Maryview Medical Center

Overall: Not Recommended

My Father was recently a patient at Maryview Medical Center. It was an abysmal experience. He was there for a hip replacement and told by his doctor that he would be home in three days, it took 11 and now he is at a rehab facility. His blood pressure dropped so he was not strong enough to do rehab. There was no overhead lift near his bed to help him to use his upper body to move. He did have on support stockings but not a pump device squeezing his feet or legs to reduce the chance of a blood clot. He had not been out of bed very much since the surgery, but his surgeon didn’t seem to know that and announced when he walked in to the room on the third day (he had not seen my Father since the surgery) “Oh you are going home today!” I asked my Mother if she would like to get something to eat in the hospital cafeteria and was told it was closed. This was around 7:00 pm. Seriously a hospital cafeteria closes by 7:00 pm?? After several days we realized that the top of the bed could be lowered in such a way that made it easier for my Dad to get out of bed. None of the staff members who had been caring for him seemed to know that. Their social worker gave my Mother a list of rehab centers and told her that she didn’t know anything about them so couldn’t answer any questions. My Mother ended up calling me to go to a computer to look the information up for her. Not helpful! When he ended up getting an infection (according to some research I have done this occurs in 1%-3% of all hip replacement surgeries, so not common) and asked for his doctor, he was told that he was on vacation along with “Doctors deserve to go on vacation too!” And I suppose it would be too much that they tell their patients. My Father had to have surgery to remove his staples, open the wound and clean the infection. He was in so much pain medication that he was delusional. The nurse tried to give him Haldol which is an anti psychotic drug often used for schizophrenic people to prevent psychotic episodes. My Dad wasn’t psychotic he was high on pain meds. Thankfully my Mother was there and said “No!” He then was told that he had to have a PICC line put in, which is basically shoving a catheter into your arm and threading it down near your heart! Fun! He was told he would have this procedure, 24 hours later he had not had it. No one told my Father or anyone else why. By this time I was livid. Went to call the Patient Advocate whose name was listed as a member of my Father’s ‘care team’ on the board in his room. Interestingly enough she had on her voice mail that she would be off until Tuesday, this was on a Friday, with no other point of contact. I went to the Nurse’s Station where staff were chatting. When I asked why my Father (who was understandably nervous) about this procedure had been kept waiting, I was met with a lot of attitude. After I began writing down names and inquiring as to why exactly his ‘care team’ didn’t know what was going on, suddenly they were all making calls and apologizing. 20 minutes later my Father was taken for the procedure. I was very specific about the fact that I wanted my Father to have a private room when he went to rehab and found two facilities that offered them. He was transferred to one today, just after having gotten his PICC Line put in and with a bacterial infection still in his leg. I went to visit and left in tears. There was my Father with thin curtain between himself and another resident, while he tried to use a bed pan. I’m sure he was humiliated and I’m sure the other person wasn’t too thrilled either. These people don’t care about a patient’s dignity. Because he cannot walk was part of the reason I requested the private room. One was available at Sentara Windermere, but because it is a holiday weekend and he arrived later, the office that handles that is closed and he will have to wait 4 days before that can happen. And that is another example of health care at its finest!