USC Verdugo Hills Hospital Hospital

So very relieved to see even a teeny bit of negative reviewers about Dr. K. because I did not have a good or successful experience with this man.

He has had many years of self-congratulating, so when a patient has troubles, as I did, he simply did not believe me, and he was, frankly, very harsh and angry with me.

After my RNY with Dr. K. I had terrible pain on one side that did not stop. He was not interested one day post-surgery, or a year and a half after surgery. He would say to me, "Yes, yes, I know this pain. I don't care. It is fine." Never mind that I flubbed a job interview one year post-surgery because I suddenly had to stand up during the interview and stand doubled-over in pain for 15 minutes unable to move. I had given up on Dr. K long before that happened, but at that point I decided I needed to ask again that he help me. His response was that he would not even entertain the idea anything that anything was wrong with his surgery. He gave me a list of other things to have done, like colonoscopies, the GI with camera, etc., 8 procedures total, before he would consider even an Xray to check on his surgery.

This pain has continued, but ebbed over time to finally, 6 years later, the pain is more mild.

I lost 10 pounds in the first week post-op, and then about 2 pounds a week, to finally stop at about 35 pounds down from my highest weight. My high BP stayed high. In my follow-up visits Dr. K said to me, in a very angry manner, "WHY ISN'T YOUR BP normal? WHY HaVEN'T you lost more weight?" Clearly it was all my fault.

My post-op diet was mostly things like pureed lentil soup, water, tea, and ice pops, as I was not able to find a protein shake post-surgery that didn't come back up on me. Dairy and eggs or egg-white protein are very hard for me to stomach, to this day. I often eat tofu. From my surgery in January 2011 through May of that year, most things I tried to eat came back up. I was perpetually nauseated by any food. In addition food that was not mush will, even years later, get stuck in my esophagus (horribly painful), and I make myself vomit it to stop the pain. Post-surgery I ate frozen fruit pops because the cold seemed to sit better with me, and it basically was a liquid diet in addition to the pureed soup. Dr. K's nutritionist said I did not eat enough food, and that is why I lost so little weight. Apparently not eating enough food can stall weight-loss. But Dr. K was convinced I was sucking down huge vats of ice cream. Well, I am a salty person, not sweet, and post RNY, even now in 2017, I cannot tolerate milk or ice cream: hello vomit or diarrhea! I can digest cheese and yogurt.

Still, I relished and held on to my small weightless until last year. Dr. K's nutritionist at the time was useless, so I paid for one separately because my insurance did not cover it if it wasn't through Dr. K's office. I had a pinched nerve that made it hard to exercise as it affected my left leg, which would not hold my weight on stairs, or if I walked for any distance. My weightless evaporated over the short time I was sedentary. I am staring down the barrel of size 18 pants. :(

In addition, between 2013 and today I became a person whose stomach can hold any amount of food. I believe my pouch has stretched, and I am thrilled to see another person say she has a huge pouch as well. I never feel full.

I am going to a gastroenterologist in a few weeks in the hopes of getting pouch-revision surgery. I no longer live in CA.

Dr. K likes to scare potential patients about leaks, and then say that he sews by hand, so there will be no leaks.

I would rather have had staples, a RNY that worked, and a nicer human as my surgeon.

Living in southern California I have access and proximity to world class hospital institutions. But I much preferred Verdugo Hills, the type of hospital favored by my surgeon, Dr. Keshishian.

Verdugo Hills is a smaller, neighborhood community hospital. Easy to get to, easy to navigate. Overall the nursing/CNA staff was great, as was the pre-op administrator Chet. The are nice, friendly and helpful. The scenery is very pretty, as you actually drive up into a hill to park, and many of the hospital rooms have nice mountain views.

It can be very busy at times, since it's smaller, and if there aren't enough patients on the 4th floor, they will close it and the 6th floor becomes very hectic, so a little chasing sometimes, depending on the nurse on duty is necessary. But most of the nurses are excellent, and a couple in particular were lifesaving for me, Ellen and Rosemary. I had a lot of post-op anxiety, a lot of pain, and Ellen is the one who helped me bathe, she was like having your mom, super gentle and reassuring. Rosemary loved that I had thought of the idea of home health assistance since I lived alone, and was a revision, and helped me get the paperwork started immediately. I was set up right away, someone came by for an intake the next morning after I was released.

Since becoming part of USC, there are modernizing and upgrade changes going on that are good. It's a nice hospital but not as flashy, state-of-the-art.

For traveling patients, which is fairly common in Dr. K's practice, the hospital is especially great at accommodating family members/caregivers. They can provide a place to sleep so they can stay with you, heavily discount purchasable food. And there are a lot of restaurant, coffee house, deli options 10 minutes from the hospital, including a CVS and a very charming area called Montrose, loaded with shops, cafes and more.

Published
Dr Keshishian is currently doing his surgeries primarily in Verdugo Hills Hospital in Glendale, CA. The following is a Brief review of the hospital itself based on my 10 days in the facility from the perspective of a morbidly obese person.

The good:
Throughout the hospital there are a multitude of large chairs comfortable for a person of larger stature
Lab: blood work chair is very very large and accommodating. At 370 lbs almost two of me would have fit in that chair. The phlebotomists are very good at finding veins on the first try - yay!
The admissions and pre-surgical process is very smooth. Patients are guided through like celebrities.
Plenty of extremely large hospital gowns are available without asking.

The not so good:
The radiology department does not have equipment to support most morbidly obese patients. I needed to have an upper GI study and it took convincing from Dr. K to have them give me the test. We had to do it standing instead of laying down as their table supports only 300 lbs. I also had to have a central (PICC) line installed. The table for that procedure supported only 250 lbs. At the time I weighed 344. Again, Dr. K had to talk to them into completing the procedure. They ended up putting a tripod type device under the machine to hold the table up. I was quite angry and frustrated about the hoops I had to jump through with radiology due to my size.
There was not an adequate scale in the entire hospital. The one they rolled into my room went up to 350 lbs and did not do a good job weighing me when I was close to this weight. I also weighed more than this pre-surgery. There were digital scales on other floors but they only went up to 250 lbs.

Some good/some bad:
The nursing staff was inconsistent. Day and night shifts lasted 7 to 7. Some of the nurses were very compassionate, helpful and gave good patient care - France, Rosemary and Janice were among the best. Some of the CNAs were also very good. Angelica and Maria were always ready to do whatever they could for me and were very nice. A couple of the others ranged from not so hot to dangerously bad. One of the nurses in particular smelled like alcohol (was she drinking?) Worked only the night shift and was always sleeping on the job. She hurt me several times through being careless. For example, one day she decided to un-tape my iv line and even though I urged her to be careful because my iv was so fragile, she dropped it on the floor, causing it to infiltrate a few hours later. She also acted confused all of the time. Once I took a shower and asked her to help me with my dressing afterward. I waited forever for her to wake up enough to come help me and when she got there, she said after I take a shower she would help me and asked if I needed towels. This made no sense as she had been the one who covered my IV site before I showered and I had obviously wet hair and was wearing a towel. I made a complaint to the nursing supervisor. I think she may have a drinking problem. Another (tenured) nurse began panicking about my iv and all of the medications I was on. She said multiple times "I don't know what to do! I don't know what to do!" I advised her to call my Dr. immediately and talk to him about whatever she was unsure of.

Overall, I would give this hospital a B-.

**Update** I told my surgeon about my concerns and dissatisfaction with the hospital's readiness to help obese patients. He immediately brought in all of the higher-ups for me to talk to. I spoke to the head of nursing (somewhat dismissive), and the Bariatrics program coordinator (appropriately concerned). They re-assured me that my concerns will be addressed and I feel somewhat confident they will be.

Dr. K is very "to the point", which is something I like in a doctor. He is a teaching doctor for USC at the University Hospital in Los Angeles, Ca, so if you are looking for total discretion, you might not enjoy him. He always has several students with him. Personally I did not find their presence invasive. The front office staff leaves a bit to be desired, but as I mentioned, it is a place of learning, so the staff is revolving. His Dietician, Ojenee, is great and so is his nurse Michelle. His scheduler Cherie is very good and takes care to make all appointments convenient. I live in Orange County, so it is an hour drive each way because of traffic. They have a great aftercare program including monthly group meetings. Future patients should be aware that if they are looking for a huggy, touchy, feely kind of doctor, this isn't the guy. If you are looking for an expert in the business with a zero mortality rate for laparoscopic gastric bypass surgeries, then this IS the guy. He lets you know about the risks up front and is picky about his patients. If you smoke or are a heavy drinker or recreational drug abuser, then he won't even do the surgery on you. I never once felt unsure about my care with him. I would give this doctor a 10 out of 10 if I had to rate him.

Very clean, good food (for those who were with me who could eat it). Some of the nurses hadn't been trained in dealwith with bariatric patients. Dr. K. was pretty new to Verdugo Hills at the time I had my surgery, I imagine they're much more experienced now. But overall I thought it was a great hospital and would have no hesitation about going back.

The staff and Dr. Katkhouda were extremely helpful and considerate, but due to the popularity of the procedure in 2002-2003 and Dr. K's schedule my wait would be over 1 year!!

By 2004 I had completed a second round of cardiovascular tests, psych evals, etc. and I was ready for surgery. I had my RNY on July 20th, 2004.

Although I did well the first year on my own, USC had little to no follow-up or support. Their support meetings at the time consisted of group meetings at 12 noon (during work hours), once a month in the back conference room of the staff cafeteria. Very inhospitable for a food addict who had a job and couldn't afford to drive the hour plus each way to the meetings. I went to one meeting, was completely discouraged, and never went back. There was no pre-education requirement at USC, so in retrospect I would make sure that any program I went into had adequate pre and post-operative support. It would have made all the difference.

The staff was awesome. I had one not so great nurse that I felt very uncomfortable with. My husband spoke to the director of nursing and I had a new nurse within a couple of hours. It was my first night after surgery and I'm not sure how I would have handled it had they not brought in the new nurse. Other than that...the nursing staff was GREAT...The hospital was very clean and in a great location. My husband stayed in the 2nd bed the entire time and he was able to go for coffee, store, restaurants etc all within walking distance.

The first time I met Dr. Katkhouda, we got along well. He is a very straight forward, to the point kind of guy and he doesn't like to beat around the bush. He also appreciates this in the people he deals with.

He has been more than understanding and compassionate since my surgery and has answered all the questions I have had to my satisfaction. He also has a great sense of humor, so it makes a stressful situation a little less so.

My stitches are great and healing well, so he is more than competent in my book :)

I was worried that I would not get enough pain medication because I have a high tolerance - but this was NOT a problem at all. I was given plenty of pain medication. So I was happy about that.

I was very happy with the night staff at this hospital. I found them to be so kind and understanding. I had a few issues with the day staff and was not nearly as happy with them. Some of them were good but some of them equally I felt did not really care very much and were overly busy.

All of the pre-op staff from admitting, to the anesthesiologist, to the nurse that was assisting the surgeon were excellent. I really liked all of them a lot.

In recovery I felt pretty happy about my care, espically since my surgeon came by very often to check on me himself. That made me feel very safe and taken care of.

When I first me Dr. K at the seminar I was intimidated by him, because he is so straight forward and cutting. After visiting him at his office I was expecting the same and I was surprised on how he was attentive and was comforting in a way that I knew I was in good hands. The staff well the ladies at the front desk where nice, but then when I had to get on the phone with his assistant which I heard they call \"his little soldier\" then I was like ok she is not very friendly at all but I could imagine that with so many patients it could be hectic so I just didn't let it bother me, as long as she's not doing my surgery then we are fine....:-) I like that Dr. K has so much knowledge and experience. So far his surgical competence is what I expect from him, Im having surgery on March 31, 2009 and expect to be his patient for a long time.