Medical Care in Hernando (Tampa, Spring Hill: insurance, new house, dangerous)

[Blue717]

For the first time in my life I found out what it was like to go to a hospital without insurance. I was laid off from my job and new employer insurance hasnt kicked in yet! ON Friday I call our Dr. because my 16 year old has an earache, the doctor isnt in ( no hours on Friday) tape says to go to ER. So we try and treat it with heat and tylenol. By midnight the kid is in extreme pain. Call the doctor again and the first thing the answering service does is ask what type insurance she has. I tell him we dont have insurance and he says doctor is not available and go to the ER. SO we do that. Doctor looks at her for 10 seconds and says you probably have an ear infection! (DUH!) Then tells us to come with him to "finish the procedure". We are brought into a little booth and a lady comes and tells us we have to pay $150.00 or we can go to the clinic, which will be open on Monday morning. Which means she would have to deal with the pain for the weekend. In the meantime, my kid is crying in pain and holding her ear. Of course I pay the money! If I didnt, they would have sent us home with no treatment at all for the child. They truly were going to let her suffer with this until Monday!! If I ever see a sign on that place that says "Caring", I swear I'll knock it down. Then we are allowed to go back to the ER, where they are treating 2 other people, but there are about 20 employees. After about a half hour doctor comes back and shows a picture of an ear and tells us it probably is an infection. When they took her vitals, her blood pressure and heart rate were very high. Now I know that it was probably from the pain and being at the hospital but no one even mentioned it to us. I told him her throat was very swollen and he said uh huh! I guess that wasnt important either. We leave with a prescription. Saturday nite she is still in pain. I found out she didnt get a prescription for ear drops because the doctor forgot that prescription. I saw that when I read the home care notes. Finally tonight after getting all 3 meds, she is finally starting to improve.
This is not the first run in I have had with area hospitals and doctors here. Get your coffee, cause I'm not done typing! My other daughter calls the doctors office for an inhaler a week ago Thursday, this Thursday ( a week later) the doctors office finally calls back but the medical assistant isnt sure why she is calling. She said she will have to check the doctors notes and get back to us. Now remember she called us! I'm not making this up, this is what she really said! I guess we should hear from her sometime next week!
Couple years ago, I had heart flutters and went to ER cause I didnt know what it was. They told me I had a heart attack, but yet they still let me walk around the floor with no medicine. Finally after being in the hospital for 3 days and no testing, they did and echo only to find I didnt have anything wrong with my heart. I did have high blood pressure though, so the doctor sent me home with no blood pressure meds and of course by the night I first got home, my pressure was high again. Had to go back the next day to be seen so he could give me a prescription. I had to pay for that visit too!
My daughter was in an very serious car accident, year and a half ago, was taken to the ER and had xrays. They said she was ok, except she had 2 cracked ribs. About a month later, she was sent to the hospital in Tampa, first thing they found on the xrays was that they had xrayed the wrong leg. And they had missed the other 5 broken ribs, the fracture in her hip, the broken ankle, and her wrist that was broken.
Now I dont know about you, but that seems like an awful lot to miss. I know that houses in the area are not selling but this was the last straw. As soon as my sink hole is repaired, this house is on the market and I am going back home, where I can actually trust my doctor. I truly feel like I have no place to turn when my family is sick or hurt. I had never heard of a doctors office that just puts on a tape machine over the weekend or at night and just leaves people on there own. Up north the ER is just that, its where you go when you have a true emergency. Other wise, the doctor goes into the office no matter what time it is, and you are seen there. I truly hate cold weather, and I really hate snow, but its better than dealing with what I consider dangerous medical care here.
SO thats my story and I'm sticking to it! Maybe this will help someone else...maybe not! If not...thanks for letting me blow off a little steam!

[sange77]

Which Hospital? I've been to the ER 2x since moving here. The first time at Oak Hill for my moms broken wrist and they took us in minutes. We were in and out of there in 1 hour and they gave her a splint and everything.

The second time, was for myself at Spring Hill Regional.... a couple of days after surgery I was spiking a fever while taking Tylenol, Advil etc.. They took me in the ER within 15 minutes...... ran so many tests on me, CT Scans, Blood Work numerous times, urine test, x-rays, back, chest, belly and more. They constantly kept checking my temp. I had privacy in the ER which was amazing. Then they admitted me and kept me till the following evening giving me IV's and antobiotics. They thought I had gotten an infection from the surgery but it turned out to be a kidney infection. The food was even pretty good. Unfortunatly my DR. was away so I delt with the oncall Dr who was a jerk but the nurses were absolutely fantastic!!!

The ER rooms in NY are horrible. There are half dead patients everywhere, in the halls all the rooms are filled. My husband and my mother had gone for different reason both times we had to wait over 4 hours in an empty ER, then when they took them in, they didnt see a doctor for another hour or two. Still with no pain medication or anything. Really horrible treatment.

In both of these incidents we all had insurance which I know in your case with your daughter definitely played a factor in the neglect of care. That isnt right. It's a shame.

[House4Sale]

Hi-5, sange77, I too was treated at Oaks Hospital on Cortez in Spring Hill and I got some of the best medical care ever. My only issue was that they kept me too long. LOL But that was because they were very, very thorough. Which I cannot complain about.

The new house we are selling is just 3 -5 mins away from that hospital so I was very fortunate. Can't say a bad thing about my treatment at Oaks Hospital. I highly recommend them!