Berkshire Medical Center — Local services in Pittsfield

Most of the nurses are very nice and attentive, but my overall experience has been very poor. I was admitted via ambulance after losing 4+ units of blood internally (on Coumadin for artificial mitral valve). In the first 24 hours, I was moved 3 times. On the second day I was moved again, and on the third day moved again. I was in the same room for 3.5 days, and then moved a sixth time. I wasn't given any explanation and advanced warning......staff just showed up, loaded my bed, and pushed me to the next room. I was on 3 different floors.

After three different procedures, they never deduced the problem, but discontinued blood thinners and heart meds for 5+ days. I was used as a pin cushion because no one could seem to place an IV or get blood. They would insert ports, then remove them, then put them back in, and then take them out.....until I had enough. My right arm isn't usable because it has a central line, but before they put it in, I was stuck 5 times. The nurses don't seem to be in agreement on what the central line can be used for, because some say they can draw blood from it and others say they can't.....which is why they want to keep putting in ports in the left arm.

Different teams of staff don't communicate with the others and make things even more confusing. My nurse comes and asks how I am, telling me that telemetry picked-up that my heart rate kept dipping into the 30s and 40s. Five minutes later, the Charge Nurse comes in and tells me she's taking my heart monitor (portable), because I don't need it any more. I asked if she'd spoken to my nurse and told her why. She didn't take it. When I talked with my nurse, she said that the Charge Nurse was sitting right next to her when they got telemetry about my low heart rate, so she's not sure why she'd say that. Same goes for the docs......the resident who had been seeing me tells me that they are bridging me to be discharged, then a team of other docs come in 5 minutes later to tell me that they are prepping for me to have a pacemaker installed that day......just 3 hours later. So of course, they take the breakfast I ordered and had just arrived (before I ate anything). The nurse comes in 5 minutes later, after my lunch was taken, and tells me that I can reorder my breakfast, because they rescheduled my surgery for two days later......then move my rooms (as mentioned above).

I am now in the smallest of the 6 rooms with 42 square feet of space to myself. It's shared and I have no privacy. There is no space for visitors, thus no furniture. There is a folding chair propped up against the wall in the other patient's area, but I can't see how visiting is possible. Oh, did I forget to mention that nearly every meal was brought to me wrong?

Overall, this has been a harrowing 8 days with little resolve and tons of frustration. I'm on the verge of ripping my central line out myself, taking the portable heart monitor off, and getting the hell out of here myself. I spoke to the docs and they didn't hear a thing. They talked over me, ganged-up on me, and told me it's not wise to make decisions out of frustration......then left and I haven't seen them all day. So it's my second day of fuming, not eating, and ready to take matters into my own hands.

I'm working on trying to get transferred to Bay State...

This hospital really needs to be shut down. I'm shocked it's even still in business. I had the displeasure of waiting almost half a day in the ER (and it wasn't even busy!) and that was the best part of my experience. I had 3 major issues with this hospital, things that they could easily get sued for or shut down over:

While checking into the ER, they made me sign a bunch of paperwork while I came in for extreme dizziness and disorientation, although my husband was thankfully at my side. THE SECRETARY DID NOT INFORM EITHER OF US THAT THERE WAS A LAPSE IN MY INSURANCE AND IT WAS NOT VALID. She took down my information, looked up my insurance, and did not inform me that it was expired, which is ILLEGAL. I did not find out until 5 days after my ER visit! I got slammed with a hefty ER and ENT bill thanks to this incompetent secretary who committed malpractice. (I worked as a medical secretary so I know how the process goes). When we tried to dispute the bills, the hospital ensured us they will get to the bottom of it and fix it, then we stopped being able to get in touch with them, and then we found out that they immediately sent the bill to collections. This hospital cares about ONE thing, quick, easy money.

When it was finally my time to be seen in the ER, I entered the room with THREE YOUNG FEMALE NURSES, and one nurse ran through the typical questions, and ASKED ME IF I AM SAFE AT HOME. WITH MY HUSBAND (they didn't know he was my husband, just assumed?) IN THE ROOM RIGHT NEXT TO ME. You are supposed to ask that question with the patient ALONE. NOT WITH A POTENTIAL ABUSER RIGHT NEXT TO THE PATIENT. Lucky for me my husband is an angel, but what about the women who come in with their abusive partners, or even a potential trafficker??? What if the woman spent months to convince her captor she needs medical attention, just to feel completely defeated that these 3 clueless and incompetent female nurses didn't care enough to help her? Absolutely insane. Why ask that question at all??? I hope those nurses are never in a position where they need to secretly ask for help and it doesn't come.

The ENT I was referred to, Dr. Stamm, had the filthiest patient room by far, that my husband and I have ever seen. So nasty that we took pictures. There was old blood on the floor, the room was filthy and was clearly not cleaned in quite some time. There were dead bugs inside of suction canisters and on procedure carts. The doctor diagnosed me with vestibular neuritis but did not prescribe me the steroids to treat it and just told me to 'wait it out and see if it goes away, and if not then it could be a brain tumor'. Thousands of dollars WASTED just to come to this useless conclusion. BMC is an absolutely useless healthcare system. Thankfully I got a second opinion elsewhere and was prescribed prednisone which promptly resolved my symptoms.

The endo unit is the only positive thing about BMC, otherwise I'd avoid this hospital and its affiliates at all costs. Make the drive out to another hospital, you'll probably still get seen quicker even if you drive...

This review only applies to the horrible intake experience that I had when I went to the emergency room in severe pain due to a perforation from an endoscopy. I also had brought a copy of the endoscopy that she only looked at my name and not the report. The rude woman that worked behind the glass to check me in was horrible. A man checked in AFTER me and they took him in before me. I went up to her and asked why he was ahead of me and she pointed to a sign and said it depending on urgency. REALLY??? Then when I went to the room where they draw blood before bringing you back to the ER, I was met with another rude nurse. I also asked him why the man went ahead of me. He said he was old and had an amputation that was sore. Perhaps, that man should have gone to his prosthetist about it being sore! I said, I guess you think that I should rupture and that he had a bad attitude towards me. He then said, "I'm not going to argue with you." My husband heard him tell me that, so he asked the guy if he wanted to argue with him? He then called security and escorted my husband out of the hospital. He told him that if he came back into the hospital, the police would be called for trespassing. I will also add that my husband has an above knee amputation, so we know all about those and the old man that had his prosthesis making him sore. Perhaps, he should have gone to his prosthetist. I was then sent to the ER where multiple people tried to draw blood before the IV expert came in to get some. It was an absolutely horrible way to start my hospitalization. I contacted the Patient Relations twice and have not heard back from them with their investigation. I will post another separate review of the good care that I got once I was up on the surgical floor. Since this was just posted, I will have to wait a day to give my good review for the nurses and the attending surgeon who were great. Google won't let me submit another one today and only gives me an option to edit. I'll try again tomorrow. I am STILL waiting to hear from the Patient Relations that I had contacted. I guess the Patient Relations office doesn't care about me and the lousy...