Holtz Children’s Hospital — Local services in Miami

This review applies to Dr. Tania Fontanez of the Nicu floor at Jackson hospital. My wife and I’s son was born back in March and it’s taken me a while to write this because it was a rough experience due to our baby having to go to the Nicu. Dr. Fontanez was our baby’s doctor. What we thought was supposed to be a place of comfort and support was a place of desolation. Being in the nicu, you would think Dr. Fontanez would be kind, respectful, informative, and so on. But she was the complete opposite. The first thing that she said, and with attitude, was, i know what youre going to ask already and i dont know when your baby is going to leave, thats up to him. Really? What type of treatment is that? This is our son we’re talking about. Clearly Dr. Fontanez is not truly passionate about her job. We would even hear her making disrespectful comments about one of the fathers that would come see his baby. Calling him a whimpy boy. And when she saw that my wife saw her, she was like a deer in headlights. Every day that we saw her she was very quick and dismissive. My wife and I were devastated. We couldn’t even have skin to skin contact with our child. The staff was also not very informative or supportive under Dr. Fontanez’s watch. They wouldn’t even ask my wife how she was doing or feeling. They would just judge my wife’s breastmilk pumping saying she’s not doing it right and not pumping enough. This is my wife’s second baby, she clearly knows what shes doing. They were just dry and insensitive to our needs. At one point we had to tell the staff that our baby was choking for over 3 minutes and had it not been for us being there, who knows how long they would’ve taken to come help him. Im in complete disgust with how Dr. Fontanez treated these babies and their families. It wasn’t until a day before we left the nicu that a new doctor came that we even knew what was going on with our baby. Thank God for him and I will be writing a separate review for him because he clearly cares about his babies. I truly hope that no one ever has to experience this...

I had C section done in this hospital, and this review specifically for hospital staff, nurses in particularly. Because my doctor is the best, he was the only reason I was in that hospital. My doctor is Dana Homer.

Since I have something to compare , because I’ve experienced better service in different hospital I can point everything what they’re doing wrong.

1. nurses are lazy and rude , zero compassion to newly moms. They’re so tired or maybe underpaid ( which is not my problem) They don’t communicate, lazy even smile a bit. I’m the easiest client you ever meet, I am nice even you’re rude, since I work in client service myself, I can call out someone who’s just not professional and lazy.

After my surgery literally 6 hours, I was still in bed bleeding , still hooked with IV. My blood level was low at this time. My husband called nurse to help change baby’s diaper , where she told us (Angela name of the nurse) that “mama can do it herself” But no one told me that I can get up , they didn’t show me or give me my hygiene stuff, they were somewhere in the corner of the room. Well I’m still in bed.

You’d think I got bad luck getting 1 bad nurse… no … all of them were rude. When I was discharged this nurse kept forgetting I need discharge paper. She finally did, and gave 3 pages of paper . That’s it! They’re system is so wrong.

With my first baby I was in Memorial regional . when they were discharging me they made sure they had conversation w my husband, how to take care of me after surgery.they prepped food to go so I can eat at home. They had goodie bag with all necessary items.

So yeah , whoever leaving 5 stars for having baby there… sorry … you just haven’t seen...

My 1 year old son has been in the PICU at Holtz Children’s for one week. He had a 17+ hour heart surgery in California one month ago and is trach/gtube dependent. He is on a ventilator 24/7 and I have had multiple people tell me “there are sicker kids” and not give my child appropriate care. Several days his nurse has been assigned three patients in ICU. This is not safe. This is not OK.

Dr. Tang is wonderful! I love how she conducts rounds. She uses it as a teaching experience for the nurses and others involved. She is a good listener and handles situations professionally. I feel confident in her knowledge and skills and comfortable to go to her about any concerns and questions.

Dr. Nares is terrible! I do not feel comfortable talking with him and have had someone come in the room to represent me/my child. He speaks very aggressively, has zero bedside manner, zero compassion, and zero de-escalation skills. I do not feel he is interested in my child’s best interest. When I shared with my nurse he upset me and made me feel uncomfortable he came back in the room to announce that he is the Director for the Pediatric Critical Care training program. His behavior is an embarrassment. I hope his students learn what NOT to do from him.

All of the therapists have been kind and knowledgeable. We have had music, physical therapy, child life, respiratory, and speech.

As a mom of a medically complex child I have spent over 300+ days in ICU in South Florida between Nicklaus Children’s, Holtz Children’s, and Joe DiMaggio, and in California Lucile Packard Children’s @ Stanford University. If you live in south Florida my recommendation for inpatient care would be...