Vanderbilt University Medical Center — Local services in Nashville-Davidson

Zero stars are too many. Vanderbilt is supposedly known for its ability to diagnose and treat with excellence but that is a joke played on innocent lives. My daughter passed away on June 17 in that facility. She spent over 8 weeks in that hospital during this year on separate occasions. She was sent home several times for poor reasons because they could not properly diagnose her. It was ultimately a syndrome caused by her Lupus treatments. Then on one of her lengthier stays she was sent to, what the staff refer to as the ghetto, which is the round building. She had signed up for financial assistance just prior to that and was treated as a destitute. Shame on Vanderbilt for segregating based on ability to pay! I am financially able to cover her expenses but they would not allow me to. No matter what you’re told, this is their system. As my daughters advocate and caregiver, I made my case and requested that she be moved to the main hospital but I was refused and told in no uncertain terms that she would not be moved or we could choose to leave. Disgusting!

The ER system is the worst ER department I have ever witnessed in all the hospitals we’ve been to. My daughter had a chronic illness since she was 13 and we lived in Chicago and Middle Michigan. She had been to many ERs and we had never witnessed such mass disorder. To call that chaotic is to be kind. It was nothing short of a disorganized disaster. Every walk of life is huddled into a small waiting room as more and more people pour in. There is no escaping the germ infested facility for privacy. Their system to triage was to simply not turn away anyone when it was obvious many were there to get a drug fix or just have a bed to sleep in. Those with contagious infections were not placed in a quarantined room. Beds lined the hallways when they could easily send people to a nearby hospital for routine care. It was obvious that the administrations sole focus is on money making as each person entering means thousands in income just by passing thru the doors. Her last visit we returned as a direct admit and we were refused and scoffed at even though it was apparent that my daughter needed to be admitted immediately. A typical ER visit should be 2-3 hours before being sent on your way or admitted but at Vanderbilt a 24 ER visit is the norm. I did not want to return to Vanderbilt but St. Thomas ER insisted that we go back to the treating hospital despite my objections. My daughter’s last ER visit was over 30 hours before she was sent to the ‘ghetto.’

Once in their care, her symptoms were treated with indifference and a pile of unnecessary ‘bandaid’ treatments instead of finding the cause of her issue. She ultimately had a respiratory event which sent her to ICU where she lost her battle. To say I am heartbroken is an understatement. She was 28. I am angry at a system that claims to be number one but treats people based on their ability to pay and what insurance will cover. I am angry at a staff that covers up this obvious method of medical care. I am angry that she could not be diagnosed and treated properly although her death certificate has a clear diagnosis but it was too late. Who diagnosed her in the end? Why couldn’t that diagnosis been made while she was still with us and treated accordingly? This hospital runs on inefficiency, incompetence and negligence. Shame on them!!!! My daughter was not an experiment for the facility. She is much loved and very much missed and I point fingers at Vanderbilt! ZERO STARS!!!!! ZERO STARS!!!!! ZERO STARS!!!!!

P.s. Don’t make excuses and type some absurd retort. Nothing that is said will bring her back nor rectify what occurred. Vanderbilt alone is responsible for the passing of my daughter! I tried calling the Patient Relations but all I got were recorded messages and NEVER a live person on the other end of the call. It should be called Inadequacy Department. There were no kind patient relations in the care of my daughter! NEVER will I ever recommend this place to anyone nor will I ever utter the name of the...

I was transferred from another ER for a dental abcess. I was advised at the transferring ER that I would be admitted and given IV antibiotics, which my CT scan showed the need for, in addition to a consult with the oral surgery team upon arrival. I was unaware that I would be waiting in the ER at Vanderbilt. When I arrived at the ER at Vanderbilt, reception was kind enough, but I had to go through triage again, then wait until I was put in a room with three other patients in it. I was asked personal information in front of these people, but that's not the worst of it, not by a long shot. They have an ED/ER doctor that evaluates you, apparently, but not even ibuprofen was offered for my high level of pain. While I appreciate the epdemic plaguing the country, I'm not an addict and don't want to be treated for a condition I don't have. About an hour after being placed on the "fast track," I met with two students from oral surgery; I had no problem with students treating me, but think it's something you should be made aware of. They were very kind, as was my attending nurse. They let me know they would be draining the abcess and would consider possibly removing the teeth at the core of the issue. I was placed in a procedure room where the students came in with who I assume was a supervising resident. The students were wonderful, the resident was cold. I was advised that they wouldn't be removing the teeth, as it's "not an emergency room procedure," but that they would happily cut my gum down to the bone. I cried as I told the resident I couldn't afford a dentist, or I wouldn't be in the position I was in. He didn't care. The shots I received in my mouth to numb me for the procedure were excrutiatingly painful, and please keep in mind I wasn't even given an ibuprofen prior to this procedure. They were willing to cut my mouth down to the jaw bone, leaving it exposed, cutting my gums between the teeth that were the issue, with an abcess next to my jaw bone, my mandible, but couldn't be bothered to remove the teeth while they were there. I won't go so far as to call it lethal neglect, but I will call it barbaric and brutal. Again, the students were compassionate and I believe they'll make excellent providers upon completion of their program, but the supervising resident had a conscience in la-la land. Now, I have to go through another round of shots in order to have the teeth pulled, and it's my church that came through, willing to pay for an oral surgeon to remove the teeth I need removed. After the procedure concluded, I was ushered back to the fast track room, my face swollen inches from the base, in excrutiating pain, and I'm told they recommended Tylenol for pain. Again, I take issue with being treated for a condition I don't have, which is what I assume they're doing now with patients and pain medication. I couldn't talk for the duration of my one hour ride home with my friend who was kind enough to pick me up, and she had to keep my toddler overnight. I went home shaking with pain so fierce, it compared with labor pain. I had chills. I couldn't talk. I could barely sleep. I asked the ER doctor to prescribe 800 mg ibuprofen tablets to me for pain, which she agreed to prescribe (if you need pain relief and you can't obtain anything else, this will do more than Alleve and just forget Tylenol). It barely touched the pain, but helped reduce some of the swelling. I remember the supervising resident telling me they've seen antibiotic resistance in some cases of infection, particularly with antibiotics prescribed for dental abcesses. Don't you think it'd be a better, let alone more humane, idea to address the cause of the infection, rather than keep patients who can't afford a dentist on a loop of antibiotics? Perhaps, just perhaps, this is part of the reason antibiotic resistance is being seen. Completely irrational. I take serious issue with how inhumanely I was treated. I may not be rich, but you should think more about how you're lucky to have patients to practice on in the first place. Go...

Jan 5th I had ultrasound at Franklin women’s center found out that my Cervical length was too short and my baby might not make it. Dr.Stafford who have taken care of my past pregnancies took it very seriously since I have had 3 miscarriages on top of that my two children was born premature. She immediately sent me Vanderbilt University medical center to get cervix tighten surgery. she have already contacted them and they have already set a room and surgery scheduled for me. I go there and spent hrs in the room but they ended up delaying my surgery to next morning at 8 am. I asked why and told so they can have all staff be prepared and ready. So I leave . nervous whole time waiting for next day and I get call around 10:30pm saying that they have pushed my surgery to 10am. Meanwhile I had to be empty stomach til the surgery. I asked why and I was told that there was surgery already scheduled with some other patient. I get there by 8am waiting for the surgery starting at 10am. All of the nurses and doctors who came in my room to explain what was gonna happen and said that this is very quick surgery and it will finish very fast so not to worry.

Surgery is about to start and I heard bunch of people coming in. The main doctor who I was told that will be doing my surgery starts talking a lot to a female doctor and I hear some others near by him as well. At that time I was still crying wiping the tears my body was shaking because I was so scared. But than all of the sudden I clearly start hearing the main doctor saying this is call this and that’s call that and not only that I hear him saying ‘a little higher, right there, be careful, stitch a little deeper… ‘ etc . So I looked down quickly and I see bunch of people. So I call other doctor who was above my head whole time and asked him if they were practicing on me. And he goes ‘no no no they are not, the main doctor is doing my surgery and there is other female doctor as well. And there are interns and students as well’. I was in shock so I asked him ‘why no one have told me about this’ and he seemed very surprised that I asked him that question and he goes ‘I’m sorry that no one have told you this’ and walked a step away from me. Surgery was going longer than I expected. I hear more words like ‘be careful’ ‘come take a look, this is that and this is that’ . This surgery was very hard and scary decision for me! My baby was in risk of not making it during the surgery. There was chance of breaking water or miscarriage. I called the doctor who was standing above me again and asked ‘ARE THEY PRACTICING ON ME??’ and he goes ‘no the main doctor is doing my surgery. ‘ he mentioned the names as well but there was a lot going in this two days I can’t remember the doctors names. Then I definitely realize NO THIS IS NOT THE DOCTOR WHO THEY TOLD ME IS DOING MY SURGERY. Because I keep hearing ‘ok right there ‘ so on so on. So I call again and told him that ‘ I DO NOT WANT ANYBODY TO PRACTICE ON ME.’ And he immediately went down to main doctor and stopped what was going on. Then soon as he told him, I heard bunch of people leaving the room right away.

I have had sexual assault attempts experience with male doctor in years ago who ended up going to jail doing the same thing to other patients. And it gave me big trauma. I never ever see the males doctor ever since then. The only time I had no choice was when I had life threatening with my first child during labor that they had to bring me to c-section room emergency. And yesterday Friday January 6th at Vanderbilt University medical center to save my third baby. But if they were to tell me that there will be interns and students for doctor to teach them my privet area every detail showing them. I WOULD HAVE NEVER EVER ACCEPTED THE SURGERY!! it’s 2am now and I cannot sleep, the surgery process, that conversations keep spinning in my brain and I can’t stop thinking about my past trauma at the same time. I feel very disrespected by not letting me know before the surgery and feel very insulted, shameful and...