US News and World Report does an annual survey of hospitals across the nation. In addition to ranking the best in various specialties, it also designates those that are deemed competent. PRMC received that designation in this year's evaluation -- for the report see:
http://include.nurse.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080728/DC02/107280058
DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
What a joke. Who did they pay for that?
ReplyDeleteYeah, reminds me of the Mayor running around telling everyone the Salisbury Zoo is one of the Top 10 Small Zoo's in America. SHE ALWAYS NEGLECTED TO SAY THE RANKING WAS A SMALL REPORTER BACK IN 1976!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteThey made sure they scored well so they would qualify for monies from the government and get the approvals needed to expand the way they have.
ReplyDeleteSame ranking company as the Metropolitan. ROTFLMAO
ReplyDeleteHow is that possible when they have BLACK MOLD growing in the showers/bathrooms of the Mother/Baby unit? (And I'm not even kidding - I was there as a patient with my newborn son and it was eww... I could have gone on an extremely nice vacation for what my insurance paid for that room over 4 days...).
ReplyDeleteHA,HA, Joe maybe there is a god. I bet the hospital administrator is going to love this shit. Theres no substitute for common sense.
ReplyDeleteone incident that occured at PRMC recently.
ReplyDeleteA friend of mine had severe abdominal pain. He went to PRMC to be sent home five hours later. He went back the next day with worse pains and they sent him home again. My daughter, who is a nurse, was visting and diagnosed him with a possible apendix infection. They took him to Atlantic General, 1/2 hour out of they way, and he was sent directly to surgery for a ruptured apendix.
A nurse was able to pick this up right away with out the benefit of tests. My friend almost died because of being rushed through the system
I am new to the area and now am terrified.
ReplyDeleteAre there any good stories or good docs at PRMC
If they are ranked Best , damn if we ain't in trouble.
ReplyDeleteWhile I have my own horror stories of PRMC, most recently a visit there with my husband, I assure the readers there are very competant, experienced doctors that walk the corridors at PRMC. You just have to get lucky to get one of them...or have a condition that warrants their expertise. Dr. James Todd is one of the finest heart surgeons there is, it is a shame he is clustered together with a hospital that surely lacks in patient care.
ReplyDeleteOne ranking you won't see but they're numero uno in and that's STAPH INFECTIONS. Walk in without one, walkout with one. The good news is this is the only thing they're not charging your insurance company for.
ReplyDeleteMy 59 year old mother went in for minor back surgery and left with staph. She was dead in about a week....
ReplyDeleteYeah, they're the best.
Well when they aren't cleaning the VERY VISIBLE mold off the bathroom walls, I'm pretty sure they aren't cleaning up the invisible staph...
ReplyDeleteYou want a good gp and really does care about his patients...Mitchell Gittleman he is in Winter Place....I love him and he really does care. I think he cares about my health more than i do. I wont go anyhwere else as long as he is in practice.
ReplyDeletePRMC,
ReplyDeleteI have my stories about this place too. I went in for Gallbladder surgery (i had problems so i was admitted)and when i got to my room i had all this crap on me and couldn't get out of bed. I tried to get a nurse to get me a pan and guess what i didnt see her for i know at least an hour, so i call again again and again, finally i went on the bed, i had family come in right after it happened and went to get the nurse and the nurse had the nerve to be pissed off that i wet the bed and went and got new sheets and guess what she never did come back, my family had to change my sheets and take care of me. I dont know what those nurses get paid for, if you have family they are the ones to take care of you, you never see the nurses. My family should have gotten that pay check. The bad thing is, is this ins't the only story i have about this place. It's a shame that we don't have more hospitals closer to us, if we did i would never go back to PRMC.
I've been in that hospital 4 times in the last 8 years. I have not had a good experience yet. That's not a good thing. Very poor care from the staff, Dr's not included. I can't complain about the Dr's they were great its the after care from the nursing staff that i had problems with.
ReplyDeleteStaph doesn't surprize me at all. I spent a couple of weeks there about two years ago, two seperate weeks that is. I was amazed at how poorly they clean the patient rooms and toilets. I sure hope they get their act together, now that they have a brand new section just added. The leadership is lacking when it gets that bad.
ReplyDeleteA. Goetz
I don't believe they have to report infections in Maryland, do they? I did some research on the internet & couldn't find any law that said they did......they would probably under report it any way....and it is all about your doctor....if they take the proper precautions, you have a greater chance of not getting an infection......
ReplyDeleteif you don't die of staff infection
ReplyDeleteI used to work at the all great PRMC. If your an employee there getting medical treatment they're the best, but if you aren't employed there or don't have first tier relatives who work there then WATCH OUT. If you want proper treatment make sure you have a pittbull pain in the a$$ relative who will be one the staff's butt to make sure you get the test that are ordered by your doc so you can leave from the front door and no the loading dock.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if BEST Hospital includes the employees (Nurses and Radiology staff) that work on you with expired or no Maryland State license for 2 to 4 years before they get caught.
ReplyDelete6:14 Same situation. Mother went in to ER with abdominal pain. 6hrs later was finally seen. They suspect kidney stones. They give us a surgery date of 1 week later. Gave her some pain meds and sent her home. Go back one week later after surgery-surgeon tells us it is kidney CANCER. Inoperable- says we will give her meds to make her comfortable. Tells us that she may have 6 months. Hard to cope with, but our family will adjust. She stays in the recovery- comes to, talking joking just being normal. She gets up into a room with a morphine drip. Each day she progressively slips into unconsciousness with more and more morphine for pain. We can't figure out why. THey put her on Oxygen. The doc comes in and says she will be gone within hours-she now has a staph infection!. He was right 4 hours later my mom had passed away. Not due to the cancer, but a staph infection. Only 4 hrs prior to her death,I know that my mom has an infection that is potentially fatal?? Iworked at this hospital years ago, and I know there are many dedicated DRS nurses, etc at this hospital. But the bottom line with management is the almighty dollar. Maybe if they paid housekeeping a living wage instead of as little as possible, maybe they could get a cleaner hospital.Staph infections are a part of life in a hospital, but this one seems to have more than its share.
ReplyDeleteA friend of mine was a salisbury police officer and he was struck by a car while on a traffic stop. He was brought in by ambulance and the ER doctor diagnosed him as having bruising to his knee and to return to work in about a week. Needless to say he went to Peninsuala Orthopoedic and they did an MRI and found out that his knee was completely destroyed. They didn't even give him crutches to walk out on and he damaged his hamstring trying to walk out as well. Good old PRMC. I hope he wins his lawsuit for malpractice. I don't think a lot of people are suing for this crap, but if they are its hushed very quickly. Just remember all the unneccessary heart stints done there. Thats the quality staffing in that hospital. I guess the eastern shore gets to see what happens when you don't pay a doctor over $200,000 a year. Do we get what we pay for? I remember a post awhile back where a doctor was complaining about not being paid enough. Is that why you allow this lax treatment of patients?
ReplyDeleteAnd what about all the CDif infections--rampant at PRMC....
ReplyDeleteThis post isn't written very well. It sounds like in a kind of "Best Hospital" report, PRMC earned the rank of "Competant." Am I getting this right?
ReplyDeleteIf my understanding is correct, I don't think that "competant" is very flattering. They probably got this for having lots of services and the staff has enough paper hanging on the wall stating they passed enough tests. Quality probably isn't much of a criteria to be named "competant."
Anon 7:10, Mitchell Gittleman? Have you lost your mind? I used to be a patient and I wouldn't send my dog to him. As a matter of fact I would rather be treated by Dr. Todd and Salisbury Animal Hospital. Dr. Todd is the best.
ReplyDeleteMith, is that you blogging?
WHAT A JOKE !!!!! Keep smiling Newberry !!
ReplyDeleteStaph is everywhere. So is C. difficile. CDif (for short) is very common when on antibiotic therapy, as it destroys the normal flora (good bacteria) in your colon and other parts of the body.
ReplyDeleteYes, staph infections are required to be reported to the State Health Department.
I can't blame you all for spouting off and not knowing what you're talking about, you get it honestly by reading this blog.
Dr. Stevens if you really are reading what we write we are not being influenced by this blog we are giving actual experiences we have had at PRMC. Why can't you understand that we are people that have minds of our own and just want to let people know what we have experienced. I would post my name here but the threats from what I would guess is the PRMC staff on this blog would put my life at risk. Get with the program and read this for what it is and promote a change in attitude from the PRMC staff.
ReplyDeleteprmc is without adoubt one of the worst hospitals in the nation.prmc employees(not all of them) for the most part treat you like shit and the gatekeepers at the emergency room think they they are gods controlling who gets seen and when,God help you if you have financial issues.the staff ignores their patients and do not seem to genuinely care about their jobs or their patients.the last thing I want to hear from a doctor or nurse is their complaining while they are attending to me.makes me nervous. it's just like the government in this county totally screwed up and uncaring.
ReplyDeleteWhen I had back surgery a few years ago, the care I got at PRMC was nothing less than superb, much to my surprise. I say surprise because a few years earlier, I had surgery, and the nurse came in to check on a few things on my chart. Problem was, someone else's chart was in my folder! After the surgery, when my Demerol drip needed refilling, they started to refill it with morphine. I never got clean sheets while I was there, and no one ever came in to help me get put of bed to walk, no one ever changed my bandage, no one ever helped to get me into the shower.
ReplyDeleteThen last year, my husband had a kidney removed. He and the other patient in his room were neglected so badly that formal complaints were made.
PRMC is indeed the BEST hospital...to get OUT of!!!
Anon 4:53 am
ReplyDeleteAMEN! I was there 11 months ago (having my daughter) and you are totally correct black mold all over the showers.
I have no complaints with the nursing staff as they were very good to me, but the housekeeping staff needs to learn how to clean.
Monkeys could run the hospital as well as the current administration, and there's nothing that's going to get better any time soon. New wings? New departments? Get new administrators, then you'll have something.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah Gittleman is GREAT! After going there for 5+ years with CONSTANT sinus infections (all along I was begging him to look further into what was causing the problem - even to the point of breaking down in tears in his office) he finally tells me one day he thinks I have a psychological problem and that is why I am always "sick". I MOVE AWAY get a new GP tell him all the same symptoms I told Gittleman and he finds out I have a serious Dairy Allergy. (Like I need to carry Epi Pens serious)
ReplyDeleteI quit drinking and eating all Dairy products and guess what - I am NOT sick at all anymore. Not one single sinus infection since I quit. IMAGINE that! That is NOT the only symptom he screwed up either. I left him and have felt 100% better. All he had to do was LISTEN - I KNEW there was more to the sinus issues all along - but he didn't want to LISTEN.
Bug
I went in for a total hysterectomy and in the 3 days that I was there, never once did a nurse or aide provide me with a wash basin or offer to wash my back...I lumbered into the bathroom w/IV tubes, etc. to try to wash up at the sink...Also, in 3 days, my sheets were not changed. The only thing that was changed was the folded sheet/pad underneath my bottom. I used to work there and saw alot of what went on.
ReplyDeleteFunny thing, after previous stays, I got something in the mail asking me how I felt my stay was. This time, they were afraid of what my response would be. I had to get assertive with the nurse when she made me wait over 2 hours for my pain medicine (which was only ibuprofen). I must say that my doctor (Dr. Jennings) was excellent, very attentive.
It is an awful place to work and an even more pathetic place to be a patient.