I began cancer treatments with Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara, CA. on August 2011. Since the beginning of treatments, I have been yelled at, isolated, physically injured, as punishment for complaining, laughed at, called a liar, refused treatment due to complaints, lied to, verbally abused and ultimately misled when attempting to resolve my concerns.
Consumer Complaints & Reviews
He was given pain relief, had blood and urine taken and then had an ultra sound. We were taken care of by the internist assigned to us while they checked for gall and kidney stones, likely candidates. At one point, I, even partner even asked the internist, "well if they are inconclusive then do we do an MRI?" Her response was, "the next step would be a CAT scan." After the results came back showing nothing in any area, we were then told that he was being discharged. We demanded to see the doctor who had not seen us once yet and he proceeded to tell me that it was probably a gastritis and would go away.
We had pulled over in Santa Barbara on our way home to Los Angeles from Paso Robles. That is how extreme the pain was. So, I was skeptical and asked if he could at least prescribe a pain killer. My partner said, "I am afraid of the pain." The doctor replied, "well I'm not" He felt that if it was appendicitis or something more serious he did not want me to not feel it when it got worse. Which is fine except that why did he not try to find out if it was something more serious. Isn't that the point of the hospital? He literally showed us the door, after talking to us for one minute and said, "I have to keep moving."
We left. My partner was in excruciating pain all that night when I got back to Los Angeles. Woke up the next morning and went to Cedars Sinai. Cedars did a CAT scan immediately and found in under an hour that he had severe acute colitis and admitted him where I stayed for 4 days. Why did Cottage Hospital fail to test him further on something so basic as a CAT scan for someone who literally could not go more than one hour without narcotics from the pain, is beyond me.
Ultimately coming to Cottage hospital was a costly and completely pointless waste of time and the medical care was far from adequate. We sent a request to the hospital requesting a refund as they did not find the cause nor the solution to the problem and we had to go to another hospital in the end. They felt their choices were adequate and told us so in a response June 17. I informed them via phone that I would be filing a complaint with whomever would listen. If they were busy, fine, but admit they should have investigated the problem further before sending someone with severe colitis home with nothing more than a "good luck."
He was in pain for another day, had to go to another hospital the next day and start over. We had to pay all the ER fees all over again. This was costly for us.
My husband was admitted to the above hospital on 12/24 with the devastating diagnosis Leukemia (APL). The only known treatment for this disease is a drug called ATRA. 7 days into his treatment SBCH pharmacy department forgot to reorder this vital lifesaving drug. The pharmacy admitted "it was missed". My husband is fighting the disease and between vomiting and dealing with the effects of the medications, I called 4 hospitals and numerous pharmacies myself to find the drug. It was a nightmare and took 5 years off my life in stress. The indication for this drug is to take it twice a day at a specific dose (bmi) and this was missed.
