Scripps Green Hospital — Local services in San Diego

Green Hospital: I had surgery at Scripps Green Hospital in November 2012. At first it seemed OK. The check in procedure, operation time, and the time I spent in recovery waiting for a room was fine. When they wheeled me to my room there was a bed close to the window and one by the bathroom. When I got to the room, it was empty. They placed me by the bathroom. At around 4PM the nurse came to take my dinner order and although I wasn’t hungry, she said they had to get orders in because the kitchen was about to close so I needed to order now. So I placed my order. My wife and young daughter came to visit just after my roommate arrived at 5:30pm. About 10 minutes after he arrives, here comes my dinner and they bring it right past me and to him. As they walked by I said that is my dinner, they said ‘no, it is not yours’ - I asked my nurse for my dinner and she said, oh I guess we got the patients mixed up. She said the kitchen is closed, there is only vending machine food. Well I was not happy and the quality of care I received from that point on was terrible. To make matters worse, the patient farther away from the bathroom just had a TURP and the nurse came to change his urine bag every hour. Every hour they turned on the light, flushed the toilet. I asked why they did not place him by the bathroom so I would not be woken up every hour when they emptied his urine bag. I guess after I complained about the dinner, I was not liked by the whole staff. The stay in this hospital was so bad. Unfortunately I have had surgeries at many different hospitals over the last 3 years because of my cancer. Dealing with cancer is not fun by itself, but having caretakers treat you like you don’t matter is really hard on a person. This experience at Green Hospital was very bad for me and just writing about it is very depressing for me, as now I have to relive this whole bad experience again. I was never happy to be out of somewhere as I was when I left that hospital. At 5AM when I could feel my urine bag was full and pushing back into my bladder, I rang the nurses’ station. They kept putting me off so I got up and emptied my own bag, what kind of care is that? Now I am supposed to pay $700 for what? The quality of care I received was not worth $1 – especially when neither my doctor nor the hospital ever informed me of my insurance status.

I cannot tell you how many TV commercials that Scripps has on, talking about how great their care is. It makes me sick every time I see one. I guess Scripps has to do commercials and billboards to get patients; they probably do not have a lot of good ‘word of mouth’. It is also ironic that of all of the surgeries and procedures I have had done at Scripps, this last Green Hospital fiasco was the only one that I did not get a survey asking to rate my hospital stay. I guess if you just pretend to do it right, you don’t want someone to give it to you straight about their stay because it will just pop your bubble. Even when I called to complain and wrote letters to the hospital directly, no one wanted to hear it. They just passed me off to the next department. This year I switched my doctors and surgeries to UCSD. I had major hand/wrist/elbow surgery and I was very happy with the surgeon and the hospital. It is like night and day the difference between UCSD and Scripps. UCSD is the place to choose if you really expect quality of care. I will go there for my next pelvic surgery and shoulder surgery, and any other procedures my future...

This review spans Scripps Green, Mission Valley, and Mercy. Scripps doesn't seem to care as I have received no response after billing issues and internal review was submitted.

On 1/29/24 I received a referral for a uterine fibroid embolization and a CT scan was ordered and performed on 2/14/24.

I contacted interventional radiology on 2/19/24 to schedule my appointment. I was informed an MRI was needed as opposed to the CT scan. It took several phone calls and 10 days to get the MRI ordered. On one call, I was told I was talking too much while I was explaining I received the wrong imaging...I was charged for the CT scan that I didn't need as well. I finally received the MRI on 3/23/24.

0n 4/10/24 I arrived 20 minutes early for my consultation with IR. I was held in the main lobby by the front desk and apparently missed my check in at IR and they cancelled my appointment. I was still seen but for some reason they had a hard time finding my info.

I received the procedure on 4/30/24. Check in went smoothly. When I was wheeled to the OR, I was cleaned and draped. During this time a male staff member said, "We only get free shows on Friday." Not sure that's appropriate. Unfortunately, they forgot to put a Foley catheter in and I had to go through the whole cleaning and draping a second time.

My overnight stay in PACU was less than stellar. I was left in my blood for overnight and at one point my Foley catheter was not draining. When I was discharged, they discharged me on someone else's chart. I received medical care at a different facility and this person's medical issues are now on my chart and they are unable to remove them. I have to go through this long list of ailments and explain I don't have them.

To date Scripps has received over $120,000 from my insurance and myself for this procedure. I was on a payment plan for the imaging and Dr.'s visits that was delinquent by one payment ($104) and they cancelled it this morning. I sincerely regret using them for this procedure. I was a patient for 20 years and I'm done. Please don't bother with a response Scripps as I've tried to reach out a few times with...

Because of Nurse Autumn’s negligence and unprofessionalism in the Scripps Green Urgent Care in March of this year, I ended up being hospitalized due to a contaminated blood draw, and I was given bags of Vancomycin (a highly toxic, broad spectrum antibiotic used for life threatening bacterial infections) for three days. My mom was there to witness Autumn’s negligence.

I went from being told that I had a life threatening double staph infection in my blood, to being told I did NOT all in the span of a few days. This was a horrifying and traumatic experience for not only myself, but for my whole family. The drug caused numerous side effects that I was told would subside within the span of a few days, but have lasted for months. I physically couldn’t eat for months because of intense stomach pain from the drug, and I've lost 20 pounds. Numerous other side effects manifested during the administration of the drug, and are still persisting to this day.

The worst of it all has been the psychological terror I’ve had to endure since being discharged from the hospital. I’ve suffered from crippling psychosis, derealization and unpredictable panic attacks, which I had never before experienced. Life just doesn't feel the same anymore... I fear dying every single day now. I constantly experience flashbacks to this day, especially when I'm trying to sleep at night.

Needless to say, potential side effects were not communicated to me before the drug was given. I didn't even know what drug they were giving me until I had to ask them myself. This has been the most difficult and scary year of my life and it could have all been prevented if Autumn had slowed down, and followed the protocol. Her negligence caused me so much harm, and her actions wasted the hospital’s money, time and resources. I’m at the point where I need to see someone being held accountable for this. I’m not sure how I will proceed from here, but I at least need Autumn to know that she has ruined my mental and physical health. I've learned so much from this experience, and frankly, I've lost faith in the medical system. What happened to me...