St. Alexius NewStart Hospital

While I had excellent care on the regular floor, my time in ICU was less than stellar. When I came into the unit I was out of it. When I finally came around it was probably around 11:30 pm I noticed that my IV fluid bag had run dry (and from prior experience with IV's my blood started to run up the tube) I started pushing my nurse call button, noone came. Finally at appr. 12:15am I started calling out in to hall with my very weak voice. It took about 10 minutes for someone to answer me. Oh by the way noone told me that the buttons on the bed DO NOT WORK there is a separate device that comes out of the wall behind the bed (mine was found the next morning in the floor) Getting back to this , and I use the word loosely,nurse came in and very rudely asked me what I needed. I showed him my IV and he left and got a new bag. After he finally got the new bag hooked up he couldn't get it to flow after several minutes of fiddling around with it he got it to run FULL BLAST!!! and then he left the room. About 10 minutes later I had the sensation of someone stabbing my arm with about 10,000 searing hot knives. I once again had to call out into the hall to get some sort of assistence (while I was waiting for someone to respond I noticed that arm had taken on a new shape and had gained about two inches (where it shouldn't have) The same rude nurse came in and again asked rudely what did I want and I showed him my arm and he took that IV out. Now mind you I am in searing pain in my arm and he jerks it up and starts smacking it through my tears I ask him what are you doing and he says he needs to start a new IV and I have to tell him that there is already one started on my other arm and he says oh he didn't even look.
After he fixed what he messed up he left and thankfully he never showed his lousy excuse for healthcare proffesional face in my room again. Despite this one I would say disgruntled employee, every single person I encountered in this hospital went, as far as I am concerned, above and beyond to make my stay as comfortable and pain free as possible. I would recommend this unit to anyone wishing to have this surgery. On the regular floor the people are AWESOME!!!!!

If I need to go back to a hospital I will pick St. Alexius over any other. Everything was geared to help me recover.

The only thing I did not like was I had IV's below in both my hands. I did not like that at all.

I have minimal cpmplaints about my stay all the staff was very pleasent and eager to help. There was a few bad apples in the staff but you I wont rate the whole hospital poor for a few lazy employees. Overall the gave pretty good care.

The staff on the 5th floor are very accomodating and helpful as well as the pre-op department. I don't remember any of the recovery room area so I can not give a valid comment on that staff.

I would go back

They took as good care of my husband and they did of me! They gave him meal tckets, changed the linen on his sofa bed, etc. I have no complaints about the care that I received. One negative-I never saw housekeeping come into my room to clean or empty trash, the hallways were dirty and there was always something on the floor that could be a safety hazard. I would not say it was unsanitary BUT it was dirty. Anesthesia needs to come into the 2004's with there selection of post-op pain meds. There are other drugs beside morphine and demerol!

I'm from St. Louis so it's a neighborhood I've known since childhood. Inside the hospital it is clean and well appointed although smaller than many St. Louis Hospitals. My room at St. Alexius was larger and nicer than rooms I've had a Barnes-Jewish. The hospital encourages you to have someone stay with you - all the rooms are private and come with a sleeper sofa. They also give your overnight guest a food voucher to use at the cafeteria. The original hospital mission empahsized serving the poor and the current hospital, under Tenant, still provides services to a large number of poor and refugee populations (unlike some larger hospitals in the St. Louis area). 11/2005: Had gallbladder removed at St. Alexius - again an excellent experience.

Waiting area for same day surgery is a little too wide open for my taste. It could be more private.

Post op nurses need C-Pap training- they didn't know what it was or that it needed to be right next to my bed.

Other than that the nurses were very caring and good!

I liked the way they gave food vouchers to the person who was staying the night so they didn't buy the food. They also brought in plenty of covers and pillows. They checked on me through the night, but not too often. I slept OK the first night, but was ready to go home and slept a little less the second night. The staff was excellent -- they knew what they were doing and were very helpful. I loved the Finch bird display in the large family waiting room. I walked to see the birds several times. It was a motivator to get moving. I also liked the fact it was a private room. Even the radiologist was extremely nice during the leak test. And once I passed the blue ice test, they brought in apple juice, a frozen pop and regular ice chips very quickly. They knew how thirsty I was. If I had to choose St. Alexius again -- I would!
My only suggestion is that they bring more liquid between meals, so you get started on the drinking habit.