Presbyterian Hospital of Denton Hospital

I had a very wonderful group of nurses that cared for me while I had my 3 day stay in the hospital. Everyone was caring and very accomedating for my husband who stayed 2 nights with me.

DO NOT EXPECT THIS HOSPITAL TO CARE FOR YOU! Plan to have someone stay with you in your room for at least the first 48 hours. Nurses were grossly understaffed and there was no communication whatsoever between the nursing staff and the nursing techs. During shift changes (7:00 AM and 7:00 PM), you can expect to be left alone for the last hour before and the first hour after the shift change.

Here are just a few of the things I experienced, that having someone stay with me could have helped with:
-the morning after surgery, I waited 45 minutes for ice chips! When your lips are glued to your teeth, this is really miserable.
-they were two hours late with pain medicine once, even though I asked five times during the two hours. If you had an "advocate" with you, they could go stand at the nurses station until your meds are delivered.
-the night of surgery, I was left without a call button. I tried using the buttons on the bed, and after 45 minutes and no response, I used my cell phone to call the hospital front desk. I was later informed that the buttons on the bed were all broken, and the call button I was supposed to use had been left across the room, far out of my reach. BTW, there was no indication on the bed that the buttons didn't work.
-the morning after surgery, my doctor changed my pain medicine. he told me it would take 20 minutes to get the medicine switched. I was eager for the new medicine as I was having a lot of itching. It took four hours to get the new medicine and the secretary failed to send the order to the pharmacy.

These are just a few of the highlights, I could go one and one. Just be prepared at this hospital. Have someone with you, and dont be afraid to excalate to the charge nurse or the nursing supervisor if you can't get what you need. When you are immediately post-op, you are fragile, and there is NO NEED to wait two hours for pain meds. Don't accept that.

My daytime nurse (Connie)and pt tech (Pam)were excellent. The evening nurse (Jan) and pt tech (john) were what nightmares are made of.

Pre-Registering was a very upsetting situation. However after that was taken care of I really had no comment. The one person I dealt with was very cold and gave back information. So that caused a lot of stress that should not have been the week before surgery.

My general overall experience was excellent except for two thing. One was the day after my surgery and group of high school health career students came into my room One student had a head cold and stood there at the end of my bed coughing his head off. They were in my room such a short time that I didn't have a chance to say anything to the instructor. As a result I got very sick with whatever he had and ended up having to be transferred to a rehab hospital in order to get my health and strength back.

The second situation was with the one stupid desk clerk not informing my nurse I needed pain meds. I went for seven hours one day waiting for the medication even though I had rung the bell for the nurse several times. The dumb clerk always answered it and then never told my nurse I had to have my medication. When I told Dr Mosier's patient coordinator both she and the doctor got in touch with the director of nursing for that floor and that ward clerk got in deep doo doo.

Other than those to situations I really like this hospital.

It was 4th of July weekend so there were only three overnight patients on my hall. There were three nurses working that night and service was SLOW! Also, I was self-pay and paid up front, two weeks after surgery I received a bill for $31K - the billing dept said they'd look into it and make corrections.

In my limited experience, I found them very helpful. The layout of the hospital is good, easy to find the offices you need, and small and easily accessible.