Would You Address This? My Hospital Stay Was Horrible

[SunnyPupRN]

A few weeks ago, I was admitted to one of the Big Three hospitals in this small town...meaning it has tons of satellite physician offices all over. I am also looking for a job and there are not many opportunities here as in a bigger city.

This is what happened: I took a break from working out, and then went to the gym and started a heavy training programme including deep squats with weights. I had been lifting previously, and didn't think much to go right back to it. The burn in my legs was immediate, but I just thought I was really kicking some butt in the gym and I kept pressing on through the pain, doing super sets, etc.

By the next day, I was having trouble walking, way more than typical soreness after working out. Two days later I noticed my urine was a little bit brown. My dog jumped up on me and it felt like I had gotten hit with a baseball bat.

I managed to drive to the ER, which is really within walking distance, but I was having trouble walking. I told them I suspected I had rhabdomyalysis, and eventually I was admitted.

Almost immediately, things started to go wrong. The nurse insisted on a straight-cath, which I protested because I am prone to UTI and because the standard cath is too big for my urethra. I would have needed help to the restroom, but I could have provided a specimen. They refused to help and cath'd me. My urethra bled bright red, obviously painful. I gave the list of my home meds. All were immediately discontinued except for Topamax. One of them was clonazepam. By the third day in the hospital without the clonazepam, I was getting panicky and starting to vomit.

Meanwhile, not being able to walk well, I had to wait for help to the restroom. They would say someone was coming and I could literally wait hours before anyone showed up. I resorted to hanging onto my IV pole and dragging myself to the restroom. During the night shift, I saw the nurse twice. My IV fluids, which were essential to flushing my kidneys, ran dry for 12 hours. When they did run, two IV sites infiltrated and I called and asked for a nurse to come take out the IV because fluids were swelling under my skin. A solid hour passed...I could go on and on about the shortcomings, how I could hear them giving report on every patient because of their voices and my room location, but mainly my anger is because I will have a huge hospital bill and very substandard care. Essentially, while I had no fluids, I was getting no medical help at all.

Sorry for this long post.

I just wonder if I should address this with someone in the hospital?

[JustBeachyNurse, LPN]

Patient relations assuming you are in the US

[turnforthenurse, MSN, NP]

Sounds like you want to address it so go ahead and address it! Ask to speak with Patient Advocacy or Patient Relations.

[annie.rn]

Sounds pretty subpar. I think you should say something b/c otherwise it will eat you up inside. I'd be surprised if it actually led to any substantiative change, though. I'm sorry to be so cynical.

I'm really sorry you had to go through all that and hope you are now on the mend. Easy on the super sets :-)

[imintrouble, BSN, RN]

I've complained about bad hospital care. It's been a long time ago, and before I was a nurse.

If you need to report it, you need to report it.

But since I've become a nurse, I find it much more beneficial to complain about bad care in real time.

You will see immediate results, and the impact on the nurse giving substandard care is greater.

The time to complain about anything, is when it's happening.

I know sick people don't feel like fighting a battle. I wouldn't either.

It's just the best way to get things to change.

[motor_mouth, MSN, RN]

My dad has actually called the front desk of the hospital. using words like "lawyer" and "lawsuit" when he was receiving subpar care. From what he said, the care improved.

[SunnyPupRN]

Thank you for all your thoughtful words. I really appreciate them, and it has helped me make my decision. I should clarify, for those who mentioned complaining in real time, that a patient advocate from my insurance company did come in while I was there, and I very frankly told her what was going on. She sort of said, "Oh my goodness, well, I'm here, so let me know what happens,"walked out and I never saw her again. The second thing was that the beginnngs of withdrawals from my home medications made me restless, anxious, vomiting and have a little bit of depersonalization sensation. From time to time, I had IV morphine, so I was perhaps not able to form thoughts coherently and come across lucidly. But now I will write down the issues that occured and I thank you all for your input! You are wonderful people!

[JustBeachyNurse, LPN]

The patient advocate on staff at the hospital is who you should contact not the one at your insurance company.

[Karou]

Yes you need to contact the patient advocate from the hospital. Truly, you got crappy care.

Ignoring an infiltrating IV, letting fluids run dry for 12 hours, having a high fall risk patient ambulate themselves at night... Geeze. Did they give you a urinal?

The medication blame should go to the physician. I wouldn't blame the nurses yet- I know I personally have advocated for a patient to get home meds reconciled and been turned down because of doctors that don't want to "over sedate" patients who are also taking IV narcotics in the hospital.

I am sorry for your lousy inpatient experience. You have some good examples and valid points to illustrate the poor care. I would contact the patient advocate while the experience is fresh on your mind.

Edited to add that I assumed you are a male OP. I apologize if you are female! Ignore the urinal comment if so.

[applesxoranges, BSN, RN]

I'm skeptical. I am also biased and nicer because I've seen what floor nurses have to do. My friend experienced poor care but they were nicer when I was there because the nurse didn't have the orders they needed. Once the doctor came in and wrote decent orders, he received better care. Naturally I received the benefit of "you helped him because you had us write down what we wanted for the doctor."

[MunoRN, RN]

If your description is accurate, then yes some aspects were bad care. As for your meds, it actually is really important to stop some home meds. Clonazepam can actually be a cause of rhabdo, and can be counterproductive during the recovery period. Your acuity was likely fairly low, which unfortunately these days means the workload of your staff doesn't usually allow for immediate response to non-life threatening requests, it probably would have made much more sense for you to become familiar with using a urinal in bed or a bedside commode, going all the way into the bathroom each time was probably unrealistic. Unless your fluids were intentionally stopped for some reason you shouldn't have gone 12 hours without them running. Typically even small hospitals will have some sort of patient experience person you could talk to, or a nursing manager at least.

[Apples&Oranges]

I'm so sorry for that experience.

Are you a licensed RN?

I'm just curious as to why you would not have taken out an infiltrated IV yourself, or made a bunch of noise if you saw that ordered IVF were not infusing for 1 hour, let alone 12 hours.

If someone tried to cath my patient without consent, I would put my body in between them and the patient (and yes, I have done this.) There is NO POSSIBLE WAY someone would cath me when I was saying no, unless I was in leathers. And then we would discuss it again...in court.

If my needed PO meds were D/C'd, I would insist on speaking with the ordering physician immediately. As a nurse, I'm super comfortable questioning MDs' judgement...I do it all day every day.