Stephens County Hospital — Local services in Toccoa

Horrible experience. If i could give less than one star I would. First and last time ever going here. Several things went wrong. 1. I had Dr. Panter. I was in excruciating pain, in tears.. Dr said at first he was going to wait for blood work to come back then give me something for nausea and pain. After 3 hours and me begging for something because pain is unbearable the doc came in and said now they want to do a ct and I will have to wait even longer for any meds. So in total I sat there for over 3 hours with some of the worst pain of my life. I understand waiting for labs first, but 3 hours is totally unacceptable and the doctor could care less. Even the nurse agreed that 3 hours was absurd to have to wait in the kind of pain i was in. 2. Doc came in and asked me to remove everything from bottom down, underwear included, there was no female nurse in there with me and even though I was very uncomfortable he insisted. I am a female 3. He did a rectal exam on me, again with NO female nurses present at all. 4. He was extremely rude and even though it was my first time here since we just moved up here he treated me like I was wasting his time. So after over 3 hours of crying, my husband and I both agreed enough was enough. I was tired of the doctor being rude to me and treating me so badly. 5. When I asked the nurse to let me go ama she brought the papers in and started taking my iv out. While she was in with me Dr. panter walked back in and started being rude and nasty to me in front of the nurse for wanting to leave. He acted like he didnt understand how his rude actions, plus over 3 hour wait with nothing being done would make me want to leave and go elsewhere. I explained to him that 30 minutes or an hour or so waiting for meds I could understand, but not over 3 hours just to be told I would have to wait a few more hours. After he left the nurse even told me that how he just treated me was totally uncalled for and that I definitely need to report him first thing in the morning. Even a radiology tech who was in room when I was being signed out said it was horrible how he was treating me. He didn't care I was in 10 out of 10 pain. He was horrible. 6. I also was the only one in waiting room when I arrived but had to wait over an hour to be called back and mostly all rooms were empty. The only positive about the experience was the nurse, Melissa was extremely nice to me, even she was shocked at this doctors behavior and even more so because of how he was treating me this way in front of her. She said he had only been there a couple months but that was no excuse for his actions. I will never, ever go to this hospital again and would highly advice others to avoid this er if at all possible. I honestly feel like the doctor was being rough on me during the exam on purpose. He really hurt me and did not care when I told him. His entire demeanor was uncaring, unsympathetic, unprofessional and just down right cruel. A person like Dr. panter should not be a doctor. After leaving, my husband took me to Habersham and I was brought back immediately and was treated 1,000 times better. Come to find out I not only was having a horrible crohns flare up, but also had a very large ovarian cyst that was actually bigger than the ovary itself. It was a very good thing we left Stephens and went to Habersham, otherwise I would have been put at serious risk thanks to that jerk, Dr. panter. I can't reiterate enough that if you can avoid this...

I had the most horrible experience when I rushed my girlfriend to the ER at this hospital. The hospital waiting room had a few people that seemed to be waiting for treatment. My girlfriend was experiencing severe cramping and was in pain rated at a 10. We waited for over a hour and the nurse that came in seemed to be brief and in my opinion rude not to go into depth on conversation on the situation. . She was very brief and not willing to answer many questions. The problem was so severe that I had called her mom. The nurse in charge of the ER refused to speak to her mother even with consent from the patient. After a while later they came in with a wheelchair to ex ray her. I thought for sure that the problem would be taken care of. I had a sigh of relief at this moment thinking that everything was soon going to get better. When the man brought her back we were back to square one waiting again for what seemed like another hour. At this time my girl friend was moaning and tensing up and could barely hold from screaming. Finally the nurse came in and during this time my nerves were becoming unstable due to the severe pain my girlfriend was experiencing. I looked into the nurses eyes as if she was a angel and said, " I am so glad you are back", thinking this was going to be all over soon. The nurse very briefly looked at her and said " we are going to send you home because the ex ray shows us nothing and give you medicine"... I was so terrified at this moment and my adrenalin began to shoot though the roof as my instincts was telling me something was very wrong with this diagnosis the nurse has given. We got out of their and did not sign the consent papers and I rushed her to the hospital in Gainesville Georgia. Upon arrival the hospital was packed with 50 or more people. My girl friend was beginning to moan louder coming close to screaming. The people that worked at this hospital went above and beyond! Within 30 minutes they treated my girlfriend and said that her condition could of resulted in death if not treated. Thank God for hospitals like this one! Stephens county hospital. I am not sure if it was the staff that night. But if you continue to treat patients with poor respect you are going to suffer loss. I did not mention that I went to over 5 staff members that night trying to get someone to talk to her mother and none would go out of their way as to talk to me for over 5 seconds on this issue. There are many things I am leaving out that was out of the ordinary of this hospital and seemed to put me in the twilight zone, not mentioning the quiet ex ray guy with thick rimmed glasses and hair falling out that looked like a serial killer. I almost did not even trust him to wheel chair her to the back room. I will never forget this experience and will always warn people of their poor and outdated treatment. They even billed my girlfriend 800 dollars for waiting 2 hours and getting a ex ray. If you are in this area and have a emergency, I advise you go somewhere else.

P.S. The first staff member I asked to speak to her mother at the Gainesville Hospital took the call with a consent...

I can't brag on Stephens County Hospital's ER enough. My son was struck in the eye area by a baseball and initially we thought he'd have no more than a black eye. After about 45 minutes it was obvious by the amount of pain he was having that something more serious had happened. Especially since he was also complaining that something was in his eye and that he couldn't see. We decided to go to the SCH ER on the way home. When we arrived my heart sank because the ER waiting area was full with people obviously waiting to get back to see the Dr. In spite of that the Registration staff helped me complete the necessary paperwork in a thoughtful and efficient manner. Almost immediately the Triage nurse took him back and after assessing his eye and listening to what happened she stated she was afraid the bone over his eye may have been damaged and she wanted to take him back right away. I was worried that some of the people in the people waiting in the ER would take exception to that but they were amazingly supportive. Once we were back in an ER room the nurse came in and reviewed the information to make sure it was correct. He also really looked at my son and realized how upset he was and how badly he was hurting. This nurse went out of his way to get an ice pack for his eye as well as a warm blanket to offset the effects of shock. He didn't immediately give pain medication because, he explained, they wanted to make sure he didn't have a concussion. Dr. Dukes came in afterward and upon hearing the story agreed with the Triage nurse that it was possible my son had a fracture in his eye region. He ordered a CT scan and this was carried out very efficiently by the Radiology staff. My son is usually somewhat skittish in unfamiliar situations but at no time did he ever seem uncomfortable with the staff. The CT scan confirmed that he had fractured the bone at the top of his eye socket. We were given a very clear explanation of what the treat options were and how to control his pain. I guess our total time in the ER was pretty close to 2 and a half hours but it was some of the best time I've ever spent. This was my fourth trip to the ER between my two sons and I have to say I have never been disappointed. I think Stephens County Hospital is a great facility and they've never given me any qualms about using...