Fair Oaks Hospital Hospital
Overall the staff at Fair Oaks was professional and caring. I was a little disappointed because the Bariatric unit was full and I was put on the general surgical floor. Ended up in a room with a lady who argued with the staff for pain Meds constantly :(. My real complaint was with the night staff. My nurse was ok, after I put in a complaint about the lack of response. However the NA was just awful. If you have to go there make ure you tell them up front you do not want Yolanda Gonzales. They should fire her just based on how she speaks o patients. After the first night when she would not respond to unplug my equipment for more than an hour so I could use the rest room, he got into a argument with my room mate and refused dump her bag I informed the nurse that if she came on that night she would not be my nurse. Sure enough night two who comes into the room with attitude on display yep Yolanda, I rang for the nurse and told her that unless they sent someone else I would be leaving as I could get better care at home. They sent in another NA who was professional and helpful. The old saying is true it takes one bad apple!
I absolutely would go nowhere else for treatment or care. While I was recovering from surgery, my family was cared for by the hospital staff and my mother (who was not a pt) but walked with a cane, was immediately given a wheelchair to make it easier to visit me, not to mention all the wonderfully delicious, healthy salads in the cafe that kept my family sustained while I healed. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this hospital. Thank you Inova Fair Oaks Hospital!
The nursing staff in pre- and post-op was amazing and set a high standard for the rest of my experience. Unfortunately, it was mostly downhill from there. When I was transferred to my room, the first shift was great. But the second one was horrible. I accidentally spilled water all over my table and on the floor and pressed the nurse call button because I didn't have any towels to clean it up, let along the ability to bend over. No one replied for at least 45 minutes. Good thing I wasn't dying -- but they didn't know that. I could hear the beeping of my call button at the nursing station even with the door closed, but not one person responded. I even tried shouting. Eventually a tech came in to do something and she helped me. She even tried calling the nurse on her cell phone and got no reply. Later, the nurse showed up and took me off the morphine and told me that I would be given a different kind of pain medication, but then she disappeared for hours. I started feeling severe pain and pushed the call button. No nurse, although I could hear the beeping at the nursing station. I called the cell number the tech gave me. It just rang. Finally the nurse showed up at least 30 minutes after I called. I was in tears from the pain. She was not sympathetic and didn't apologize or explain why she was delayed all day. I see other negative reviews about the nursing staff at this hospital and I concur. There were some bright spots and I would love to focus on them, but the bad nurses were really really bad and made my stay unnecessarily difficult. Maybe they have trouble keeping good staff? Also, I agree with the other posting about beihng shoved into a hallway to wait alone for tests. This was a) embarassing and b) made me feel like I was a charity case at a county hospital or something, not someone paying a great deal of money in a highly rated bariatric hospital.