1 /5 Sadam Rivera: My grandfather has been at this hospital for almost 4-days at this point with pneumonia and I have several complaints about this hospital:
- Throughout the entire stay, it has been the family’s responsibility to change, clean, and feed the patient. Zero assistance from the staff.
- My grandfather was being administered antibiotics and the nursing staff didn’t know what they were for, one of them had to pull out their phone to google the name to find out.
- The staff has failed to explain the treatment plan as well as test results.
- During the nursing shift change, the nurses came into the room for reporting, all spoke in English (while the primary care taker present only speak Spanish) and the asked if anyone had any questions, knowing very well that they did not understood a word they said.
- The nurses and doctors are never on time for checkups, we’ve had to push several times for my grandfather’s nebulizer treatment on time. The MD is usually several hours late.
- The MD was very disrespectful towards the entire family. For context the majority of family present mainly speak spanish and they were never made aware of the fact that they could ask for a translator to assist with communication. According to the MD, “he speaks in very simple terms” so everyone should understand what he is saying and requesting a translator would “delay medical care”. When we asked how long it would take to get a translator he said 5-10 minutes.
According to the HCS website the patient should have access “To receive, as soon as possible, the free services of a translator and/or interpreter, telecommunications devices, and any other necessary services or devices to facilitate communication between the patient and the hospitals health care personnel”
When we requested to update the patient’s chart to mention the need for a translator at all times, the MD refused to do it because “he didn’t understand why we needed one, instead he would speak to the relatives who spoke English” we let him know that there’s no guarantee that someone will be able to understand/speak English and yet he refused to do it. After persisting for several minutes, the MD mentioned that this would be the nursing’s staff responsibility. When asked is he could help is with communicating this need, he refused to do so. Throughout this stay, it was the family’s understanding that my grandfather would undergo a procedure on Monday to remove liquid from his lungs. The day before this procedure, the MD said that “there’s no guarantee this will take place at the proposed time” because he had not put the order yet and it would all depend on the staff’s availability.
We are very disappointed with the level of care at this hospital. We requested to speak with someone from Patient Resources but none of the staff knew who to contact.
