My husband's recent stay at BJH was the worst experience of his life. Some of the nursing staff shouldn't have been there. BJH needs to reward good nurses and hire more of them. They also need to have nurses be the primary caregivers as having the techs do all the draws fragments the care too much. The doctors didn't even realize the reason that he was admitted. One doctor was so arrogant that when I asked for my hubbie's TSH number he asked me if I was in medicine, and if I wasn't the number wouldn't mean much to me. The food they offer for the patients only causes heart disease and diabetes, but I guess that that way they ensure repeat patients. There is no interest in educating patients to change their lifestyles at all. They don't even offer brown rice in the cafeteria. So I assume that the nutritionists think it is all about "counting carbs" and don't know the difference between simple and complex carbs. This was simply the most shocking health care I can imagine. I would NEVER advise someone to go here. After talking to others I realized that it was common knowledge in St. Louis that BJH consistently provides substandard care. BJH also flatlined my friend's grandmother by giving her a medication that had already been pulled from the market by the FDA, and that also was contraindicated with another medication that she had taken. They did this after my friend showed (multiple times) the doctor the four bottles of medication in order to prevent any type of interaction. They were able to save her grandmother, but it was a close call. And this was done by a cardiologist. The medication that was pulled had been on the television, etc...so one thinks that if it is national news that a medication was pulled, that people at BJH and cardiologists MIGHT have been informed.
This is a place you go IF you are willing to risk your life.
Just the way they do general daily business breeds mistakes.
Please go to another hospital. If you have to go to BJH ER (which was better than the general hospital), then make sure you transfer to another hospital if you have to be admitted.
The way this business is run is heartbreaking and should be punishable by law. There are people at the top that are cutting costs in every way possible, and it is costing lives.
I am sure that it is cheaper (right now) to just cut the costs and then pay for the lawsuits. However, this will probably change in the future.
I am sure there are hundreds of wonderful nurses and doctors at BJH. However, there are too many that are not. And aside from that, the system itself is flawed. Get rid of a majority of the techs. Have the nurses do the draws. Hire more nurses, pay fewer lawsuits. Teach the doctors how to communicate with the patients in a sensitive, non-condescending way. Hire more patient advocates. Hire people to do stress tests on the weekends. Don't cut your costs where it counts. If they need to be cut, then cut them at the very top. This was one of the most horrifying experiences of our lives. If you have a car accident, broken arm, etc...go to another place. If you have heart disease or diabetes then read Gabriel Cousens, John Robbins, Colin Campbell.......and cure yourselves. Go to Rosa Kincaid, a doctor, but a REAL doctor. This doctor will help you help yourself. She is interested in your health and does not cater to the drug companies. Or go to Webster Family Practice. Take care of yourselves, cut the sugar, the alcohol, the animal products, the caffeine. Read. Empower yourselves. You do not want to go to this place!
And make a copy of the menu to send to Jay Leno, but it is pretty funny that the patient menu has sausage, bacon, mashed (white) potatoes, when at least 80% of the people there are there for eating that.
Ahimsa.
IF you ever have to go to this place, call someone to be your advocate.
Get a copy of all of your discharge records when you leave.
