St. Vincent Hospital

When arriving at the hospital on Friday, my mother was in level 4 restraints, her room was switched, her mouth was swollen and lips were cracked and bloody. I was not contacted about the restraints nor her move. The staff was rude and disorderly. This was a very unusual visit because my mom has been in the hospital for over a month and my family and I had no complaints, but after her move to the fifth floor, the nurses seem to have no bedside manner. Again, I was very shocked at the behavior of the staff and could not believe what was going on.

There was a sitter in my mom's room as well, which concerned me with the restraints being so serious. I was there for three hours and no one came to give her a break from the restraints. The staff could not explain to me how often she should be released from the restraints. No one came to see if she had eaten or drank until I called for a nurse. In addition to everything, after talking to my mom, it was apparent that her gums were grossly swollen which was the reason she hadn't eaten. For this particular day, the list just grew longer and longer.

When the head nurse came in, I was trying to hold a conversation with her to find out what had happened the night before and she was just rude. No eye contact and she used a condescending voice the entire time. My mother has some serious problems going on and I am concerned about her treatment continuing on at St. Vincent. I think my biggest concern was the lack of empathy when dealing with my mother. This group of staff on Friday was the worst I have ever seen in the health care field. I have been in the medical field for years and level 4 restraints on, without contacting the family, is just unacceptable.

This place sends patients home after surgery with fevers telling them that this is normal and if it gets worse to call their personal physician. Staff doesn't communicate with family or patient because there are so few staff they are overworked. Staff is pulled from one area and placed in other areas that they aren't trained in or familiar with. Nurses are pulled from a geriatric floor and put to work in a level III NICU where they have no experience.

Case A: a medicare patient is admitted with a bowel obstruction, and NG tube is put into the stomach with through the nose. The patient is given an 'emergency colonoscopy' the doctor notes in the chart that the patient needs surgery for a new cancer. Nobody tells the patient, the family or the patients primary care physician. Repeated requests for information/contact with the doctor are ignored.

Four days pass. The patient pulls the NG tube out on several occasions. Its found on the bed or floor, the staff member picks it up and puts it back into the patients stomach through the nose.

The family complains and asks for a patient advocate because the patient is found on the bed with no bedding several times, staff is asked for blankets and the family is told that they dont have any. Messages are left for the patient advocate. The family is told the hospital no longer has a patient advocate and is given the number for the floor manager. Three days later the floor manager calls the family and apologizes. The patient still has no blanket. The patient is sent home after a week and a half when the Medicare runs out.

Case B: patient has bariactric surgery on friday. Starts to complain about swelling and pain in the abdomen and asks for the doctor to be notified. The staff refuses to contact the doctor because they dont want to make the doctor angry with them. The family asks for the doctor to be contacted when the patient starts running a high fever. The staff still refuses to call the doctor. The next day, the doctor on call is contacted and finds that the patient has a massive infection and transfers the patient to ICU.

Case C: patient has abdominal surgery on monday, has trouble in recovery, very low blood pressure, doesnt come out of recovery for many hours. Family isnt told that there is a problem until very late that evening. Patient seems to be doing well but there is a problem with the surgical drain, the device used to suck fluids out keeps falling off the drain tube, its a small bulb that needs to be squeezed so that is sucks out the fluids and it needs to be emptied from time to time.

The bulb falls off and the drain leaks out on the patient and the floor. The staff usually just picks up the bulb and sticks it back onto the tube. The patient is sent home with a fever after four days recovery.

Case A: after a week and a half, the family is called at 7:30am by a case worker from the hospital, they are told that the patient has been released to a nursing home and they need to be at the hospital by noon with $50 cash to pay the transportation company that is going to take the patient to the nursing home. There was no prior discussion with the patient, the primary care physician or the family.

The case worker told the family that the patient could not go home, that the patient needed rehab and that the hospital had contracts with several nursing homes. The case worker would not say what home the patient was released to. The family contacted the primary care physician and had to find a home of their own choosing the place the patient in before the hospital sent the patient to one of their own homes. The family had to arrange transport on their own, the case worker agreed but only if the family took the patient out before noon, if the patient wasnt taken before noon, the hospital would go ahead with the transfer.

Once the patient got settled at the nursing home things got worse. The fever kept going up and the patient wasnt able to eat. After a week, the patient had symptoms of a heart attack and was transported by ambulance to a different hospital. The physicians there determined that the fever was due to a massive esophageal infection that had progressed to the patients bloodstream. The patient was given large quantities of antibiotics, but was still unable to eat. The patient died two weeks later.

Case B: The patient had to stay for six weeks in ICU until the infection cleared, patient had good insurance.

Case C: The patient goes home with a fever, staff tells the patient and the family that this is normal for a patient after surgery. Four days later the patient goes to the physicians office to have the staples removed. Two days later six inches of the surgical incision opens and begins draining large amounts of puss. A call to the surgeon and the patient was told to go the the office. The surgeon checks on the surgical site, prescribes antibiotics and packs gauze into the wound. For the next three months the patient has to cover the open wound with gauze until the wound closes on its own. At one time or another the entire incision opens and drains puss. Two years later the patient suffers from a hernia through the incision due to improper healing of the underlying tissue.

Complain to the hospital, well they are quick to apologize, but nothing else. They are also quick to demand payment, Case C received a final notice please remit at once bill on monday, three days after the patient got home.

I don't think that any of this would happen if the hospital was properly staffed. I've watched this happen for several years as the hospital acquired more property, and each acquisition was followed by layoffs of nursing staff and staff from other departments. In some areas the hospital requires the staff to record how much time is spent with a patient, if too much time is taken with a patient, the staff member is reprimanded. Sometimes it's necessary and good patient care to spend a few extra minutes with a patient.

These patients might have done better if the staff had had the extra time to care for them properly. If management was more interested in supporting staff members instead of worring about is a doctor was going to be angry if the staff called about a complication with one of the surgeons patients. If staff wasn't so rushed maybe the patient would not have acquired an infection through the drain tube.

I believe that infection control is very poor at St Vincent Hospital on Indianapolis, due to poor staffing and management looking the other way. But since the patients are sent home before the infection is found the hospital doesn't have to show this in their patient care statistics, once the patient goes home the hospital doesn't track them anymore.

That's my say, I don't go there anymore if I can help it. I'm patient C, Patient A was one of my family, and patient B was a close friend.