Kaweah Health Medical Center — Local services in Visalia

PLEASE READ!!!! VERY IMPORTANT!!!

My 81 year old Father, with a myriad of health issues, including advanced dementia, was transported via ambulance to the ER this past Monday. After describing to the physician and multiple nurses that I strongly believed this had some correlation to a new blood thinner he was recently prescribed, they promised they would immediately look into it. He had a CT scan of his head ONLY, which was mistake #1. After staying with him for several hours into the night, I left to get some rest, assured that he would be placed into a room very soon to continue testing. I returned the next day....TO FIND MY DAD STILL IN THE EMERGENCY ROOM!!! He had been there for over 25hrs. He was slouched over and almost onto the floor, he had been sitting in his own urine for who knows how long, and had not had a single person check on him for hours....but it gets worse....after raising a fit in the ER when I found him, they finally moved him to the third floor unit a full 26hrs after initially going to the ER....still, no further testing had been done to check on his current condition or symptoms. I spoke with his RN on the third floor and told her his abdomen looked abnormally large and "gushy". She tapped and listened to his tummy and determined that he definitely sounded like he had ascites or some kind of fluid built up in his abdomen. I didn't know at that time that she never called a doctor, charted the new finding, or made any effort whatsoever to further look into things. We stayed with him for a couple hours and left around 8pm to get some rest. He was now so overwhelmingly exhausted that he couldn't wake up or coherently communicate anything to anyone. He woke up in the middle of the night and began violently vomiting blood everywhere! The next day...NOT UNTIL NOON WHEN I GOT THERE AGAIN, did anyone bother to insert a NG tube, call a GI specialist, or do much intervention at all to stop or investigate the cause of this bleeding. We are now at over 48hrs since being admitted to the ER before anyone managed to find out, intervene, and help what I had told these so-called "medical professionals" multiple times....THAT HE WAS ON A NEW BLOOD THINNER AND THEY NEEDED TO CHECK HIM FOR SIDE EFFECTS. NO ONE DID A DAMN THING!!! Now, his mental state is so far degraded that we're not sure if he's even able to come back home again. This could have all been avoided and could have been stopped much, much sooner than it did. My Dad was bleeding internally for days, and no one did anything to stop it or run the appropriate tests to find out what was wrong with him. This hospital and every staff member that had a part in his care, neglected my Dad, left him like trash to rot in his own excrement because he has dementia and was a problem patient. They simply sedated him and walked away. Not even the nurses on the third floor made the correct judgment calls or interventions to help him. I am contacting an attorney as soon as my Dad is discharged. Lord knows how much time was ripped away from the very fragile time we had left with him in the first place. This was gross neglect and malpractice at its absolute finest. I am angry, I am disgusted, and I want justice for my Dad. This hospital is a horrible example of what medicine should be today. Shame on you...

I was born there as were most of my siblings. I watched them build the "new" hospital which is now obsolete and in desperate need of renovation. I also watched over the years as the administration (politics) proceeded to interfere with care, nursing care quality plummeted, infection rates soared, (Both due to post-op as well as poor quality nursing intervention in the rooms) and overall quality of care decreased to the point where most locals refer to it as "A great place to die!" It is truly SAD!

While there are some amazing doctors (Primarily "locals" who returned to Visalia after medical school), overall it is nearly impossible for Kaweah Delta/Visalia to attract quality doctors because it has little to offer them over other cities/hospitals. (I would rather work at St. Agnes or Delano!) Sadly, the history of extreme racial prejudice at Kaweah Delta Hospital continues to cause issues for Hispanic doctors. (Until recently, Hispanic doctors who performed well were literally "Run out of town"! (When I was a young boy, it was "understood" that Hispanic patients could NOT go to Kaweah but would only be treated at Community!!! Same was true to privileges for Hispanic doctors...Only at Community! (I know many Hispanic doctors who left because of exactly this issue! They could NOT believe the level of hatred and intolerance towards Hispanics both at the hospital and the city who owned it!! Sadly, while there is the "appearance" of change, the prejudice and disturbing intolerance continues "under the table" at BOTH the hospital and the city. (The county facilities are nut much better if at all. I experienced unbelievable prejudice in terms of jobs at the county! Even though I was extremely OVER qualified for a summer position, I was told that it was "impossible" for me to work at the county because I was Hispanic!)

I do NOT want to turn this into a racially motivated discussion nor am I bitter about my experiences growing up in Visalia for I LOVED growing up there. However, the hospital is simply a MESS! My mother died there under "questionable" circumstances. (My brother, a doctor, noted that the poor quality of nursing care obviously contributed to her untimely death!) I sincerely hope that at some point Visalia can change their attitude towards the administration of the hospitals(I get constant complaints from the doctors about the situation at KDH.) and work with the doctors and nurses to improve the quality of care in Visalia! Primary issues: Facility obsolete and poorly maintained, poor quality administrators (Politics/morals, Training and Ability problems), poor quality nursing care (along with the great quality nurses, many are poorly trained and supervised, have questionable ability for some/many, the hospital has insufficient education/job placement requirements and finally there are tremendous moral and census determination issues), incompetent doctors (While some are great, many are substandard...and the names are KNOWN but since money drives everything and even incompetent doctors can make a lot of money for the hospital (Connected to poor quality administrators) the "deadly" doctors continue to provide POOR...

In December of 2019, I almost died because of this hospital. On a Friday I went to the ER, because I couldn't breathe. I couldn't even eat because opening my mouth to take a bite, caused me to be extremely short of breathe. I sat in the waiting room for 6+ hours, got the run around and wasn't even offered a breathing treatment. When I finally saw Dr. Lucero, he said I had a little bit of pneumonia, it was no big deal. He gave me an Augmentin tablet and a Norco, ordered a prescription, and then said I needed to leave. My BP was 180/100. I asked multiple times if he was sure I should go, because I couldn't even breathe. He said, "You are a young healthy girl, you need to go!" I left. Took me 30 minutes to walk to my ride who was out side the surgery doors, because I could not breathe to even walk. Over the next 2 days, I got worse. Fever was so bad, one extreme to the next and I couldn't get it to break with over the counter meds. Sunday afternoon I decided to go to Urgent Care, because I felt even worse. At urgent care they were concerned because I couldn't hold my breathe for even half a second, they said I had to go to the ER. I cried, because I kept thinking I'd get the same crappy Doctor I had already had. I got a ride to the ER, and the first person I came into contact with at the check in desk, told me I couldn't breathe because I had anxiety and I needed to calm down. They checked me in and took me back right away because my symptoms had worsened and I had been there only 2.5 days prior. They put me in zone one and asked me to change co I could do an x-ray. I couldn't breathe, so I couldn't even get my shirt off. They immediately took me to Zone 2. My experience in Zone 2 is the only reason why I can give 2 starts. I would give 0 stars based on my interaction with Dr. Lucero a couple days prior. Zone 2 was amazing. My o2 was in the low 80s, even with high flow oxygen. They hooked me up to antibiotics, steroids, and got my labs going. Based on my 19 whit blood count, plus all the other symptoms, they told me I was septic. The doctor told me if I had waited one more day to come in, I probably would have came in intubated or even worse. I had 2 different types of pneumonia, a viral and bacterial. The viral pneumonia was later discovered to be COVID. They ordered all the things, and later admitted me. I did have an anaphylaxis reaction to the CT Contrast (no ones fault, didnt know i was severely allergic to it.) The Zone 2 staff handled it amazing and got me back. The Zone 2 staff was absolutely amazing. It's ashame that my first experience was with such a horrible doctor. Did I mention I worked at this hospital? Ya, I did, and he knew it, because I was on my lunch break when I decided to go to the ER. Nothing happened to this doctor, and I felt completely unheard. The ER Director came to talk with me while I was in the hospital, and he must have mentioned 12 times it was his day off and his daughter was waiting on him. Even working there, I was completely unheard and my life almost being lost didn't matter. He was a doctor, and I was just a tech. Even being an employee at this facility didn't get me...