Shore Medical Center — Local services in Somers Point

I never imagined I would be leaving a review like this for the same Shore Memorial Hospital that saved both my grandparents lives, my uncle's, and took care of me so many times I lost count, but the carelessness during my last interaction with Shore was shocking. My close relative was at a critical point during a total psychotic breakdown and after I spent weeks trying to get her help, by some miracle she decided to self-admit. She was lost, scared, afraid of hurting herself or being hurt, and despite knowing that she'd probably lose her job she called her boss for a ride to the ER.

She has a 40 year history visiting Shore including psychotic episodes, aggression, self harm, multiple 302's, escaping while on a 5150, police involvement, social workers, etc. yet they tried telling me that this 70 year old emaciated woman walking around in 40° weather wearing a tank top & shorts was fine. I desperately tried to explain how serious the situation was, and a nurse told me she would have the psychiatrist call me before they did anything. Then my relative called me crying because they were already processing her discharge and said that they were going to 'trespass her' if she didn't leave. When I called back, a different nurse said there was no psychiatrist available that night, and no one was going to call me. Believe me, severe mental illness is a nightmare for everyone involved so I understand the urge to get rid of her but the lies were unnecessary and pretty cruel if you ask me.

Either they simply don't care about mentally ill patients as much as the physically ill or the psychiatrist, ER doc & nurses need a refresher on the presentation and consequences of a serious schizophrenic breakdown. Last time (3 months ago) they put her in an alarmed bed, transferred her to a long term psych facility where she was held for a month before the psychiatrist decided she was stable. That episode was nowhere near as serious as this one, but they actually told me that this bipolar, schizophrenic, incredibly underweight senior was fine because they had a brief conversation with her and she 'promised' she was taking her meds.. Nevermind that she's been a smart, hard-working, caring, independent woman traveling the world for the last 30 years, and now she looks like a homeless person and walked into the ER BEGGING for help.

I don't know if this is the result of some new Penn-inspired financial directive or just the way hospitals work post-covid, but it's really disturbing to think this is the best that people with psychiatric illnesses can expect. In case you were wondering whether she actually needed care, she now has a black eye, she has a random tattoo she can't explain, she no longer feels an attachment to her family and she charged almost $5000 to her credit card in the last week but has no idea why. Maybe she spent it, maybe someone took advantage of her, who knows.. but the best case scenario is that I get to continue watching her flush her life down the toilet, and worst case is that she could end up freezing to death in the woods.

Btw, here is one of Shore's mission statements: "At Shore Medical Center, kindness complements an extraordinary level of clinical sophistication. Our people are the foundation of this modern medical center where advanced technology harmonizes with...

I went into the ER because I am eight months pregnant and was having trouble breathing with chest pain. When I went in one gentleman working there provided me with a wheel chair and escorted me to another room somewhat quickly. Another worker there (not sure of the official titles, everything happened so fast) was very good to me and was very soothing as he was explaining what he was going to do, such as hooking me up to ekg, taking my blood pressure, ect. To make a long story short at one point in the room there were 4 or 5 workers assisting me and things started getting hectic because there were two people asking me questions, I was being set up to different machines and during what I felt like was a pretty overwhelming situation one of the nurses inserted a needle into my arm without telling me she was going to do so. I was already alarmed with having difficulty breathing and I hate needles, so this set me off into a panic and I jumped up, since I was not expecting to be stabbed in the arm, and started to hyperventilate. Everyone started screaming at me to calm down and breathe (as if having a bunch of people scream at you is relaxing lol). Soon after this the same nurse who put the needle in my arm came back in and to summarize she made rude comments such as if I can't handle a needle how can I handle labor (this is comparing apples to oranges, obviously labor is A LOT more painful than getting a needle, but that doesn't mean that I have an extremely high pain tolerance and enjoy being stabbed unexpectedly either) and another comment such as how can I be a mother being a nervous wreck (I had every right to be nervous I was having a hard time BREATHING and I feared something was wrong with my unborn child). I am making this post in hopes that perhaps the medical staff will realize that their judgemental comments are not only completely unnecessary, they also escalate an already serious situation ... I may have been having a panic attack and for this nurse, who is supposed to be a professional, to judge me while I am already in a vulnerable state is not only unethical it is completely cruel. I feel as though she is a good nurse who knows how to do her a job, especially in an ER, but needs to keep her judgmental comments to herself and should probably inform patients she is going to insert a needle into their arm and not just stab them and then yell at them to calm down and stop being nervous. Everyone else was extremely professional, ethical, and excellent at their job.

UPDATE: Kathleen from shore medical center reached out to me about my experience and I am very grateful that she did so. She ensured me that what happened to me was not acceptable and that something was going to be done about it and was extremely empathetic and professional when listening to my story. She was also very assuring and asked if I wanted to have a follow up call after action was taken and I just wanted to publicly express my gratitude...

If I could rate 0 stars I would the employees here are very unprofessional baldhead lady with glasses receptionist and lady taking blood pressure in triage 2 on Sept 20 Friday Now I understand they are short staffed we’ve been here since 1am even though other patients came and got called before we did now we are in the emergency after waiting so long maybe more than an hour and a half seeing others getting to go before us waiting in pain passing out and have no help I have decided to dial 911 for an ambulance to transfer us to another hospital 25 min later Somers Point Police show up and ask what’s the emergency I replied I asked for ambulance not for useless help then bald head lady with glasses says you really called the cops on us I replied I called for ambulance she got very upset and said we are short staffed and the one lady in triage 2 talk to the police officer privately explaining what was going on and the officer comes out the door says the nearest hospital is in Pomona and bald head lady with glasses if you guys decide to leave you have to fill out paper work then he says that we are next officer leaves they bald head lady laughing and telling other employees assuming I have called the cops on them while we are suffering. Half hour later they say in 5 min they will be with us we’ve asked for a bed so we can lay in because the patient I was with was un able to sit properly the triage 2 lady says I will be with you guys in 5 min i responded you said that 5 min ago and shut the door finally we got called next police officer came back inside chatted with bald head still not helping then we finally go through the triage2 door lady was asking rhetorical question asking for name weight medicine why are we here when everything is on there screen even showed them paper work before hand took their blood pressure told me to wait in the waiting room I didn’t understand why when every other patient had a family member with that could go back with them I couldn’t for no reason that was told waited 2 hour in waiting still unable to go in the back to see the patient hours later I’m with the patient she still in pain after all no help bad place went home tired leaving at 10am if they see this don’t reply with you can send an email to patient experience shore medical center nothing gets done you don’t see the email you copy and paste to the reviews bad experience no help I have pictures unfortunately didn’t get picture of the lady in triage2 but she was there since...