and ordered a drug screen on my child after I took a 5 hour nap (after being up for over 24 hours straight with a sick toddler, and sleeping 5-ish hours a night for the previous 3 nights as well.)

Of course, after the fact, she realized human beings need sleep and her suspicions were totally baseless. But I have a problem with this! It was unkind and unrealistic to type her notes as she did, painting me to be a bad mother for getting that 5 hours of sleep.

Also, my sick toddler was sleeping 90% of this time as well. And they'd taken her to the PICU for more oxygen, telling me it was no big deal and she purely needed a little more oxygen than PEDS was comfortable managing.

They made it sound to me as a non serious formality. NOBODY said this was an emergency situation in the moment. Then afterwards, the lovely Rachel D. typed in her notes that basically my child had a medical emergency and I didn't care to be awake for it, and I must be on drugs. Reading these notes made me very upset in an already upsetting situation.

On top of this, when I went to check on my little one in the PICU, I asked her nurses to please alert me the moment she needed anything or woke. They did not, and in fact came in the other room telling me she was still resting and I was fine to rest. Then put in the notes that my child was up needing things and I was off simply not caring.

Us moms are taught to rest when the little one is resting, especially during hard or taxing situations. But then the second you try and rest, even for only 5 hours, you're judged as an incompetent mother at KU? Make this make sense.

I have major issues with this encounter, as you can tell. I'll be discussing with any and all higher ups who will listen. Because NO mother dealing with a very sick toddler needs to be met with such treatment as this particular nurse did today! Rant over. Rachel D., Thanks for making an already bad...