The George Washington University Hospital Hospital

The nursing staff did not follow the doctors orders to bring me a tray of clear liquids on day two (I was only given ice chips in ICU even after the IV was removed) and I had to wait in the hall an hour to have my upper GI leak test. The doctor told me they have problems chronically with the nursing staff in ICU not following his orders!

The staff overall were great - only one experience in ICU where I was moaning less than 12 hours after surgery, and the nurse reminded me that I "elected" to have this surgery! As if! Other than that - if I had my strength I would have told that woman a thing or two - my only other comments are that sometimes it took a LONG time to get a response after pushing the call button, and the ongoing IV alarms made long time sleep impossible since it often took 10 - 15 minutes for a nurse to respond to the alarm. I understand there is a built in time from when the alarm goes off until the iv bag must be changed - but the alarm ringing in your ear constantly was so annoying! A faster response time would have greatly improved my overall impression.

The hospital is nice b/c its new, but it seems like more than half the staff barely speaks English and the entire staff seems unconcerned/uninterrested with patient needs and requests...

The parking fees are terrible! To park for a little over 2 hours, I paid $11.00. The hospital only validates parking on the day of surgery.
Also, as with most hospitals in the United States, the nursing staff is limited.
George Washington University Hospital does take a compassionate stance towards obese patients. However, the patient MUST make sure that they are accomodated. I had to ask for a special bed on the day of surgery and on several ocassions had to reiterate the fact that I wanted a larger wheel chair. But again, the staff was very compassionate.

Except for admissions process, this was the best medical experience that I have ever had!

Overall, I had a good stay. I did have some problems with nurses having problems with my epidural at times, but the nurses for the most part were very nice and anytime I asked for anything they were pretty timley. The radiology staff was not very sensitive to my pain and size but the rest of the staff was fine. I had a single room so I had privacy and ususally my door was shut and it was quiet.

GW Hospital now has a brand new facility. Everything has that new and clean look & feel to it. Overall the hospital is very, very nice.

Since I was in the hospital for my surgery, it has shut down and reopened in a nice new modern building with nice big rooms, i am sure its much better.

As the hospital is putting in a new building and moving things...I shouldnt comment as it is not fair...

The one thing I liked the most about the hospital was the bed. The bed was a bed, but it also converted electronically to a chair. This is significant considering it enabled me to go from a lying down position to a sitting position at the touch of a button. This enabled me to get in and out of bed with no assistance.