1 /5 Drew Dalton: They dont have a place for you to wait in the ER. I had to wait in a crowded patient hallway all night while they ran tests. I felt bad for the patients as I was listening to them in the rooms in front of me all night, vomiting, screaming in pain etc. The building wasnt under construction or anything, thats just the way its set up I guess. Once I was admitted, it took 9 hours to get a room. I was still stuck in the hallway, constantly having to shift my legs to the side for the patients on stretchers to come by the entire time. I had to leave at one point during my stay to take care of a family matter at home. Upon my return, the staff told me I had to redo all the tests they did just hours prior, which took all night long. I was in pain, the results were in, the doctors knew the issue and what to do about it, but according to the "hospitals policy" apparently, because I didnt essentially hogtie myself to the bed the entire stay, they wanted me to re-live that nightmare for no logical reason whatsoever. Thats obscene. Its against the oath health care workers are supposed to take that says they are not to do any harm. Thats cruel and unusual punishment for nothing other than the crime of having a family to tend to while also taking care of my emergency situation. Luckily in this case, there was a nurse practitioner who overheard and stepped in to argue that we should skip spending hours redoing all the tests that she had the results for already on the clipboard in her hands. There was pushback from the staff to the nurse practitioner, but luckily again, she held her ground and said no, were not going to waste the hospitals resources and potentially do more harm to the patient by putting them through this again unnecessarily when we could be getting to the treatment they(me) require as quickly as we can. I ran into this issue again two days later, the day of my release from the hospital. Except this time, there was no doctor or nurse practitioner around with any common sense or human decency unfortunately, so the hospitals inhumane policy which goes against the healthcare oath and should be investigated, had the upper hand and prevented me from tending to my familys needs, lest I be forced to experience that entire weekend all over again for no reason other than, I suppose, making the hospital more money for days worth of double testing? Not sure. But luckily I was released by a doctor later that day and was able to take care of my familys needs. This was just an ER visit because of severe abdominal pain that persisted for 3 days, turned hospital admittance, resulting in an antibiotic prescription and scheduled procedure and follow up with a doctor. Thats it. Thats all it had to be. This wasnt a court ordered stay or punishment, which the hospitals staff/policy made it feel like. I hope I never have to step foot in this hospital again and I strongly suggest an investigation take place. I will look into who to contact to try and make sure that takes place. If you can avoid it, dont go to HCA Healthcare Houston Southeast in Pasadena
