New York Weill Cornell Medical Center Hospital

The only issue I had was with a few of the nurses or nurses assistants...I would press the nurse button after the catheter was removed because I needed help lowering the bed and getting it out of and at one point it took 5 presses of the nurse button and 20 minutes for a nurse to come and hastily help me! But that was only 2 nurses, the others were great.

I found this hospital to be very accomodating, from start to finish. Staff is excellent and patient, I always felt comfortable there,almost like being home and it was extremely clean

The staff was nice hospital was good.I hated the fact that i had 3 roomates and one kept me up alll morning!It was so annoying .

The staff were comforting and skilled. As with all hospitals, I felt the floor was understaffed.
I was surprised that there was painting and carpentry/electrical work being done on the floor right outside my room. It created excessive noise and difficulty walking in the hall.

My only complaint is the nurse and nurses aid that I had the morning after my surgery. They were the absolute WORSE nurses that encountered during my stay. They were completely unresponsive to my needs. When the nurse came 30 mins. late with my pain medication I asked her what the delay was about. She said, "It's crazy out there." I said, "It's crazy in here. I just had surgery yesterday." I couldn't wait until the shift changed! Other than that everybody else was wonderful. Oh yeah, and the parking is terrible...unless you are very wealthy.

I WAS VERY PLEASED THEY LET MY DAUGHTER STAY WITH ME. WE WERE 6 HRS. FROM HOME AND FLEW IN AND OUT SO WE HAD NO VEHICLE THERE

The staff seemed "ok" not overly sensitive or extremely kind, just "ok". I was over drugged w/ morphine, and the combination of my sleep apnea, I fell into non responsive, respiratory distress, had to be revived, my oxygen level was ONLY 10%. Ended up in ICU for two days. I wouldn't say they had the most reliable nurses.

All WLS patients are put on a "bariatric clears diet". No one understood that I didn't have a gastric bypass. I was yelled at by a nurse for drinking juice from the cafeteria (per my nutritionists instructions) because she assumed I would dump. There is no distinction between the different WLS procedures. I think the hospital needs to be more informed about their patients and the patients needs.

I had my surgery on January 4, 2005. The intake of the surgery is at the Day Surgery Center, where privacy is ridiculous. You are walking or seated after taking all of your clothes off in the same room with other surgery patients AND THEIR FAMILIES, whether it was 1 or 10 people. Staff was efficient. Nursing care was sparse and you had to use the call button to get someone to come in to see you. The bed is designed by Hill Rom to turn into a chair to make it easier to get up, but I waited hours for someone to help me use it and after the second time I had to call someone in to let me back in the bed (features are not usable from inside the bed), I had climbed out of the bed on my own and had them remove the side so I could get in and out on my own. Staff was stretched way too thin. But they were all pleasant and accommodating and seemed knowledgeable. A lot of "Assistants" walking in and out of room with clipboards not really knowing what they were doing or being very helpful when asked questions. After waiting two hours after Dr. released me, I was finally given discharge papers and gave up after the nurse left and 20-30 min. later I still had no wheelchair so I just walked out. It is an excellent hospital for the surgery, the surgeon, Dr. Pomp, is top notch and their program seems good. I hope aftercare is as good and not like the nursing experience. I highly recommend this hospital even with above comments and although parking is a nightmare because I feel the chances of complications or other problems are less likely during the surgery and immediately after. Forget the post op food. The same orange jello was sent at each meal, with the same lime Gatorade. Finally on third day some pureed food was offered an hour late for lunch, as I was leaving the hospital. So I never actually got to eat. They do not give you enough direction on managing medications when you go home or on how to monitor blood pressure, blood sugars at home or how much to exactly eat before you feel you will vomit. Very vague about stuff like that.

Overall I had l an excellent experience. I did have a couple of things that were a bit of an issue. I ended up staying in the recovery room over 24 hours because there were no beds in the hospital for me. (I found out this is not uncommon for this hospital). The upside of this is that I had the MOST wonderful care from the nurses in the recovery room. They were great and very attentive to my needs. The downside is that it was hard to rest and my family couldn't stay there the whole time. My other comment is that the bariatric beds are wonderful! However, the nursing staff needs better training on how to use them. My bed got stuck in a position and they didn't know how to fix it. Maintenance was called; however it ended up that another nurse was able to fix it because she knew how to work the various buttons that control the bed.

Overall, my hospital experience was excellent. This was the first time I was in a hospital as a patient and it was probably as painless and I could hope for.