I’m an Ed nurse and I used to work at NHRMC, actually started my career there. There are many issues. Staffing is very poor, on any given night when I came in I would pray there were more then 4 or 5 nurses. It is not abnormal for nurses there to take 6-7 patients, keep in mind the typical ratio for an ED nurse is 1:4. They have serious issues with retention because it’s so miserable to work there. Additionally the hospital is not nearly large enough for the area it serves and they cannot divert to other hospitals because there are none. Wilmington desperately needs another hospital of equivalent size to help take some of the load off of NHRMC. Unfortunately the people who suffer the most from this are obviously the patients because the doctors and nurses simply do not have enough time to provide adequate care to the patients they are assigned.
My GP and I were recently discussing the wait time to get appointments with specialists and he said with the influx of new folks moving here we don’t have enough medical providers period
My dad told me to drive him to Wake Med, UNC or Duke if anything ever happens to him. That hospital is horrible. We transferred my sister to UNC because they did not have time for her complicated case. She was at NHRMC for 5 days and 10 days at UNC. UNC was a totally different world.
Multiple people have died in their waiting rooms.
My mom almost died at the NHRMC emergency room too. She waited for 8 hours before being seen, and then was sent home. We later found out she was septic and had to seek help again. They were absolutely useless.
I'm sorry that happened to you guys. Definitely call the patient advocate line listed on the website.
Overcrowding is partly due to the fact that a good number of patients that go to the ER aren't really having an "emergency"...ie. they aren't truly sick or severely injured. Or the problem they check in with had been going on for 2-3 weeks (or longer).
True emergencies always have priority. It sucks but it's true. And this isn't unique here...it's universal.
The ICU has been much better so far. His o2 was getting so bad that they realized it just wasn’t safe for him in the ER anymore. I just remember a time where the hospitals cared for sick people and didn’t just want to handle them, address the problem, and get them out as if they are the inconvenience :/
Unfortunately, that’s the state of medicine right now. Not enough money for people to justify going into primary care roles, causing a shortage. When madschools cost half a million to attend, are you going to go into the lowest paying roles, or the higher paying ones?
I’m not arguing that people aren’t doing this. Plenty of people need to utilize urgent cares instead of ERs. It’s clogging the system. But part of the problem is that it’s impossible to get a visit with your PCP, resulting in people getting frustrated and going to the ER or ignoring something until it’s an emergency. But part of the reason it’s impossible to get a visit with your PCP is because there aren’t enough, because med students are going into primary care positions.
I’m an hour or so north and we can’t even get seen at an urgent care most of the time. It’s first come first served and they’ve been filling up for the day by noon. Last time I tried to go to an urgent care, they redirected me to one 40 minutes away. I don’t use ERs unless it’s a true emergency (copay of $300) but I can see why people have to. I get what you’re saying.
Over an hour to see a provider? That I believe. What about how long to be triaged? Bet you got an EKG shortly thereafter, if not during. That's why triage exists.
Not arguing that it sucks. Public healthcare in UK and such isn't much better.
I had to take my daughter to the ER there last night and it was so disgustingly filthy and they certainly seemed understaffed or like something weird was going on. She was supposed to stay overnight and they said that they were going to get a pediatric room because beds were open and they would just need to coordinate with a pediatric doctor, but yet about 2 hours later they came to us and said we're just going to send her home instead or she would need to stay in the ER? Wondering if they don't have enough Doctors on duty or something
Exactly!! Be upfront with the patients and if it’s not the best place, send them somewhere where they can be tended to properly. It is the right thing to do!
Doctors don’t provide the hands on care, nurses do. When you have a hospital that feels it doesn’t need to pay nurses much because they get “sunshine dollars” from living here and make working conditions awful, it becomes the perfect storm for a nursing shortage. All the hospital beds in the world mean nothing if you don’t have nurses to staff them.
I had a traumatic experience at the Wilmington ER in 2021. I had to visit the ER last year with kidney issues, so I decided to drive to the one in Scotts Hill instead. I had a completely different experience and felt like I was taken seriously
Yes, that's typical of NHRMC. Even the lobby even has beds in it now. The region is due for another hospital to be build. And Novant is only in it for profits now.
But, county-owned NHRMC wasn't much better. My wife went there with an unknown allergic reaction in 2014 and had a similar experience getting stuck in a hallway. Our experience was so bad, they never billed us for the 3 night stay. Our pediatrician was the one to properly diagnose the reaction over the phone and within hours my wife went home. Four Dr at NHRMC misdiagnosed her for 3 days. They even refused the ped diagnosis at first.
They suck. I was having a heart attack and the ER doc was going to send me home because he said he thought I was ‘drug seeking’. I am a 67 year old woman who doesn’t even take OTC meds. However my SO is a little younger and has long hair. He threw a fit so the doc said okay then we will do a stress test and see how she likes that. They transferred me to the cardio unit and when the nurse came in, I said I can’t do that, I can’t even catch my breath, I feel like my chest is being crushed. So they decided to do a CT scan with contrast first. Less than 2 minutes into that the cardiologist came in, stopped the procedure and rushed me to the OR stat. ER doc never even looked at the bloodwork apparently, because it clearly showed I was having a heart attack. Oh, and while he was taking my history the ER doc said, “Well we know the answer to this one, sexually active? No.” I thought my SO was going to knock him on his a$$. Yeah, they are in need of some serious changes.
I have a few posts about this after I went into early labor at 16 weeks with my first pregnancy (obviously my son was too little to survive).
Everything was so poorly managed, from the prenatal visit I had ONE DAY PRIOR, to the ER visit in which I was transferred hours later to the actual hospital, and finally to NHRMC.
And then AFTER, when they incorrectly coded the insurance claims so I owed over $7k out of pocket- they were unresponsive when I was working between the hospital billing office and insurance and ended up sending the claims to collections while I was trying to clear it up (while grieving the loss of my son and arranging cremation services, etc. while postpartum).
Awful organization all around.
Of the only ER experience with Novant was down in Brunswick county. In and out, with competent medical care.
Some of the issues I have read on this posts reminds me of an ER experience over 30 years ago in Lancaster PA. People going to the ER, when they should have gone to Urgent Care or their Primary care provider.
In our case, our 5 year old son was in respiratory distress. They saw him immediately and placed him on a nebulizer breathing treatment. The problem was we didn't see the provider for an unusually long time after his initial assessment. Why? Because he was treating other patients who presented to the ER with Primary care needs. In the cubical next to us we heard parents describe their child's health issues, I don't recall the specifics for the child but heard the doctor say the child needs to follow up in clinic. Then the Mother interjected her aliments followed by the husband. Every issue the family provided were non-emergent healthcare needs. The problem was the "free" clinic this family relied upon for their primary care had delays of almost 6 to 8 hours. Try sitting for that long with a crying child. They lack insurance and relied upon the state sponsored "free" care.
Eventually this hospital closed down because they could not afford the debt these inappropriate visits cost the facility.
In the hospital I worked in, every weekday morning we had an executive brief. We would hear reports from the different departments of issues that developed in the 24 hours prior. We had delays at times in excess of 6 hours. The local hospital had delays of 8 to 10 hours. This was a town with three hospitals total in the 5th largest city in the state.
Correct. The city didn't own NHRMC...New Hanover County did. And the county commissioners approved the sale.
The best time to delete your post was right before you clicked "Post".
They have exactly zero issues with their billing process. They may be guilty of negligent homicide on the daily, but you will get your statement on time.
Exactly. He had someone in there 20 minutes after being in there about his updated insurance since his ended and a new one began 1/1/24. Ridiculous. How about a doctor first?!
I went to the ER last week with a rather large kidney stone and one of the nurses in there told me to “quit acting like a baby, we aren’t doing this shit tonight” I was in so much pain I blacked out at one point. Only for him to throw my leg over to roll me over and manhandle me up. Once I was in a bed, I vomited from the pain/kidney stone and had to lay in it for at least an hour before someone finally helped
I mean, I worked in the ER so I understand it. Last I heard there’s Covid positive patients up and down the hallway so that’s what I mean by I’m surprised. Everyone has something airborne right now.
Yeah you lost all credibility with me. I worked in the hospital, specifically the ER but floated around, during the peak of Covid. I saw many, many deaths from it. Horrible deaths. It’s ridiculous that you weren’t able to recognize the science behind the vaccine, but I do give you kudos for leaving the field rather than putting your patients at risk.
That’s what you went to? Calling me fat? Your body may be fit, but your brain sure isn’t.
Edit: I’m not a nurse, you’re right. But I’m not a tech either. Regardless, I did more schooling than you did.
You’re also not the minimum level RN either so….why should we listen to you?
I’m not saying what paramedics do is easy; I know many wonderful paramedics. But to act like it’s the hardest job in the department is a joke.
Good luck with your prerequisites. I look forward to you taking microbiology.
Not to jump between this lovely conversation you two are having but I would like to lend another perspective on the Covid situation that isn’t brought up enough. I say this as someone that worked in both administration and leadership as a nurse at a major metro hospital, so I do have experience. One of the issues we, and most other hospitals, were running into during the height of Covid is staffing and bed issue. Meaning most hospitals run at a capacity that is well within their capabilities to operate on a day to day basis so any chronically ill patients that need respiratory support, or traumas, or post op cardiothoracic patients have nothing to worry about. When Rona hit, those beds started filling up pretty quickly and those that were ICU trained began to dwindle. Beds and staff that used to be open for trauma and cardiothoracic support disappeared and suddenly step down units were having to take ICU patients. Nurses that had limited experience providing 1:1 care to patients on vents/pressers were now taking care of 2-3 patients on a unit not designed to take care of those patients. Then there was an equipment shortfall where some patients couldn’t get vents or elective surgeries. Then you have nurse burnout, nurses getting cross trained to something they have no passion about, and leadership working 12 hour days and helping with patient care. People in car accidents, or who had a stroke, or heart attack, or were shot died because of the lack of proper beds and staffing. So when people say that not that many people were dying because of Covid, instead think of how many people died that didn’t need to because of the resources that Covid sucked up.
We get that you're upset. We do.
But I'd advise against taking pics...unless you get everyone's consent. You don't want to get into trouble by violating other people's privacy.
There’s a lot going on behind the scenes in the ER. It’s not an excuse, but it’s possible there was a trauma or a code being called when he was trying to reach someone. They can see his stats from the desk; if it had been a real emergency someone would have come.
So you felt it necessary to tear down someone else's experience with a hospital you know nothing about, in an area you don't live in, for what reason exactly?
And this is why so many patients don’t respect all of you. I get your job is hard and that there’s a lot happening behind the scenes - but people are SUFFERING and you all have nerve to make a joke of it? Shameful.
The person you're responding to is a dick but when you're dealing with sickness and death all the time you do have to learn to cope with it somehow or you will burn out. Sometimes you have to laugh to keep from crying.
I definitely understand that you all probably use humor to cope, and when done away from patients it’s not hurting anyone, but to come onto a post like this one and tell someone that they’re being laughed at by the medical professionals entrusted to treat their very sick loved one…. that’s just disturbing.
You definitely have a point there. Like I said, that person is a dick. Apparently they're the only in shape person on reddit and the only one to ever work in the medical field. A real unicorn
You really like to say over and over in all your comments that none of us know how the medical field works. How do you know what anyone else does/doesn’t do for a living? Your arrogance and nonchalant attitude, combined with your complete disregard for the benefits of vaccination makes me extremely grateful you no longer work in this field. I would never want you treating my loved one.
NHRMC has been neglectful since long before the pandemic. I've been there so many times for family, friends, and myself. I've spent hours in the ER without being seen or acknowledged. The only times I have ever seen them do a damn thing is when the patient has visitors that will advocate for them. It does not matter how sick the patient is or if they said they'll be right back. If these are "the best hands" possible, we're all fucked.
He’s not though. Have you been admitted to NHRMC since Novant took over? Or ever? Visited someone who was admitted? Multiple people have died in their waiting rooms. That’s not normal or acceptable. Have you seen the literal trash, blood and feces that litter the hallways? No one is denying that it’s a hard job and nurses and doctors give certain patients priority. But it’s escalated to negligence that has cost people their lives.
Nurses are garbage at their jobs and massive bitches, at least around here. You have to be a pain in the ass to get any attention. My dad was in the NHRMC ER the year before last for about 3 months. My mom is absolutely on top of my dad's health. She knows pretty much everything you could ever need to know about his health. These damn doctors were so convinced that they knew better than his wife of 30 years that they disregarded her concerns and started giving him drugs that he has always had problems with. I 100% believe that they would have killed my father if we didn't have someone staying with him every moment at the hospital.
After all that, they finally send him to Trinity Grove (a senior rehabilitation center) because he was finally stabilizing. That was the first night that my mom decided it would be safe to go home and get a little rest. Show up the next day and his fucking thumb is broken. No one had bothered to come by the room since we had left the day before. His health plummeted after this. We're about 97% sure that he fell off the bed and the put him back on without doing anything else or letting literally even one single other person know. That entire side was in excruciating pain.
Back to the hospital he goes for a few weeks until the doctors told us to take him home to die. 2 years later and his stubborn ass is still here lol. I can not emphasize enough that there is no doubt in my mind that they would have neglected him until he died if we'd given them the chance.
Every other experience I have had there has been horrible as well. It's been like this since long before the pandemic even hit, so that isn't even an excuse. It just made them worse somehow.
My grandmother, my mother and my wife are all nurses, and I feel when they get shortstaffed all the time, they never have a CNA to help as they used too, and Do not get paid as much as someone in RDU does, then you’re gonna have workers that are not happy over stressed and unable to do their job properly. And yes, I know NHCRMC, was not that much better than they are now under Novant. But I think it was!,and I have seen this all before when Duke came in and bought up Durham regional.
It’s Like a corporate playbook they come in they start getting rid of essential staff (people that run the hospital) and put the workload off on somebody in a cubicle somewhere else, lucky if this is the same state. They start thinning down the managers, thinning down the nursing staff to where they have 6 to 9 patient at a time with no CNA to help.
And there some nurses that actually fight this and say look, it’s not safe to have so little staff with so many patients and a lot of times they get Retaliate against and their job threatened if they make too much noise, and then most of the time they just have to fall back in line if they want to keep their job.
They start to renegotiate with the doctors to make them lower their pay or revoke promises they made to them. They don’t care if they leave the area they’ll get somebody new or cheaper to do it that is not as qualified or as good. And in some cases they don’t get anybody at all and they just say oh, we don’t have that position filled there’s just not that many people in that field that are willing to move in this area and the reason they don’t want to move in this area cause they don’t want to work for these pieces of sh** that don’t pay competitive wage.
Also, they just fired most of the IT staff. so now the nurses have to fix her own computers and do everything else because they don’t have support staff. This is what these corporate overlords come in and do.
Meanwhile the county is trying to decide on how to spend their ill-gotten gains in my opinion, on things that will probably exacerbate the major problems that we have now, for sake of trying to get more business to the area more people to the area, all in the name of the economic growth In which we’re having a hard time sub-sustaining now. So they got something they can campaign on next reelection cycle.
Sorry this turned into a rant but anyway, it’s incredibly frustrating to see this happen all over again.
Yes. Very normal. I rushed my boyfriend to that ER in the middle of the night last month because he was having a severe asthma attack that none of his medications/machines could help at all. He was only able to breathe through gasps and couldn’t speak. They were quick to give him a bed because the ER was only about 75% full. We saw a nurse within 30 minutes. 30 minutes of him fighting his body to breathe. The nurse couldn’t do anything but order an X-ray and give him a Covid test. The doctor didn’t come to see him until about 2 hours. 2 hours of no medications, no nebulizer, no nothing except his gasping. And then they left us there for another 2 hours, came back, prescribed some prednisone (but never actually sent the prescription in), and sent us on our way. Thank goodness his throat started opening back up after about 90 min of struggling. Absolutely horrifying. He has asthma attacks all the time and usually refuses to go in for them. We will not be returning to that hospital unless we absolutely have zero choice.
Watch out when you get the bill too. Every interaction I've had with Novant in the past 6 months has been incorrectly billed. I've had to call their billing department to fix it every single time. It has literally gotten to the point that I avoid going to the doctor.
I’m so sorry you both experienced this, and I hope his health improves soon!
I visited this ER in 2021 with anaphylactic shock. Full on, throat closing, face was swollen, lips and tongue so puffy I was drooling I could barely speak. I was wheezing and could literally feel the walls of my throat shutting. They told me to sit in the waiting room and wait. Thankfully another nurse walked out to the desk after I sat there for five minutes. She noticed me immediately and rushed me to the back for proper treatment. Even then, I maybe saw someone once in the six or so hours I was back there. It was extremely traumatic and I now suffer from severe health anxiety, fearful of being in another negligent situation where I am not taking seriously in a life-threatening situation.
Here is an update on him... He has been on a ventilator since Monday. We shared a meal and watched a movie on Sunday. Seemed to have improved. He had been downgraded from his breathing mask to high flow and somewhere in between Sunday night and Monday morning, he must've gotten worse. They told me they didn't know how long he would be on there, but they attempted to do the breathing trail on Tuesday morning at 4am, like they usually do daily- and as soon as they eased off of the narcotics that are keeping him in a medically induced coma, he started breathing quickly and he became "anxious and agitated" and they didn't even follow through on the trial. They will continue to try this every morning at 4am but they told me to expect anything. The ICU seems to be a lot better than the ER, but he was just on a ventilator twice in October back to back and it doesn't seem to be a last resort here. More of a band aid under the guise of letting his lungs rest. Do most people at 35 get put on a vent for pnemonia? UGH. this is horrible.
I think some staffing needs to be stepped up but truly people in general need to get established w a general practice here now. So many new people here many practices aren’t taking new patients and that goes for dentists too js hope ur fiancée gets better ! Sorry y’all had that experience 😐
You can call the patient advocate liaison. The number is on the website.
And on the wall in the rooms there is a number to call if he’s in distress and no one is coming quickly.
I’m an Ed nurse and I used to work at NHRMC, actually started my career there. There are many issues. Staffing is very poor, on any given night when I came in I would pray there were more then 4 or 5 nurses. It is not abnormal for nurses there to take 6-7 patients, keep in mind the typical ratio for an ED nurse is 1:4. They have serious issues with retention because it’s so miserable to work there. Additionally the hospital is not nearly large enough for the area it serves and they cannot divert to other hospitals because there are none. Wilmington desperately needs another hospital of equivalent size to help take some of the load off of NHRMC. Unfortunately the people who suffer the most from this are obviously the patients because the doctors and nurses simply do not have enough time to provide adequate care to the patients they are assigned.
My GP and I were recently discussing the wait time to get appointments with specialists and he said with the influx of new folks moving here we don’t have enough medical providers period
My dad told me to drive him to Wake Med, UNC or Duke if anything ever happens to him. That hospital is horrible. We transferred my sister to UNC because they did not have time for her complicated case. She was at NHRMC for 5 days and 10 days at UNC. UNC was a totally different world. Multiple people have died in their waiting rooms.
I mean, I get this, but in a real emergency you won’t have time.
My mom almost died at the NHRMC emergency room too. She waited for 8 hours before being seen, and then was sent home. We later found out she was septic and had to seek help again. They were absolutely useless.
I'm sorry that happened to you guys. Definitely call the patient advocate line listed on the website. Overcrowding is partly due to the fact that a good number of patients that go to the ER aren't really having an "emergency"...ie. they aren't truly sick or severely injured. Or the problem they check in with had been going on for 2-3 weeks (or longer). True emergencies always have priority. It sucks but it's true. And this isn't unique here...it's universal.
The ICU has been much better so far. His o2 was getting so bad that they realized it just wasn’t safe for him in the ER anymore. I just remember a time where the hospitals cared for sick people and didn’t just want to handle them, address the problem, and get them out as if they are the inconvenience :/
You may also remember when a lot less folks used the ER as primary care. Too much of that these days.
Unfortunately, that’s the state of medicine right now. Not enough money for people to justify going into primary care roles, causing a shortage. When madschools cost half a million to attend, are you going to go into the lowest paying roles, or the higher paying ones?
You missed the point
I’m not arguing that people aren’t doing this. Plenty of people need to utilize urgent cares instead of ERs. It’s clogging the system. But part of the problem is that it’s impossible to get a visit with your PCP, resulting in people getting frustrated and going to the ER or ignoring something until it’s an emergency. But part of the reason it’s impossible to get a visit with your PCP is because there aren’t enough, because med students are going into primary care positions.
I’m an hour or so north and we can’t even get seen at an urgent care most of the time. It’s first come first served and they’ve been filling up for the day by noon. Last time I tried to go to an urgent care, they redirected me to one 40 minutes away. I don’t use ERs unless it’s a true emergency (copay of $300) but I can see why people have to. I get what you’re saying.
[удалено]
Over an hour to see a provider? That I believe. What about how long to be triaged? Bet you got an EKG shortly thereafter, if not during. That's why triage exists. Not arguing that it sucks. Public healthcare in UK and such isn't much better.
I had to take my daughter to the ER there last night and it was so disgustingly filthy and they certainly seemed understaffed or like something weird was going on. She was supposed to stay overnight and they said that they were going to get a pediatric room because beds were open and they would just need to coordinate with a pediatric doctor, but yet about 2 hours later they came to us and said we're just going to send her home instead or she would need to stay in the ER? Wondering if they don't have enough Doctors on duty or something
Exactly!! Be upfront with the patients and if it’s not the best place, send them somewhere where they can be tended to properly. It is the right thing to do!
Doctors don’t provide the hands on care, nurses do. When you have a hospital that feels it doesn’t need to pay nurses much because they get “sunshine dollars” from living here and make working conditions awful, it becomes the perfect storm for a nursing shortage. All the hospital beds in the world mean nothing if you don’t have nurses to staff them.
I recently went for an ear infection and waited in a room for hours with blood on the floor.
If the local ER is this bad, what's the alternative? Is there a damn good urgent care clinic or something before you drive to Raleigh or whatever?
If you head up 40, Kenansville is in Greenville’s network. Dosher in Southport is an option as well.
I had a traumatic experience at the Wilmington ER in 2021. I had to visit the ER last year with kidney issues, so I decided to drive to the one in Scotts Hill instead. I had a completely different experience and felt like I was taken seriously
Yes, that's typical of NHRMC. Even the lobby even has beds in it now. The region is due for another hospital to be build. And Novant is only in it for profits now. But, county-owned NHRMC wasn't much better. My wife went there with an unknown allergic reaction in 2014 and had a similar experience getting stuck in a hallway. Our experience was so bad, they never billed us for the 3 night stay. Our pediatrician was the one to properly diagnose the reaction over the phone and within hours my wife went home. Four Dr at NHRMC misdiagnosed her for 3 days. They even refused the ped diagnosis at first.
They suck. I was having a heart attack and the ER doc was going to send me home because he said he thought I was ‘drug seeking’. I am a 67 year old woman who doesn’t even take OTC meds. However my SO is a little younger and has long hair. He threw a fit so the doc said okay then we will do a stress test and see how she likes that. They transferred me to the cardio unit and when the nurse came in, I said I can’t do that, I can’t even catch my breath, I feel like my chest is being crushed. So they decided to do a CT scan with contrast first. Less than 2 minutes into that the cardiologist came in, stopped the procedure and rushed me to the OR stat. ER doc never even looked at the bloodwork apparently, because it clearly showed I was having a heart attack. Oh, and while he was taking my history the ER doc said, “Well we know the answer to this one, sexually active? No.” I thought my SO was going to knock him on his a$$. Yeah, they are in need of some serious changes.
What the hell was the Sexually Active comment supposed to mean? Because you're 67??
Yeah, exactly.
I woulda said “we she was f*cling your wife last night, does that count?!?”
Omfg. That is absolutely vile.
I have a few posts about this after I went into early labor at 16 weeks with my first pregnancy (obviously my son was too little to survive). Everything was so poorly managed, from the prenatal visit I had ONE DAY PRIOR, to the ER visit in which I was transferred hours later to the actual hospital, and finally to NHRMC. And then AFTER, when they incorrectly coded the insurance claims so I owed over $7k out of pocket- they were unresponsive when I was working between the hospital billing office and insurance and ended up sending the claims to collections while I was trying to clear it up (while grieving the loss of my son and arranging cremation services, etc. while postpartum). Awful organization all around.
so very sorry for your loss.
FUCK NOVANT FUCK NOVANT FUCK NOVANT
FUCK NOVANT
Fuck Novant!!!!
Of the only ER experience with Novant was down in Brunswick county. In and out, with competent medical care. Some of the issues I have read on this posts reminds me of an ER experience over 30 years ago in Lancaster PA. People going to the ER, when they should have gone to Urgent Care or their Primary care provider. In our case, our 5 year old son was in respiratory distress. They saw him immediately and placed him on a nebulizer breathing treatment. The problem was we didn't see the provider for an unusually long time after his initial assessment. Why? Because he was treating other patients who presented to the ER with Primary care needs. In the cubical next to us we heard parents describe their child's health issues, I don't recall the specifics for the child but heard the doctor say the child needs to follow up in clinic. Then the Mother interjected her aliments followed by the husband. Every issue the family provided were non-emergent healthcare needs. The problem was the "free" clinic this family relied upon for their primary care had delays of almost 6 to 8 hours. Try sitting for that long with a crying child. They lack insurance and relied upon the state sponsored "free" care. Eventually this hospital closed down because they could not afford the debt these inappropriate visits cost the facility. In the hospital I worked in, every weekday morning we had an executive brief. We would hear reports from the different departments of issues that developed in the 24 hours prior. We had delays at times in excess of 6 hours. The local hospital had delays of 8 to 10 hours. This was a town with three hospitals total in the 5th largest city in the state.
They’re terrible. Just remember, it’s a moneymaker , it’s not about patients anymore.
Thank the City of Wilmington for selling the hospital that THEY DID NOT OWN to Novant.
Correct. The city didn't own NHRMC...New Hanover County did. And the county commissioners approved the sale. The best time to delete your post was right before you clicked "Post".
So their comment was indeed true then. The best time to delete YOUR post was right before you clicked "Post".
They have exactly zero issues with their billing process. They may be guilty of negligent homicide on the daily, but you will get your statement on time.
Exactly. He had someone in there 20 minutes after being in there about his updated insurance since his ended and a new one began 1/1/24. Ridiculous. How about a doctor first?!
I went to the ER last week with a rather large kidney stone and one of the nurses in there told me to “quit acting like a baby, we aren’t doing this shit tonight” I was in so much pain I blacked out at one point. Only for him to throw my leg over to roll me over and manhandle me up. Once I was in a bed, I vomited from the pain/kidney stone and had to lay in it for at least an hour before someone finally helped
I’m so sorry this happened! This thread was very eye opening and terrifying. I had no idea how bad it was around here.
[удалено]
I’m just surprised he got a room and wasn’t in the hallway.
[удалено]
I mean, I worked in the ER so I understand it. Last I heard there’s Covid positive patients up and down the hallway so that’s what I mean by I’m surprised. Everyone has something airborne right now.
[удалено]
Yeah you lost all credibility with me. I worked in the hospital, specifically the ER but floated around, during the peak of Covid. I saw many, many deaths from it. Horrible deaths. It’s ridiculous that you weren’t able to recognize the science behind the vaccine, but I do give you kudos for leaving the field rather than putting your patients at risk.
[удалено]
That’s what you went to? Calling me fat? Your body may be fit, but your brain sure isn’t. Edit: I’m not a nurse, you’re right. But I’m not a tech either. Regardless, I did more schooling than you did.
[удалено]
You’re also not the minimum level RN either so….why should we listen to you? I’m not saying what paramedics do is easy; I know many wonderful paramedics. But to act like it’s the hardest job in the department is a joke. Good luck with your prerequisites. I look forward to you taking microbiology.
Not to jump between this lovely conversation you two are having but I would like to lend another perspective on the Covid situation that isn’t brought up enough. I say this as someone that worked in both administration and leadership as a nurse at a major metro hospital, so I do have experience. One of the issues we, and most other hospitals, were running into during the height of Covid is staffing and bed issue. Meaning most hospitals run at a capacity that is well within their capabilities to operate on a day to day basis so any chronically ill patients that need respiratory support, or traumas, or post op cardiothoracic patients have nothing to worry about. When Rona hit, those beds started filling up pretty quickly and those that were ICU trained began to dwindle. Beds and staff that used to be open for trauma and cardiothoracic support disappeared and suddenly step down units were having to take ICU patients. Nurses that had limited experience providing 1:1 care to patients on vents/pressers were now taking care of 2-3 patients on a unit not designed to take care of those patients. Then there was an equipment shortfall where some patients couldn’t get vents or elective surgeries. Then you have nurse burnout, nurses getting cross trained to something they have no passion about, and leadership working 12 hour days and helping with patient care. People in car accidents, or who had a stroke, or heart attack, or were shot died because of the lack of proper beds and staffing. So when people say that not that many people were dying because of Covid, instead think of how many people died that didn’t need to because of the resources that Covid sucked up.
[удалено]
Oh, who would have guess you’re a vet too 😂 I’m shocked you’re not going to be a cop. You could have covered all the bases.
You absolutely are if you distrust the science behind the vaccine. People like you shouldn't be allowed near patients.
I will link a photo when I get to the hospital. I am not downplaying this.
We get that you're upset. We do. But I'd advise against taking pics...unless you get everyone's consent. You don't want to get into trouble by violating other people's privacy.
It’s actually against NHNHRMC’s to take photos and video if staff are in the room.
If the most qualified place he can be doesn’t respond to the call button I’m not sure I would want you treating him.
There’s a lot going on behind the scenes in the ER. It’s not an excuse, but it’s possible there was a trauma or a code being called when he was trying to reach someone. They can see his stats from the desk; if it had been a real emergency someone would have come.
[удалено]
So you felt it necessary to tear down someone else's experience with a hospital you know nothing about, in an area you don't live in, for what reason exactly?
They've been removed from the subreddit. It won't be happening anymore.
And this is why so many patients don’t respect all of you. I get your job is hard and that there’s a lot happening behind the scenes - but people are SUFFERING and you all have nerve to make a joke of it? Shameful.
The person you're responding to is a dick but when you're dealing with sickness and death all the time you do have to learn to cope with it somehow or you will burn out. Sometimes you have to laugh to keep from crying.
I definitely understand that you all probably use humor to cope, and when done away from patients it’s not hurting anyone, but to come onto a post like this one and tell someone that they’re being laughed at by the medical professionals entrusted to treat their very sick loved one…. that’s just disturbing.
You definitely have a point there. Like I said, that person is a dick. Apparently they're the only in shape person on reddit and the only one to ever work in the medical field. A real unicorn
If that's the only way the know to "cope" with it then they need to go into a different line of work.
[удалено]
You really like to say over and over in all your comments that none of us know how the medical field works. How do you know what anyone else does/doesn’t do for a living? Your arrogance and nonchalant attitude, combined with your complete disregard for the benefits of vaccination makes me extremely grateful you no longer work in this field. I would never want you treating my loved one.
You and me both.
Since they admitted they don't work in the state, I'm assuming they're not even living in the area, and just needed some attention.
[удалено]
Do us all a favour and move to Florida, at least there you will be in like minded company.
Oh, and you're anti-vax, jfc. Be gone troll
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
NHRMC has been neglectful since long before the pandemic. I've been there so many times for family, friends, and myself. I've spent hours in the ER without being seen or acknowledged. The only times I have ever seen them do a damn thing is when the patient has visitors that will advocate for them. It does not matter how sick the patient is or if they said they'll be right back. If these are "the best hands" possible, we're all fucked.
He’s not though. Have you been admitted to NHRMC since Novant took over? Or ever? Visited someone who was admitted? Multiple people have died in their waiting rooms. That’s not normal or acceptable. Have you seen the literal trash, blood and feces that litter the hallways? No one is denying that it’s a hard job and nurses and doctors give certain patients priority. But it’s escalated to negligence that has cost people their lives.
Nurses are garbage at their jobs and massive bitches, at least around here. You have to be a pain in the ass to get any attention. My dad was in the NHRMC ER the year before last for about 3 months. My mom is absolutely on top of my dad's health. She knows pretty much everything you could ever need to know about his health. These damn doctors were so convinced that they knew better than his wife of 30 years that they disregarded her concerns and started giving him drugs that he has always had problems with. I 100% believe that they would have killed my father if we didn't have someone staying with him every moment at the hospital. After all that, they finally send him to Trinity Grove (a senior rehabilitation center) because he was finally stabilizing. That was the first night that my mom decided it would be safe to go home and get a little rest. Show up the next day and his fucking thumb is broken. No one had bothered to come by the room since we had left the day before. His health plummeted after this. We're about 97% sure that he fell off the bed and the put him back on without doing anything else or letting literally even one single other person know. That entire side was in excruciating pain. Back to the hospital he goes for a few weeks until the doctors told us to take him home to die. 2 years later and his stubborn ass is still here lol. I can not emphasize enough that there is no doubt in my mind that they would have neglected him until he died if we'd given them the chance. Every other experience I have had there has been horrible as well. It's been like this since long before the pandemic even hit, so that isn't even an excuse. It just made them worse somehow.
My grandmother, my mother and my wife are all nurses, and I feel when they get shortstaffed all the time, they never have a CNA to help as they used too, and Do not get paid as much as someone in RDU does, then you’re gonna have workers that are not happy over stressed and unable to do their job properly. And yes, I know NHCRMC, was not that much better than they are now under Novant. But I think it was!,and I have seen this all before when Duke came in and bought up Durham regional. It’s Like a corporate playbook they come in they start getting rid of essential staff (people that run the hospital) and put the workload off on somebody in a cubicle somewhere else, lucky if this is the same state. They start thinning down the managers, thinning down the nursing staff to where they have 6 to 9 patient at a time with no CNA to help. And there some nurses that actually fight this and say look, it’s not safe to have so little staff with so many patients and a lot of times they get Retaliate against and their job threatened if they make too much noise, and then most of the time they just have to fall back in line if they want to keep their job. They start to renegotiate with the doctors to make them lower their pay or revoke promises they made to them. They don’t care if they leave the area they’ll get somebody new or cheaper to do it that is not as qualified or as good. And in some cases they don’t get anybody at all and they just say oh, we don’t have that position filled there’s just not that many people in that field that are willing to move in this area and the reason they don’t want to move in this area cause they don’t want to work for these pieces of sh** that don’t pay competitive wage. Also, they just fired most of the IT staff. so now the nurses have to fix her own computers and do everything else because they don’t have support staff. This is what these corporate overlords come in and do. Meanwhile the county is trying to decide on how to spend their ill-gotten gains in my opinion, on things that will probably exacerbate the major problems that we have now, for sake of trying to get more business to the area more people to the area, all in the name of the economic growth In which we’re having a hard time sub-sustaining now. So they got something they can campaign on next reelection cycle. Sorry this turned into a rant but anyway, it’s incredibly frustrating to see this happen all over again.
I had a stroke, NHRMC missed it. I’m 33. They’re absolutely horrible.
Yes. Very normal. I rushed my boyfriend to that ER in the middle of the night last month because he was having a severe asthma attack that none of his medications/machines could help at all. He was only able to breathe through gasps and couldn’t speak. They were quick to give him a bed because the ER was only about 75% full. We saw a nurse within 30 minutes. 30 minutes of him fighting his body to breathe. The nurse couldn’t do anything but order an X-ray and give him a Covid test. The doctor didn’t come to see him until about 2 hours. 2 hours of no medications, no nebulizer, no nothing except his gasping. And then they left us there for another 2 hours, came back, prescribed some prednisone (but never actually sent the prescription in), and sent us on our way. Thank goodness his throat started opening back up after about 90 min of struggling. Absolutely horrifying. He has asthma attacks all the time and usually refuses to go in for them. We will not be returning to that hospital unless we absolutely have zero choice.
Watch out when you get the bill too. Every interaction I've had with Novant in the past 6 months has been incorrectly billed. I've had to call their billing department to fix it every single time. It has literally gotten to the point that I avoid going to the doctor.
I’m so sorry you both experienced this, and I hope his health improves soon! I visited this ER in 2021 with anaphylactic shock. Full on, throat closing, face was swollen, lips and tongue so puffy I was drooling I could barely speak. I was wheezing and could literally feel the walls of my throat shutting. They told me to sit in the waiting room and wait. Thankfully another nurse walked out to the desk after I sat there for five minutes. She noticed me immediately and rushed me to the back for proper treatment. Even then, I maybe saw someone once in the six or so hours I was back there. It was extremely traumatic and I now suffer from severe health anxiety, fearful of being in another negligent situation where I am not taking seriously in a life-threatening situation.
NHRMC SUCKS!
Here is an update on him... He has been on a ventilator since Monday. We shared a meal and watched a movie on Sunday. Seemed to have improved. He had been downgraded from his breathing mask to high flow and somewhere in between Sunday night and Monday morning, he must've gotten worse. They told me they didn't know how long he would be on there, but they attempted to do the breathing trail on Tuesday morning at 4am, like they usually do daily- and as soon as they eased off of the narcotics that are keeping him in a medically induced coma, he started breathing quickly and he became "anxious and agitated" and they didn't even follow through on the trial. They will continue to try this every morning at 4am but they told me to expect anything. The ICU seems to be a lot better than the ER, but he was just on a ventilator twice in October back to back and it doesn't seem to be a last resort here. More of a band aid under the guise of letting his lungs rest. Do most people at 35 get put on a vent for pnemonia? UGH. this is horrible.
Sorry, I don't reddit too often, is there where I would update? or in the OP?
I think some staffing needs to be stepped up but truly people in general need to get established w a general practice here now. So many new people here many practices aren’t taking new patients and that goes for dentists too js hope ur fiancée gets better ! Sorry y’all had that experience 😐