TidalHealth Peninsula Regional — Local services in Salisbury

As someone from Baltimore who has various chronic health issues and has grown up in and out of hospitals, I know a good one when I see one. Peninsula Regional is the absolute worst. Can’t speak on any of the other departments, but the ER is absolutely horrible. I have been on two occasions, and I will preface this by also adding I am immunocompromised, so my body is more susceptible to catching illnesses and has a much harder time fighting them off. The first time I went was two years ago. I came in barely conscious, with a fever around 105, and nauseous beyond belief. My boyfriend had to sign me in because I wasn’t capable. I had been profusely throwing up in the hours before. I waited for nearly 2 hours to even get triaged, and a total of 4-5 hours to get a room. My father was able to drive a 3 hour trip to come meet us at the hospital before I was back in a room. Once in the room, I had the very basic vitals taken and was given IV fluids. Took an hour to see a doctor. Doctor comes in, tells me he thinks I could have a very serious kidney infection, but he doesn’t want to test for it, and if I get worse I should just come back a day or two later (except being immunocompromised I couldn’t just wait like that). They gave me Zofran, and sent me on my way. My dad then drove me 3 hours back to my hometown in the same night. The next day I went to GBMC, was triaged and had a room within 30 minutes, they tested me for everything under the sun that they thought was a possibility with my symptoms, and treated me so well. Gave me another round of IV fluids. Didn’t have a kidney infection, but symptoms were getting worse (so I probably would have gone back to PRMS for dumb results again), turns out I had a super virus.

I also went yesterday. I have been experiencing flu-like symptoms all week, and went to urgent care at the beginning of the week for tests to come back negative but to be treated with Tamiflu. Yesterday was so horrifically bad though that I knew I needed to go to the hospital. My temperature was creeping up on 104, and I had begun throwing up, in addition to probably 15 other symptoms. We didn’t wait as long this time to be brought back, and I was triaged right away, but being triaged I felt like I wasn’t even being listened to when I tried to give all of my symptoms (because I was cut off before I could give even half of them.) The nurse was definitely nice, but I felt like she wasn’t giving me the right attention. Then I waited for 45 minutes, and they brought me back. A PA tried to ask me my symptoms again, once again kind of cut me off, and immediately basically gave me her idea of how to fix it. Told her I was immunocompromised, she said she understood, then she proceeded to send my boyfriend and I out into a crowded hallway filled with at least 10 sick patients to wait for over 2 hours, which is such a risk for me. Never got a room, never saw a doctor. They gave me Zofran to curb my nausea, and tried to get me to drink liquids. They said if that made me nauseous still, due to my severe dehydration, they would give me IV fluids (although being someone who gets infusions frequently and is dehydrated without illness, I knew this was the first thing they should have done). I ate ice even though I was still nauseous doing this, and the consensus was “well you’re not throwing up even if you are still nauseous, so go home.” The male nurse I had was extremely nice and was just doing what the PA told him to do, but the entire thing was honestly handled horrifically.

All in all, avoid this hospital like the plague. The only reason I went at all yesterday was because I was too sick to make it all the way home to Baltimore to go to a good hospital. Next time I will go...

Let me first start by saying that the ER staff were polite. Experience (1) I took my granddaughter 6 yrs old to the hospital. We sat in the uncomfortable waiting room packed with sick people for 8 hours. I asked the nurse if they had a separate triage for children, she of course said no. I'm new to this area and the kind of hospital I'm accustom to takes children in right away. She was triaged and sent back out to the waiting area; everything they did with us was from the waiting area, how could they do this to children. There was another child laying across both parents looking so pitiful, they too was not priority. Experience (2) My mother came down to visit, she began running fever, took her to the ER, via test, they could not find anything wrong and sent her on her merry way. My mother went back home, still running fever, went to the hospital, she had a severe kidney infection. How did they not catch this? She was also admitted, because it was so bad. Experience (3) I went to the ER with flu like symptoms, all my test came back with negative results, but because of my symptoms, the doctor still gave me antibiotics and cough medication to help, 5 stars for him. I began feeling so much better after the medication. Experience (4) Went to the ER again for flu like symptoms. The doctor asked me what was going on, the first thing I said to him was, I've been having FEVER FOR 3 DAYS, then I went into a coughing fit. When I recovered from that, he asked me if I was running fever, WTFFFF! Didn't you hear a word I just said! Nevertheless, my results came out to be COVID. My cough was so bad, my chest was burning from the strain, eyes red, head hurting. They saw this!!! My daughter was asking if there was anything they can give me for the cough. The Head Nurse said they don't give anything for the cough, I can just take the over the counter medication. The Covid virus has to run it's course. I went to the ER on the Sunday, called my primary on the Monday, did a virtual visit on the Tuesday. She sent prescriptions in for cough medication with codine and an antiviral medication for the Covid, which has to be taken 5 days from the onset of my symptoms. They basically said to me go “f” yourself and work it out. I've never went to a doctor without cause, I usually try and self diagnose, but I'm older and have to be smart on how I take care of myself. That's why I go to doctors. That being said, I couldn't believe he would not give me anything for some relief. Also, why he didn't suggest the antiviral medication?????? Am I not worthy? Here are some suggestions TidalHealth: 1. Have a separate triage and pediatrician on site for children visit. I don't care if you get one child for the day. Have two separate areas for what you may consider non serious to serious visits. The non serious area can have a doctor on site who can attend to patients who can probably be out within an hour or less. Depending on test. You have to do better, I now understand why people say they go to Delaware or across the bridge, because the doctors in Salisbury sucks. Thank God I have great doctors on the outside, because if this hospital had a chance, they would send me...

Where to begin! Let's start with the first incident and work our way up... My daughters birth was not a happy experience like it should have been. When my daughter was born, the doctor was supposed to be off at 7:00am but my daughter didn't come until 7:04am, so she rushed so she could go home and shortly after we discovered that she never got all of the placenta out of me and I had a nasty infection in my uterus and had to be re-admitted to the hospital shortly after being sent home with my newborn. Also, when I was in labor and received the epidural the nurse never looked over my chart to see that I have scoliosis, she hit a nerve or something and it caused me to lose all motor control in my left leg for 2-3 hours. I was unable to lift my leg up, let alone hold it still in the stirrup, my mother had to actually hold my leg up for me (bless her) now I suffer from nerve pain in my hips because of the incident. Next, my grandmother got admitted to the ER because she was really sick, well they put her in a room and basically forgot about her. She was hardly ever checked on, and they wouldn't listen when we told the nurses that it was too cold in the room for her, well she got pnuemonia from the hospital (they even admitted it to us to "ease" our pain) and died 2 days later. She would have been fine, and would have been able to see her great-granddaughter grow up if it wasn't for them. I suffer from IBS and some other more personal stomach problems, I was scared and did not know what was going on with me so I went to the ER numerous times due to the pain I had. They just gave me this GI cocktail and sent me on my way, they never looked into the problem. I had to go to Atlantic General to finally get diagnosed with my problems and to get them taken care of. The wait time at this hospital is ridiculous. Just today I went in for a head injury, I suffered from light sensitivity, dizziness, I was slurring my words, was unable to speak my thoughts properly and my entire body was just weak... It took TWO HOURS to be taken back to a room, then another hour just to be seen by the doctor. They sent me for a catscan and some labwork. They claim everything came back completely fine, just like they did with my stomach problems, they always said everything was fine, then I was basically forgotten in my room. I got dressed and demanded to be discharged. Also today there was a nurse texting and "driving" a wheel chair, and she ran this older gentleman right into a wall! His wife tore that nurse a new one.....

This hospital is pathetic, the wait times are ridiculous, the doctor's and nurses are rude and don't look into your problems 100%, they just guess the first thing they think of and send you on your way. Don't get me wrong, you do occasionally get the good nurse who is polite and cares but with all the bad treatment I have received from here I will never be going back to PRMC again, I would honestly rather drive 50 minutes to Atlantic General because they are a...