Grand Strand Medical Center — Local services in Myrtle Beach

I recently was seen in the emergency room for chest pain. I was immediately placed in a room where I was seen by a team of nurses, technicians and a doctor that was the only positive thing I could say about this hospital. After briefly speaking with the doctor and having an EKG done and blood work I was then moved into the hallway where I sat for another 2 hours. At no time did anyone ever check on me other than the doctor telling me everything appeared fine and eventually I would be discharged. When I first arrived, the doctor ordered a stat order of aspirin 324 mg. My pulse ox and heart rate were monitored even though it kept beeping nobody came in to see me. At no time was my blood pressure taken. The portable white cuff was laid on the stretcher where it remained. I also did not have my temperature taken. The reason I'm saying this is my discharge papers indicated all vitals were taken which they were not. They discharged me with a blood pressure of 186/86 as per hospital records, which I believe to be false since my heart rate the entire time I was there was between 50 and 63. If indeed my blood pressure was that high why was I not medicated in order to stabilize the elevation. I asked the nurse who was discharging me why I never received the aspirin, and his response was we forgot “I have it on my cart, but I cannot give it to you because it's outdated by time.” The rooms, hallway and bathrooms were deplorable.

Being placed in a hallway with eight rooms available was unacceptable. There were other patients screaming for help with no response. One individual and his wife were begging for help and eventually tried to get assistance through a charge nurse, nurse manager and/or patient advocate. HIPAA (privacy rule) and confidentiality does not apply in this ER.

I am a local resident who has been coming back and forth to this area for over 26 years and I can honestly say I have never heard anything good about this hospital. As a side note,16 years ago my father-in-law was brought into this ER with a rare condition and was walked out of the ER by a doctor who stated, “We can't do anything for you with your condition, you don't have long to live.” What an awful way to tell family members that you're going to lose somebody when you knew there were options. I eventually got my father-in-law into all of the top 10 hospitals where eventually he received a transplant and lived for another 12 years.

And finally, I am a Registered Nurse with 40 years (still active) of experience in all fields of hospital nursing. I also up until recently held a job for more than 25 years doing investigations of health care fraud including Medicare and Medicaid and most of my experience was related to patient abuse, financial exploitation, and negligence. So, I do have a better understanding of how hospitals and other health care facilities are run. I know how hard it is to manage an ER and maintain high standards including Magnet Recognition, but this hospital falls short of that.

I know the response will be, “we strive to do better,” but I believe there needs to be more advocates for patient concerns and seriously address the issues of these patients. My heart goes out to the many staff members that continually work hard to accommodate the patients they care for; healthcare is not an easy job, and it takes a lot of patience and...

On February 19th around 6:00 AM I was awakened with severe chest pains. My husband rushed me to the nearest hospital, Grand Strand Medical Center. Once we arrived, at the emergency room I was immediately wheeled to the back where the staff placed me in a room for care. The first person I spoke with was Amy, an emergency room nurse, she possessed a kind spirit and wrapped me in warm blankets. Afterwards, she continued to care for me until Dr. Duff arrived, another sweet and kind spirit. Dr. Duff explained in detail about my blood work and suggested that admission would be an option for further test. My husband and I decided to stay to receive further testing. About an hour and a half later, another nurse, very nice, told me that they had to move me to the hall. At first. I was disappointed, but it couldn’t be helped as there were other patients suffering as I. The staff took excellent, excellent care of me. It made my stay in the hallway bearable. I felt they genuinely cared for me. I was in pod 5, Gary was my attending nurse. A great man, who multitasked while taking care of many others in his section. Dr. Riley, stopped by to check on me, she too was kind and confident as she cared for the numerous patients in the hallway. Around 5:00 PM, my room was ready, and Anthony, the transporter wheeled me to my room, 1220, which was immaculately clean. Anthony was a very pleasant, and considerate young man. The first nurse I met while in my room was Gabriela, such a warm, friendly, and caring nurse. Next, Sam, another caring nurse walked in introduced himself, and answered any question I asked. I can go on and on about the superior care I received and guess what? I will. A cheerful Melissa took over the next day and took awesome care of me. After Melissa, I met Nate, very caring and kind. He followed up on all of my requests - awesome man. All staff in the testing areas - stress test and nuclear medicine were exceptional! Linda was so kind to me, it made my stress levels subside. Tracy, the lead nurse, stopped by to check on me. Her presence assured me that if I needed anything - they would be sure to accommodate. Roam, the nurse practitioner stopped by as well. He stood confident and knowledgeable as he explained in detail about my condition. He didn’t rush his responses and was eager to answer my questions. Let me just say, the food was delicious too!! My test results were negative!! God prevailed once again. Jess, my transporter, was so kind. There was a slight mix up in my discharging, but Jess waited until it was resolved, about five minutes, then she wheeled me out and waited for my husband to bring the car around. Listen, if you ever have to go to the Grand Strand Medical Center - go with the assurance that you will be taken care of. Those doctors and nurses work diligently for our care and under stressful circumstances, but they persevered and with grace! I thank each and every one of you from the bottom of my heart and may GOD continue to bless you all in...

My husband had to go to the ER 7/21/2024 at 1:11pm. When we arrived we went to check in with his pain scale over 10 stood there at the receptionist desk and all of a sudden someone comes running through the ER with a “baby doll”screaming help! help! and ran past the receptionist desk to the rooms in the back where they take patients to see the doctors. Everyone was confused security, receptionist, staff, patients checking in and the ones sitting in the waiting area. The receptionist asked security if that was a drill or what because they bypassed the receptionist desk and went straight to the back where the rooms like they knew were they were going bypassing everyone. It was ridiculous with the way that they did the drill pretending to be a live baby…if that was what it was because patients were waiting in pain to get checked in and it left everyone in confusion and some of the staff laughing because of the way they didn’t stop for help and went straight back to the rooms. It was just a big distraction and unprofessional and prolonged everyone from getting checked in. They eventually checked my husband in and he went back into a room that had some type of liquid fluid like body fluids on the bed sheet. It was obvious the room had not been cleaned. We had to ask the nurse to change it before he laid down on it so that they can check his heart and draw blood to see what all was going on with him. He had two doctors one being the assistant. The doctor was professional but we only seen him one time and had his assistant the rest of the time. The assistant doctor ruled out heart or any other issues but said that he had 3 broken ribs. We asked him for a copy of the X-rays to take to his doctor in NC and he kept telling us that he would bring it to us which he never did. We asked him again and again he said that he would get the nurse to bring them to us at checkout. She gave us our papers but no copy of the X-rays so we ask her again and she said that she would bring t. She sent someone else in there and we had to ask for copy again and once again said that she would check on it. She sent a male nurse in and we had to ask for a copy of the X-ray again and this time was told to go sit out in the waiting area with my husband with 3 broken ribs and they would bring a copy of the X-ray. Finally someone brought out a CD of the X-ray and when we got home it was blank so we never received the copies of the X-ray of his broken ribs. We have never had the run around about getting a copy of my X-ray? This was just a horrible and...