Westchester Medical Center Hospital

The pre-surgical, surgical and ICU/PACU teams (including the nurses) were FABULOUS! Once I got to a regular room it was basically me fending for myself. No one knew the type of surgery I had, nor it's strict requirements. No one helped me in or out of bed...they would come in and say "YOU HAVE TO GET UP AND WALK"....but never offer assistance, or simply say "Let your family help you". Well, my mother in law (being a nurse for 20+ years) felt appauled at that last comment. She would never let any visitors take responsibility for a patient getting in and out of bed. If something happens to that patient it falls back on the on-call nurse and assistant. She was really upset that they would not offer help...but demanded you move. My mother & mother in law were the ones to get me initially up and out of bed moving. My mother in law being a nurse, knew what to do with all my IV lines, drains and catheter while I walked. There was no way at all I could do it alone. Some of the nurses were "pleasant" on the regular floors...but my experience mostly was a few who were simply aggravated with their jobs, overworked...and annoyed at everything. I am sorry...but, if you are a patient and in pain...you need someone that can be forceful enough to get you up and moving...but caring enough not to be mean about it. I just had major surgery...and some of the nurses could CARE LESS. I think they need a little reminder course that pain is NOT pleasant...and they need a little more sympathy when working with surgical patients.
Overall....due to the care I received in the regular room (after I got out of ICU/PACU...because they took great care of me)...I would seriouslyt think twice about using this hospital ever again. I never got ONE sponge bath, or asked if I wanted one the entire time I was in the hospital (except one night in ICU/PACU)....if I hadn't brought baby wipes with me I would have stunk! My mother would come everyday and cleanse me....and then wash my hair over the sink in the room. If it wasn't for my family being there for me I would have been really stuck.

I heard alot of people saying this wasn't a good hospital, that it was dirty etc. But I must say I didn't find any of that it was very clean, staff was very helpful, professional and nice. They responded very quickly to call bells etc. I would highly recommend this hospital to people.

I was very nervous as everyone is, and the hospital staff were more than wonderful. They treated me as if i was one of very few patients.

My stay at WMC had its ups and downs the ICU unit was very noisy so it was difficult to get any real rest once I got to a regular room this improved somewhat. The staff for the most part treated me well with one exception of a nurse that said some very inappropriate things to me. They were very responsive when I called for things that I needed.Those who choose to go here could certainly do a lot worse.

Pre-Admission testing handled very profesionally and in a very organized manner. I was impressed.

Hospital stay was the stay from hell (from my perspective). Of course, I'd never stayed at a hospital before, so my expectations of general hospital care may have been way too high. ICU was absolutely wonderful, as was one day nurse I had in the regular unit. Rest of stay was a nightmare of some apathetic personnel and lack of coordination. Some nurses were terrific, however it only takes a little insensitivity from one or two nurses or doctors to make a stay seem horrible to a patient. My guess is that Westchester was average in general patient care and that my expectations were too high. If I ever have to stay overnight at any hospital again, I WILL have someone else with me 24 hours per day, even if I have to hire a private duty nurse. A helpless patient NEEDS an on-duty, on-location private advocate.

My recommendation is that if you HAVE to use this or any hospital, hire an aggressive private duty nurse for ANY time a family member or close friend can not be with you.

As an additional comment, WMC rooms were very clean. Maintenance responded within 30 minutes to numerous calls for cleaning up spills. Nurses always responded within 10 minutes or less to calls for help. Now, they didn't always solve the problem, but they always showed up. For example, I complained on two separate occassions, numerous times that my dinner and my breakfast never arrived. The nurses took my complaints cheerfully, but the food (clear liquids) never arrived. My husband snuck clear liquids into the hospital for me because they didn't feed me those two times! All of the problems I encountered could have been solved by having my own private duty nurse.