Tampa General Hospital (COE) Hospital
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I was kept in the recovery area from just after my surgery at 9am until just before 6pm... for 8 hours! When they finally said a room became available, my Husband and 3 year old son sat in the waiting room the entire time waiting to see me... they would not let them into recovery, because of my son. I had a Foley catheter in the entire time, only ice-chips to chew on and no encouragement to move around and be ready to leave the hospital that evening... as a result, my stay was overnight and I did not get discharged until 2pm the next afternoon.
PLEASE...Make sure there are rooms available for post op patients or if thats not possible just please offer to wheel them into the hallway at least so that they can see their family members after surgery!!
The day nurses were better than the night nurses and I did get to see an Occ Therapist, a Phys Therapist, a Dietician and the Surgeons assistant before leaving.
The surgeon team was great! Facility average. The NIGHT nurses were ANGELS! The DAY nurses were HORRIBLE!!! They were so loud (room near station) and didn't even want to ask for anything because they were so rude and had smart remarks. I had a room mate (behind the sheet) I even heard her call in a nurse advocate. Glad it's over!
I have a very pleasant experience there so good that I choose it three more time for plastic surgery. I have been in hospitals in NYC and Phila. and TGH surpasses those teaching hospitals for being percise in checking allergies and idenities prior to and after surgery. Also the staff from anesthesia to nursing was superior for me. I really think your experience depends on you as well...if you are a grouchy nasty person, you will be treated that way...I am not. My room was spotless every single day, not to mention I was given a private room due to allergies and I did not request it.
I was extremely disappointed with the day staff. I would press the call button, they would say that they would send someone in, but no one would ever come. The call button periodically would not work, when I asked about it, they said they didn't have another. The worst - no one would come to help me walk. As a result, I left the hospital with huge blisters and sores on my backside. They cause be more pain than my incisions. I couldn't get up myself, as it required moving a table, a large chair, bringing my IV pole around the bed and THEN I could get up.
The staff was awesome! The nurses were compassionate, organized & treated you like you were #1!! It was a wonderful experience!!
Overall - the first two days of my stay were good but starting on the 3rd day I found it took 30-45 minutes to get someone into my hospital room to help me. My pain medications were late all the time due to issues that was not explained to me. The night nurse on my virst night in the hospital was awesome. The day nurse on my last day was as well but in between I found every other person was very "jobish" about their role with poor bedside manors.
My experience was AVERAGE because of a few 'hiccups' along the way- my pre-op prep was strange. The hospital is a teaching hospital, and they had a "to-be" anesthesiologist tell me what to expect before I went in. She said I'd have a catheter, a central IV (one in the MAJOR artery in neck) and warned me that if they have a problem getting the tube in my throat, they would wake me up to help them while in surgery... I didn't have a catheter at all, no central IV, and thank goodness, I was not awakened to "help them" put the tube in my throat...
Once I was in my own room, I was almost given the wrong antibiotic that I am allergic to thank goodness an alert nurse saw my allergy bracelet! Also, there was no nutritionist or counseling after surgery while given a FULL tray of liquids for first meal- WITH A STRAW!!! Thank God I knew what to eat and to not use a straw, because they were treating me like a "normal" bariatric patient, not considering the Lap-Band issues... I never once was asked to get up and walk after surgery, and was commended when I did to go to the bathroom!
Best advice- BE YOUR OWN BEST ADVOCATE!!!