Lyn Hill, the New York Methodist VP for Communications and External Affairs has responded to concerns raised by Park Slope Parents about disturbing conditions in the hospital’s emergency room (although she seems unaware that the issue made it into the blogsphere and became of concern to the greater community beyond the Park Slope Parents private club). The letter is addressed to “Dear Park Slope Parents” rather than “Dear Park Slope Community” and addresses itself to the PSP Advisory Board rather than to average residents who may have been mistreated in the emergency room. Putting all that aside, however, it does address many of the concerns that were raised, and we reproduce it in its entirety as we believe it is highly newsworthy to the entire Park Slope community and to every Brooklynite who walks through the hospital’s doors:
We at New York Methodist Hospital understand that there has been a recent discussion about the service in the Emergency Department at NYM on the PSP listserv and that several people have posted messages that express significant concern about the care they have received and/or the attitude of the staff. The Hospital has been invited to respond by the PSP Advisory Board and we are grateful for the opportunity. We take community comments very seriously and were especially disturbed that, in many cases, there was a sense that the staff of the Emergency Department did not seem to care about the feelings of the patients or their family members. That is inexcusable and, to the extent that it is the case, we will make every effort to address it.
In the past few years, partially in response to a flurry of postings on the PSP listserv in 2005, we have made many changes in our ED. Chief among these was the renovation and expansion of the entire facility, which opened last year. The new ED has a dedicated Pediatric Emergency Room and a private suite for women with obstetric or gynecological problems and is 50 percent larger than the previous ED.
We also added ED physicians and ED staff in our Patient Relations Department and implemented an ED patient survey, administered and analyzed by an independent market research organization. This has allowed us to focus on specific complaints and to monitor our progress. When letters of complaint come in to me or to the director of patient relations, the chairman of emergency medicine or the senior vice president for nursing, they are shared with all involved and thoroughly discussed before a response (both in the form of an answer to the letter-writer and a possible change in policy, procedures and/or counseling of an individual staff member) is determined.
That said, the readers of this listserv need to be aware that emergency rooms, especially those in a city like New York, do best when the care needed is for a condition that is truly emergent—life threatening. We have had some wonderful letters of thanks from individuals whose lives were saved in our ED. Often, those lives are saved because doctors and nurses divert their attention from other patients, some of who may be extremely uncomfortable, but who are not in life-threatening situations. This kind of decision is often necessary and appropriate in an emergency room. Judging an emergency room by the amount of time that you wait on any particular visit may do it a great injustice.
Sometimes we don’t know whether our symptoms are life threatening. Or, we know that an acutely painful condition is not life threatening, but still go to the ER because no other medical care is available. The ER is there for cases like this as well, but anyone not in an emergent condition needs to understand that, while we try to avoid long waits, they do sometimes occur.
It may also be helpful for you to know that alternative help may be available and accessible—for example, it may be much more expeditious to take a child with a need for stitches on the chin or forehead to a neighborhood plastic surgeon or to take one who may have a broken foot directly to an orthopedic surgeon. However, because of liability issues, once you come to an ED, neither the triage nurse, nor any other staff member can direct you out of that ED to a private doctor.
A physician referral service (accessible by area of specialty) is available at 718 499-CARE or at www.nym.org. In addition, we have a pediatric urgent care center, staffed by a pediatrician, that is available weekday evenings between 6 and 11 p.m., at 263 Seventh Avenue (between Fifth and Sixth Streets).
In the fall of 2005, the Hospital hosted a session for interested parents at which members of the ED staff (in particular, our chief of pediatric emergency medicine) spoke about the NYM Emergency Department, and at which parents had the opportunity to ask questions,voice concerns and tour the ED. Clearly it is time for us to schedule another meeting at which the Hospital and interested community members can come together to listen to each other. We will schedule our “listening session” shortly after the holidays.
In the meantime, I hope that you will feel free to contact me (lhill@nym.org) if there isany way in which I can assist you or if you have any questions you would like to ask.You may also want to contact Joanne Lagnese, Director
of Patient Relations, atjor9006@nyp.org.Sincerely,
Lyn S. Hill
Vice President of Communication and External Affairs
New York Methodist Hospital
TEL 718/780-3301 FAX 718 780-5226
There you have it. Happy holidays and we’ll have a chat after that (which hopefully will be open to the ENTIRE community.)
11 responses so far ↓
1 keisha // Dec 2, 2008 at 9:58 am
amazing!
2 vw // Dec 2, 2008 at 3:01 pm
Bullshit. This place sucks. I went there last year and waited 5-6 hours to see a doctor. I had abdominal pain so bad, I left never seeing a doctor. I sat there with many other people. It seemed like there were no doctors as every one else sat and waited like me. Turned out I had gallstones. Thanks for nothing.
3 rob // Dec 2, 2008 at 5:28 pm
My experience was the same as vw’s, except the piercing pain was in my head. Cannot stand, lose control of your bladder pain. Was it “life threatening?” (See paragraph 4 of the letter above.) Turns out it wasn’t, but no one at Methodist ever knew that cause no one ever looked at me. After waiting for hours, I went home, (crossed my fingers and) self-medicated with an out-of-date, prescription analgesic and then went to Beth Israel, where they saw me almost immediately.
A couple weeks later, someone from Methodist called and asked, “Did you get better?” Two answers came to mind:
1. “Oh, you’re referring to Rob Jr. He died recently. This is Rob Sr.”
2. “Yes. An kindly and elderly nun placed her hand on my forehead and all the symptoms went away.”
Is that the stupidest question ever? I just said “yeah,” in order to make the caller go away. They replied that they were glad to hear that. Yeah, I bet the folks in the legal department sure were.
I live five blocks from Methodist Hospital and unless I am unconscious, or the bleeding is absolutely not controllable, or the like, I will never, never, NEVER go there again. I will go to LICH, where I have never had a problem. And if the state allows Continuum to close LICH, I will go to Manhattan.
4 brooklyn lifer // Dec 2, 2008 at 5:36 pm
VW has to be kidding. The emergency room visit obviously wasn’t necessary if VW was able to walk out without seeing a doctor. I am sure the person having a heart attack or car accident victim would wait for a doctor to give VW a Tums and hug to feel better.
5 ceolaf // Dec 2, 2008 at 6:24 pm
Kicking them when they are down? Beating a dead horse? Sure!
I was so weak that I couldn’t even stay in chair, so I slip to floor and rested my head on my coat — after waiting for nearly two hours of course. My wife was called over to the desk, but they didn’t ask if I had gotten worse or if I needed anything. Rather, they wanted to ask her about her knitting.
Of course, there were beds empty in the emergency room. But they couldn’t be bothered.
6 concerned patient // Dec 2, 2008 at 8:28 pm
Earlier this year I took my wife to the ER for evaluation of a rapid heart rate and shortness of breath.
We waited from 10PM to 6AM while my wife was hooked up to a monitor. No IV fluids and no medications were administered as no doctor saw her until about 2AM. A junior resident at that, not an attending.
Another 4 hours went by without an attending physician seeing her.
I signed her out Against Medical Advice, glaring at the “attending” doctor as I said we have had enough of the waiting while symptoms worsened.
We went to another hospital where she was promptly diagnosed with myocarditis and pulmonary hypertension resulting from a severe bronchial infection, admitted for treatment and IV antibiotics. Finally released after several days.
Here’s the kicker, I used to be an attending in another department at Methodist. I resigned this year.
7 Newsouthsloper // Dec 3, 2008 at 8:33 am
Went to Methodist about a year ago with my wife who was writhing in extreme abdominal pain. We waited about 4 hours before anyone would see us – the whole time she was moaning and nearly unable to speak. Meanwhile, patients filed in who were quite obviously uninsured for various ailments including coughing, runny nose etc. Several children were admitted immediately for having the sniffles.
Diego is absolutely correct that this is a primary care facility for the uninsured, as many ER’s are. But what is truly sad is they finally saw my wife, told her she may have an ulcer and sent her home. 2 days later, whilst visiting my parents in LI, she had severe pain again, went to a LI hospital where she was seen immediately and admitted with Gallstones blocking her bile duct and causing a life threatening condition in her liver.
Thanks for nothing Methodist!
8 7th Ave // Dec 3, 2008 at 11:56 am
Has anyone gone in the past week or so???
I went to the ER twice in the past few years at Roosevelt by my work. I was in and out in two hours each time!!! I had something in my eye and a few stiches in my lip (ouch).
They were very busy bit still managed to help me. I walked in with a form from the nurse at work, which helped, but I didn’t recognize anyone on the way out.
Honestly if I had a stomache pain I would probably call the ambulance in brooklyn, rather than walk the three blocks to Methodist. My insurance would cover all but a few hundred bucks, and I would pay it just to be on the safe side.
9 lameexcuses // Dec 3, 2008 at 3:23 pm
There is a huge problem with organization, scheduling and staff at the Methodist ER. Way too much cost-cutting going on for them to properly serve the community. I had to make a 3am visit while pregnant due to acute urine retention, which is an emergency, and we sat there completely ignored 20 minutes with absolutely nobody in the waiting room performing triage and signing people in. Later I was told from 3am to 6am they don’t have anybody on staff doing triage (!). A nurse finally came out and asked why I was there, and rushed me back when she learned why. But after initial treatment by her I had to wait 5 hours for a doctor. Because they only had one or two doctors on staff for the whole ER. In total we were there from 3am to 10am. That’s totally unacceptable, I don’t care what this Methodist spokesperson says.
10 RR // Dec 8, 2008 at 4:28 pm
My 59 yo husband suffered a pulmonary embolism 13 days post operatively. I am a RN & informed the ED staff what it was, but they treated him for a heart attack and he died. That is how competent Methodist ED is. Sued for malpractice but conveniently the records disappeared and then re-appeared completely inaccurately.
11 Lauren // Dec 9, 2008 at 12:25 pm
I came down with a severe throat infection in the summer of 2006. It was so horrible, my entire neck hurt to the touch and I was spitting out my own saliva to keep from having to swallow. I arrived at the ER in NYM at about 11pm and waited more than 7 hours to see a doctor. Once I was actually led back to the ER, I waited another hour in a chair before a doctor finally checked on me. He took a rapid strep and ruled it out, then said it was probably viral and would resolve itself. He gave me a shot of painkillers (which barely helped) and sent me home. Our interaction lasted roughly 10 minutes.
The infection proceeded to get even worse after my visit, and it turned out it was niether viral nor something that would resolve itself. My former doctor, who was kind enough to help me even though she was out of network on my health insurance at the time, worried that it might be something as serious epiglottitis (a potentially life-threatening condition) and decided to call ahead and send me to LICH. I was in the ER within 45 minutes, and they did a thorough examination (including a soft tissue X-ray), diagnosed me, and prescribed antibiotics. Thankfully it was not as serious as suspected, but there was no way to have known that without making this second ER visit. Within 12 hours of my first dose of antibiotics, I was nearly pain free.
To this day I can’t think about my experience at the NYM ER without becoming both enraged and terrified at the prospect of ever having to go back there should something dire, heaven forbid, happen to me or a loved one. You can bet I filled out that survey, but I’m sorry to see that my feedback (and likely others’) seems to have gone unaddressed.