Ellis Hospital Hospital
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I was very well treated by everyone I can in contact with at Ellis. On the day of my surgery the staff was wonderfull kind and compassionate. Any questions I had were quickly answered - my surgeon came to see me before I was sedated and all in all I felt like I was very well taken care of.
Had a lot of high hopes based upon previous reviews of this hospital, and so am not sure what happened between those posts and my stay ... well, other than Ellis having to "absorb" the other main hospital in town.
Let me say something about the nursing and other staff first though. For the largest portion of the employees, it was obvious just how much they care about their patients, even if they can't always do all they wish for each person. In my original three days there, I'd have to say there was only one nurse out of all those I came in touch with who obviously seemed to have a problem with obese people, or for that matter, seemingly people in general.
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When I was going for all my pre-surgery tests and evaluations, the people in admitting were always personable, kind and professional. The one difficulty they had was out of their hands really, and that was getting the transportation people to deliver bariatric wheelchairs down to admitting. With the volume of patients Ellis Bariatric alone is funneling into the hospital for all of the expensive preliminary tests, having this equipment available at the first contact location they have with the patients would seem to be common sense. If you don't have enough people working in transport to handle this, then at least make the chairs available to the patients upon arriving.
Every person I came in contact with during testing, whether it was ultrasound, radiology, or even the dietitian (she was fantastic!) left very happy memories in my mind. None of them ever treated me differently, and they all were obviously concerned with my comfort, safety and happiness.
Sadly, in one of the many important patient contact areas of the hospital, Ellis really needs to do some major shaking up. The last thing someone coming out of anesthesia needs is someone being rude or misunderstanding to them. Maybe this had something to do with the amount of time recovered patients were having to spend there after surgery? Seems odd the hospital knew I was coming in for surgery on my scheduled date and time, knew I would be kept for at least a few days, and yet it still took them over six hours to get a bed in a room ready for me? Regardless of that issue, the people in recovery need to be more in tune with their patients.
When you have two patients sharing a room, there should be equality right down the center in relation to the volume and visiting time of guests, TV sound and lights, and the room temperature. Along with suffering with what obviously was an internal infection after surgery, and it's resulting pain, I had to try and cope with a room registering well over 84 degrees on the room thermostat. This was due to the older patient in the room with me being cold all the time, but instead of giving her enough covers, or coming to a happy medium for both of us (like stating the normal hospital temp regulation?), they turned the thermostat up. This also led to problems when she had company and nurses cover the vents by her bed (to keep the fan from blowing) when the heat came on. I kept smelling something odd, and finally the nurses realized the smell was due to the building up of heat in the newspapers!
As for the aides to the nursing staff, on the surgery floor where I was anyway, they almost all need some type of compassion training for the basic patient, and most assuredly some specific training in working with people of size. Most of them wear their obvious disgust and disdain for larger sized people on their faces and in their actions. This was even witnessed by my roommate (who was of normal weight) and my fiance, so it was not a matter of my being too sensitive. In fact, it was due to the rough treatment by one of these aides the day after my surgery which led to the removal of the protective strip covering one of the main incision sites on my abdomen. This very site became infected and is still being treated by in home nursing.
As for the parking, my family never knew where they might find a space each time they came due to repairs being done, areas closed off, and at night, no one cared enough to come pick up the safety cones it appeared someone was relocating to various locations, unrelated to the work being done.
The hospital was good, but the recovery room nurses were not so kind. the surgical floor nurses, cna's pats' were wonderful. They were helpful, kind, and always responded with a smile.
They are part of the reason I have decided to return to school and study to become a Medical Assistant... so what does that tell you! :)
I was very pleased with my care. It was very evident that they wanted me to have a very positive experience.
The staff was almost all ridiculously nice and helpful. I was actually shocked by how nice they were. I had my own private room. I had plenty of visitors and nothing was ever said. They were very responsive to my needs. I would recommend Ellis to anybody who is in this area and needs to choose between Ellis and Albany Med.
