Mount Carmel Bariatric Center Hospital

1-19-2004 I met with Doctor Marcus Miller today seems like a very nice guy. He is a little young but seems to know what he is talking about and seems to care about the success of his patience. He answered all my questions and had no problem explaining them to me in detail.
The office staff seem a little busy but were very professional. Make sure that if you get information from them you also go to there website and download the information they don't send.

1-29-04 Called today to check status of my insurance and was told they still haven't sent it out yet and that it might take 2 more weeks before they do. 3-1-04 Talked to Carries today she said she sent the paper work to the insurance on 2-27-04. Well today is 3-2-04 contacted insurance and they said I was approved and the letters are in the mail. 3-8-04 Talked to Carrier today and she said that she has recieved my approval letter and sent it to Dr. Miller to sign off on and then we will set a date. 3-23-04 Talked to Carrie today got a date of 5-3-04. Its going to seem like forever. But at least I have a date to look forward too.

Some of the personal equipment in the room were not geared toward the obeses patient. For example...the beds were narrow and the commodes were very low to the floor making it extremely difficult to use. For the most part the staff was very considerate with the exception of one nurse.

The staff from the nurses to the personal care assistants to the people who took my blood were excellent. Always cheery and nice. If I was the president of the US I would not have been treated better.
It is great that they allow family to stay in the room with you the whole time.

As far as Bariatric care, I was under the assumption that since the doctor had done so many procedures here that it would be set up for better care post-operatively. I was sorely overestimating the place. The room I was assigned was a small room in a corner. The bed was a "specialty" Bari-maxx bed, but other than that, not much else thought given to size of patient. Could not use shower as was too small, and could barely squeeze into bathroom to use toilet. As far as nursing care, not much better. Fluids were not replaced as specified, and pain pump was not changed for over 6 hours. Second night post-op nurses did everything I was to have done (shots, fluids, etc) in a 1 hour time period, remarking when they finished that "wow, they had just made it before the end of their shift." Overall, not a pleasant experience after I left the recovery room.

The facility was fine and for the most part the faculty was too. What I did notice was immediately out of surgery, my nurse was a pain. She kept bumping my bed and shaking me which made me feel nauseated. The rest of the nursing staff was fine.

The staff was wonderful, they pushed just enough to get me to do things but realised when I was in just too much pain. Overall it was a good experience after my pain was under control.

I found everyone wonderful. They allowed visitors at any time, the vallet parking was perfect and every nurse I met was so sweet and thoughtful..including all the gentleman that kept wheeling me all over the place!

I think they need to work on thier staffing a bit. They rotate from department to department as needed. This does not alow care to be optimal for evey patient need. Some nurses were rude, at one point I had to refuse a shot a night nurse was trying to give me at 2am because the pervious morning My Dr had discontinued the order, she must not have read that far! The evening nurses knew! My 1/4c soup sat on the delivery tray for 2 hours one day, I know because during my noon stroll I seen it there. At 1:30 I finally got my PCA to bring it to me, very cold and unedable. My husband got so upset a couple of times he had the head nurse in my room aplogizing. He's not easily upset either. Over all I was not impressed with this hospital.

It is very important that the patient understands that they have rights. You have the right to refuse medications or can refuse to have a certain employee care for you. Regardless, it is essential that you ask questions and be aggressive in a nice way.

The hospital was ok since I didnt need much.It was equiped with a nice wall fan and they got me anything i needed all i had to do was ask. 4 pillows ,gowns towels,all you have to do was ask.