Bassett Medical Center — Local services in Town of Otsego

My mother has terminal brain cancer. The night before Mother’s day she fell to the ground, having lost control of her leg. When things did not improve by Monday morning I called her Oncologist who directed us to go to the ER. On Monday my mother fell again and hit her back on the toilet. We arrived and the ER and woman at the desk said she would list the reason for our visit as a fall. A nurse triaged my mother and we explained exactly what had happened. The first thing they did was take my mother back for an x-ray. The techs grabbed my mother’s shoulders and very abruptly sat her up. My mother screamed in pain and I objected to the way they handled her as she had fallen. I asked why they needed to sit her up and they told me that it was for the chest x-ray. I asked them why they were doing a chest x-ray and they said “For her chest pain”. I told them that she was not experiencing any chest pain and that they should be more careful with someone who had experienced a fall and they said “We’re sorry, we didn’t know she fell.” Again, a fall was the primary complaint. Bassett utilizes MyChart, an electronic medical records system. I took out my phone to look at the x-ray order and, sure enough, in the history, the doctor had noted “Patient HX: Chest pain for 2 weeks”. I was annoyed, but I tried to stay calm. We went back to my mother’s ER room where they performed multiple more tests. All of this, of course, takes hours. My mother is in a lot of pain from her fall and she had kind of scooted herself down the bed a little so she could lay more flat with her knees bent. She asked for some pain medication. Another hour passed before I went and asked the nurse about the medication. It was obvious by her reaction that she had forgotten but was apologetic and came quickly with the med at that time. The nurse (Sarah V. Awful nurse) told my mother she was going to sit her up. My mother, who had finally found a position to lay in which she was not in pain, told her, very clearly, “No, that will hurt, please don’t do that.” The nurse told her she needed to sit up to take the medicine to which my mother replied that she was not in pain in that position and did not want to be sat up at that time. Instead of accepting my mothers’ refusal and telling her that she would come back to give her the medicine when she felt like she could sit up, the nurse then called in a male nurse to forcibly sit her up. At this point I objected. I said, loudly, that they had already been told “No” and that they needed to stop. At that point a security guard came into the room and threatened to throw me out for being “abusive”. When I told them that I would just take my mother elsewhere, they told me that she was of sound mind and could make her own choices (RIGHT AFTER NOT LETTING HER MAKE HER OWN CHOICES!). I went back and forth with them, becoming more and more agitated, until I was removed from the hospital and my mother was forcibly sat up against her objections. I called the hospital and registered a formal complaint. They responded with a letter that said, in part, that the doctor had noted “no chest pain” (I have a screenshot of the x-ray order that says exactly what I said above, so that is a lie) and then explained that they would have done a chest x-ray for a fall and back pain anyway. Okay, even if that is true, which I find dubious at best, this is my mother’s medical care, not a frat party. “No harm, no foul” doesn’t work here. When the letter addressed my mother being forcibly sat up against her objections, it omits in its entirety that she had refused that intervention multiple times, and I, her medical proxy, also verbalized my objections on her behalf. If my mother, as they asserted to me when I wanted to remove her from that hospital, was of sound mind, then she had every right on earth to refuse that intervention. My mother was forced to be in the hospital alone and scared because the staff apparently forgets that people who are dealing with dying family members in distress have emotions and...

If the entire Bassett system, in Cooperstown & Oneonta, could receive less than zero stars I would give it. I have had the absolute worst interactions as well as care I have ever received in my life from OB/GYN to Cardiac, GI, & Pediatrics for my child.

The only competent people that I have ever seen were the midwives and my child's pediatrician. Every other provider has been mediocre at best and has the bedside manner of a Dementor from Harry Potter. I have been a health care provider since 2007 and educate other health care providers and I am regularly treated like I am less than human. I have been laughed at for advocating for myself and my child by nurse practitioners, ignored by, and bullied to be given treatments I did not want, nor were warranted, by the only actual obstetrician I saw through my entire pregnancy during childbirth.

My husband subluxed his ankle and his entire intake was done in the waiting room (against HIPAA) and when he was brought back to a "room" he was placed seated on a bench. The PA did not even palpate his ankle and the x ray was either done incorrectly or read incorrectly because he was told he was "fine" and to come back in 2 weeks if he still had pain. Ok yea...walk around on your malaligned ankle for 2 weeks...a total joke.

The scheduling staff is rude, oversteps their knowledge base, and generally incompetent. You can spend hours on the phone just trying to make an appointment and God forbid if you wanted to actually speak to your provider, there is not a phone number or email you can call to speak to them directly without waiting the aforementioned hours to speak to a rude scheduler.

The icing on the cake is that this system requires referrals from a PCP to receive any care from a specialist. But wait...there's more....it takes over a year to become established with a PCP, so in the meantime, their solution is to just go to the already understaffed ER for something that is NOT AN EMERGENCY! The purpose of paying for PPO insurance that does not require referrals it so that I do not need a referral. Not a single person has been able to explain this policy to me other than they are enforcing it because it is "hospital policy".

Oh and apparently if you take the time to go though all their nonsense to actually become an established patient with a specialist, you are only considered a patient for 3 years and if you do not go back to said specialist in that time frame you have to go through all of that again.

I have moved my entire family's health care to Binghamton at UHS because this hospital system is a total mockery of what health care should be and they should be ashamed...

They do not care about HIPAA laws! My daughter was born and was transferred to the pediatric unit after birth. Well the nurse practitioner there does not care about patients rights or privacy. Michelle Morrison came into my daughters room when I was not there and my mother in law was in the room with my daughter so I could run to the store quickly. Well Michelle Morrison when she went in told my mother in law VERY confidential information that should have NEVER and I mean NEVER been discussed with my mother in law. She also told my MIL that she would rather speak to her because her and I didnt get along. I had never spoken more then 2 words to michelle morrison so i dont have the slightest clue why she would tell my mother in law we dont get along and no matter what I find that very unprofessional to even say something like that let alone tell my MIL medical information. There was even a nurse in the room when Michelle went in there and that nurse even confirmed everything that was said to the higher ups. I spoke with the higher ups and then recieve a letter in the mail weeks after my daughter came home stating they did an investigation and spoke with michelle Morrison and they could not tell me how they reprimanded her because they have a privacy policy for their staff. But yet my daughters privacy or my privacy didnt matter but michelle morrisons does?!?! They only told me what Michelle's excuse was. They stated that michelle thought it was MY mother which does not make a difference either way because we did not give permission for any family members to be able to get our daughters medical information or mine. This happened a few days before we were discharged and from the get go EVERYONE that worked that unit knew to not even talk about anything In front of my mother in law because of personal issues with my MIL so her playing stupid doesnt fly with me. If your child ends up on the pediatric unit or if you're just giving birth because she works the maternity ward as well ask for someone else as soon as you see her because your privacy will not be protected with her! Our lawyer is currently working on this and I am not backing down. What this women did was terrible and she does not deserve her job she has no bed side manner...