Missouri Baptist Medical Center Emergency Room — Local services in Town and Country

I was in the Emergency Dept this past week (I scheduled a time online before arriving, I recommend doing that yourself) for a severely painful and debilitating condition that has effectively left me with severe burns from shin to ankles, no skin left there. It is an open, raw wound, and must be kept bandaged, except even that is too painful to tolerate. A little background: My insurance just got reinstated just last month; I have not been able to see my new primary care dr since then; the soonest I can get in will be end of June. So, ER it is. The pain finally drove me in, as it has become so severe that it is interfering with every aspect of my life, and is making it impossible to work, sleep, or enjoy anything. It has robbed me of any sort of quality of life in the last few weeks, when it suddenly exploded out of control and began to affect my other leg as well.

I’ve also got a pretty decent pain tolerance, and I am not an attention-seeking drama queen; I will avoid the ER or a doctor visit until I am forced, by pain or by debilitation, to go. I’m phobic about blood draws-IV insertion, to the point I avoid medical treatment. I’m also a difficult stick.

I waited about an hour after being screened before I was brought back to a room, which wasn’t super quick but not awful either.

Once I was in the room I had only just put on my gown before my nurse arrived, wonderfully quick. She was attentive, personable and friendly, and seemed to enjoy her job. I’ve had past nurses who ranged from unmotivated to unpleasant all the way to what seemed almost malicious, so I appreciate when I am assigned someone who genuinely seems to want to help their patients.

About 5 minutes later the doctor came in, did his examinations, and put his orders in. He was also very good: empathetic, pleasant and thorough. He listened to my statements and took them seriously, and very importantly treated the severity of the pain as a serious, legitimate issue, without making me feel I was being judged or like he wasn’t taking it seriously, without me left feeling like I had to beg or plead my case. That on its own is a huge deal, because it is getting to be a rare occurrence in my experience.

My IV phobia was discussed and taken into consideration as well; he sent in an ultrasound with an experienced technician who managed to start the IV on the first stick, and did so extremely gently and without triggering any panic on my part. I thank them for that.

I got tests done, medications prescribed, and referrals To specialists for follow-up that I desperately needed, and was on my way home shortly thereafter.

So why not a 4-5 star review (because the ER staff deserved it)?

Due to the sensitive nature of one of my medications, the ER Dr. sent my prescriptions to the hospital’s retail pharmacy. I had to pick them up the following day; when I arrived, the pharmacist decided she knew better than the physician and refused to dispense a necessary medication to me. Even though it was a valid prescription delivered to her by hospital staff from the hospital the pharmacy is located in, and I have no other prescriptions for any other medications in its class and no history of “doctor shopping” or suspicious behavior. Flat out simply refused, even after I obtained a required insurance authorization , and also refused to give me the actual script so I could have it filled at another pharmacy. This was on Friday, which means I have to wait until tomorrow (Monday) to try to get some kind of recourse and resolution.

That is totally unacceptable, and I am left in the lurch, unable to follow physician orders with regards to care of the injured area to keep it from getting worse due to pain; I cannot keep the area bandaged, let alone use compression to stop or at least slow the cause of the issue until my appointment with the wound care center in 2 weeks. Even a simple light gauze bandage causes intolerable pain.

I don’t know how I’m going to make it through the next 2 weeks until then; I am hurting that badly. Meanwhile my condition...

I am astounded by how terrible my last experience was. I came in from having a severe migraine for 5 days which was followed up by a kidney stone. After 6 hours of waiting in excruciating pain, I was finally taken back to a utility room (I think it was the blood-draw room as there were several armchairs with dividers in between). They put others in the same room in which we were all able to hear the details of everyone’s issues.

I got to speak to a nurse practitioner for less than 5 mins, whose attitude was dismissive and lacking interest. After collecting a very bloody urine sample, she ordered an IV, a dose of Toradol+benedryl & something for nausea, and a CT scan. I went in at 3:00 pm. Finally went in for the scan at around 9:30 pm. None of the medicines did anything for my conditions.

After I was taken back to the utility room, I was left completely alone for the next 2 hours without any follow-up, further treatments, updates, just nothing. A nurse finally came in to discharge me after stating definitively that absolutely nothing was found on the scan. So I was discharged, still in excruciating pain, never having seen a doctor, with absolutely no resolve, and having to drive home at midnight by myself in these conditions.

The second day after this deplorable experience, I was able to follow up at the Advanced Center for Medicine. The actual doctor that I saw showed me the imaging on her computer to reveal TWO kidney stones on my left side. We established a plan and she actually prescribed the medicines I needed.

The ER staff at Missouri Baptist was so overwhelmed that they lied to get me out of there. Either that, or they are extremely incompetent as even I could read the CT scan and see the issue. I will never make the mistake of coming back here. This is not an establishment that I would trust...

I went to the ER for chest pains on 04/26/2021. I had a pretty decent staff. Merwin, Audrey, and Lauren Marshall, NP. Only thing is I been waiting for my medication to be approved. The insurance company is telling me I need to talk to my pharmacy, the insurance company is telling me to contact the doctor that prescribed it. The ER is telling me to refer back to the insurance and have them send a PA. I did call the insurance company and they submitted a request for a PA on 04/27/21. I called today, 04/28/21 and was told Lauren Marshall, NP is not there today and have my insurance company call. I then was told if it doesn't get approval then I need to follow up with my doctor and see what can be done. I advised that my insurance company called on 04/27/2021 on a 3 way call and was left on hold or 20 minutes to talk to Kelly. I spent my entire lunch break trying to take care of this matter. Mind you I am on the clock just like they are. With the way the doctors office are scheduling its hard to say. So I guess I have put my life in the hands of medical staff that dont care. I am also a Wash U employee and the staff there is Wash U. This is even more baffling to me. Chest pains is nothing to play with. I obviously went to the ER because I needed medical attention. I have just come to the conclusion that people dont want to do their job. They are lazy. What is this world coming to. What happened to going above and beyond. It is unheard of these days seem like. I am very disappointed that no one can help me seems like. I was contemplating on where to go before I even went. I have now ruled MOBAP out....