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 Impersonal Treament and Shocking Behavior at Kaiser Roseville
Posted Sun January 21, 2007 2:18 pm, by Jennifer H. written to Kaiser Foundation Hospitals
Write a Letter to this Company
Ok first of all, this is really sad when I have to make a complaint when I'm not even a Kaiser patient!!! I had to take my roommate to the hospital last night around 1am in the morning due to extreme head pain. His insurance is Kaiser so I took him to the Kaiser Emergency Room in Roseville at Rocky Ridge and Douglas. Although I did not stay until he was released since family had arrived and allowed me to go home to get some rest, I was shocked and appalled by the service and treatment he received within the short hour that I was there. Don't get me wrong the wait time had nothing to do with it, but the service and way he was treated would never had taken place at any other local hospital in the area at least to the best of my knowledge and experience. I worked as an EMT for AMR and Alta Fire Department about 6 years ago as well as had my phlebotomy license and have a few simple ways of dealing with patients that I have always thought to be common sense. It started from the time he was evaluated in triage. The triage nurse was the typical nurse at the moment and seemed fine until later. He was walking to the room they had assigned him and the nurse walked far ahead ignoring the fact that he was stumbling and walking very slowly. I asked for a wheelchair and she said he would be fine even though he stumbled to the room and almost knocked several things down on the way in. Next, the doctor came in to evaluate him. This doctor was the most impersonal and rude doctor I have ever met. I have not only worked in the Ambulance and volunteered at the emergency rooms in the area but have been a patient at the local Sutter Hospitals as well as Mercy Hospitals and no doctor there had ever acted or would possibly act the way he did to my roommate as a patient.
Now I will say my roommate was exaggerating some of the screaming and noises and had a tendency to use some mild cursing (such as D^$$ it, it hurts, holy S&$^%). When I went through my Kidney stones at Sutter in Roseville, trust me when I say a lot worst came out of my mouth. Try a pregnant woman and tell me she won't ever curse. Pain can do that to a person. You see patients usually exaggerate there pain or noise when one of two reasons are happening. One, this is not something they are use to dealing with so when the pain is at a 10, noise and screaming/cursing, is the only way they "know" how to handle it. Two, they are simply scared and need calm, polite re-assurance that things will be ok, but they just need to calm down. Not once in the emergency room was anyone nice enough to take 10-20 second out of their night to say to him as a screaming patient, it's "ok" you will be fine, but you need to relax for us to help you. Instead the Doctor told him, he would not help him if he keeps cursing which there was not even more than 2 curse words used while the doctor was in the room. Most of his cursing was quiet and only heard by me within the room. My roommate even apologized and said that's just how he normally deals with extreme pain. The doctor then was acting all rude and didn't say anything as far as what was going on. There was no "we'll get you some medicine, just relax and be patient" or no "just relax you'll be ok" but silence as he just walked away. Later the phlebotomist came in to put an IV in my roommate. I told the guy he is deathly afraid of needle and need to be calmed down first. The guy barely said anything and just went right ahead with prepping him. Then after he sticks him with the needle my roommate stated to freak out but of course someone with a diagnosed fear of needles who can't even really stand to watch people sew is going to freak when not reassured by the person sticking them. They taught us that when I took the class to get my licensing. The guy then looks at him and instead of putting any effort into calming him down states, "you're the worst I've ever done." What the *$^$!?!?!?! How inhuman?!?! When I told the guy he just need to be told it's going to be alright from someone other than me, he looked at me and said no, he'll have to deal with it. Hello, but do you treat all your scared patients like that!!!! And again, instead of trying at any time while he was in the room to calm him down, he starts fighting with him verbally and physically trying to hold him down when I'm there clearly telling him, he just needs you to reassured or explained in detail why he need to relax or what can happen if he doesn't. Instead, he just ignores me like I have no idea what I'm talking about. He even said at one point, that as his wife I needed to be the one to calm him down. Well first of all I'm not his wife. Just because I brought him in and I have a ring on my finger does not make me his wife (since my fianc is his other roommate, duh) and if for some reason I was, it's not "my job" to be the one to calm him down. I know from experience that patients need to know that the ones treating him know what they are doing and that they even care! I'm had to calm down a 60 year old kicking and screaming man having a heart attack in a moving ambulance. It took me less than a minute to get the guy calmed down enough to get the IV in just by talking calm and explaining that this short period of pain is what needs to be done to make him feel better. Why couldn't this guy take 10 seconds to be patient and polite with him?
After that ordeal, my roommate, who still has not had any reassurance or told anything (and I mean they told him nothing!), is continuing to scream in pain. Instead of a nurse coming in and saying just relax and wait a minute like Sutter did what I was screaming in pain with Kidney stones, they shut the doors to the two bed room to close out his screaming while also locking this other patient in with the screaming instead of dealing with the patient for a minute to stop the whole situation. All it takes is a little compassion and patience, but never did I witness anyone show him anything other than laughter then they walked away or complete rudeness. Now I understand if they tried to calm him down and it didn't work, but the whole time I was there, there was never any effort made by anyone to try to be "human" to him instead of treating him like cattle! It reminded me of the difference of a Sutter hospital being Jet Blue Airlines and Kaiser Hospital being Southwest Airlines. When the nurse (who I must say was the nicest and most human in that emergency room) came into give him drugs for the pain she was the only one to explain what was going on and that if he relaxes it the pain medication will work better. After he had the pain medication he was much, much, much more quiet and relaxed and calm. As I walked towards the exit to meet up with his sister to inform her that I needed to go home and get some rest, the security guard and some other waiting room workers (looked like janitorial) snickered and laughed under their breath as they asked if my Husband was alright. I corrected them that he was not my husband, it's not "funny" and that he will be fine and walked off, even more upset and annoyed at this point. I had to do my absolute best not to say anything right then to my roommate or his sister so that hopefully the rest of the night would go smoothly since his pain was finally under control.
Now I am currently in the process of finding private health insurance for my fianc and I since we are now 1099 employee at our new job, and I have officially decided NOT to go with Kaiser after seeing this. Kaiser Hospitals has shock me into a state of complete disbelief. It's like comparing Kaiser as Wal Mart Brand and Health Net, Blue Shield; any other the other health plans (Sutter, Mercy, UC Davis) as Macy's Brand. I am now convinced I am willing to spend a little bit more for the other health plans instead of Kaiser. It is truly sad because after previously working for the California Primary Care Association, I saw what wonderful things the Kaiser Foundation has done for public health and the state of California as well as CPCA, but the service from their Roseville hospital truly makes me sad. I really hope this was an isolated incident and that your organization can address this issue and those involved in the proper manner to make your organization truly uphold all their core values and beliefs. I hope this letter is not just ignored but taken seriously. My roommate is not one to say much about these things, but I cannot honestly stand back and watch this go un-noticed. Please look into this issue and take the appreciate action. I know the Kaiser foundation is a great foundation and does many great things, but a lot of improvement need to be made in their hospitals (the Roseville one at least) to truly uphold Kaiser's good honest reputation.
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by Harleycat Posted Sat February 10, 2007 @ 1:03 PM
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First of all, you should not be writing this letter, the patient
should. He was the one going through this, not you. By your own
words, you were only there one short hour.
Being of veteran of many, many ER visits (more than I have fingers and
toes), I can honestly say that the ER is not the place to be if you
want hand holding. They are just too busy to hold the hand and calm
every patient. Many ER's have a saying, meet 'em, treat 'em and
street 'em.
I've done my share of cursing in the ER and most of the docs and
nurses are quite used to it. I've had to have my dislocated hip
prothesis reduced in the ER. That after a bumpy trip through the
streets of Manhattan. Despite the Demoral and Valium drip, there was
quite a bit of cursing from me that night.
I'm suprised that a phlebotomist started an IV. It may be a state
thing but here in NY I've never had an IV started by anyone but an RN,
PA or Doctor.
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by Jennifer Huff Posted Mon January 29, 2007 @ 9:38 PM
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Ok, I am truly saddened on how much people assume before posting their
replies. First of all, his cursing could not be heard beyond the
room. It was a quit "*bleep* it hurts" as he was muttering to
himself.
Second, I have had kidney stones for the comment about kidney stones
and given birth before and screamed at the top of my lungs before
louder than him. He was not being loud and annoying. Just because
you hear the word screaming in my letter you cannot "assume" how loud
it was. Also I have know him for years and seen him come out of car
accident bleeding and bumped all up with a broken arm mind you not and
he did not scream. He was breathing hard and said it hurt real bad,
but not enough to be crying about it. This head pain was something
that caused him so much pain he could not hold his pain in. He was
also unable to write. I filled in the forms for him when we got there
because the pain was so bad he could barely talk let alone write.
And for the person questioning my training, I'm not claiming to be an
expert!!! I worked as an EMT for only about a year (also it was about
6 years ago) until I lost a child for the first time in my arms which
hurt me emotionally so badly that I decided the field was not for me.
Next, I was trying to calm him down. I had been trying the whole
time. After my own experience in the ambulance, I found that a family
member can try all they want to calm someone down, but sometimes that
person just needs to hear it from someone else as well as a
professional. I have taken a friend with gall stones to the hospital
and she was screaming louder and using more cursing as a Mercy
hospital and all it took to calm her down was something that Kaiser
could have done and it only took 15 seconds. The doctor came in after
hearing her. He told her that if she keeps screaming she will
hyperventilate. If she calm down, she will be fine and they will take
care of her, but they need her to calm down first. She was able to
rest after that and told me that felt better after the doctor told her
she would be fine. She was just scared and need re-assurance, just
like my roommate was scared!
Also, his fear of needles has been diagnosed by a psychologist before.
I cannot even sew in the same room as him. It's been that bad since
childhood. Calling him a baby is not only a hasty assumption, but
rude to not know the whole situation. All you are hearing in this
letter to Kaiser is only a small glimpse of what happened without
knowing the situation. It is Kaiser's decision to find out what
happened or ignore the letter. Comments like Kaiser is just doing
their job or Kaiser was mistreating him, or other comments related to
that I welcome, but I was insulted to see how much people just assume
one thing and run with it.
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hmmm...
by PaintedLady Thu February 8, 2007 @ 5:32 PM
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by myswtghst Posted Mon January 22, 2007 @ 5:39 PM
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My goodness. I can't help but agree with the other comments on here.
As someone who worked a veterinary nurse (with animals, not people) I
still do my best to calm down the friends I've taken to the hospital,
knowing that the hospital workers are busy and doing the best they
can. You, of all people, should know that you would have to do your
part in keeping your friend calm.
From the sounds of it, your friend was being a bigger baby than the
roommate I took to the hospital with kidney stones, the best friend
with a cracked rib and the one with appendicitis combined, all over
what was probably a migraine. If there had been some evidence of
trauma or symptoms of something serious, I'm sure they would have
taken it more seriously, but a headache and a lot of immaturity isn't
going to get you far in the ER. There are a lot of people hurting
worse than you.
And one final good point others have made--he should be making the
complaint, not you, as you were not the one mistreated.
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by Courtney C Posted Mon January 22, 2007 @ 2:51 AM
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First of all, unless your friend is somehow unable to write, he needs
to make his own compalints. Secindly, it sounds like your friend was
acting out. The hospital is a business and they need to think of its
other customers when a grown man is screaming and cussing, hollering
like a 2 year old. I'm deathly afraid of needles too, but if you need
a shot, you SUCK IT UP and take it! What kind of man carries out like
that? And it surprised you that the guards were snickering? After
hearing an adult carry on like a baby? I'd be laughing at him too! He
wasn't dying, he wasn't in danger, he needed a SHOT. You're way
over-reacting and your friend needs to calm down.
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by PaintedLady Posted Sun January 21, 2007 @ 8:07 PM
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While it sounds as though they could have been more sympathetic, your
friend as (I presume) an adult needed to calm himself down- his
actions were ridiculous (and yes, I have been in his shoes, in agony
and scared of what was wrong with me--twice, but I didn't scream and
carry on like a child!)! I hope there weren't any young children
being freaked out by him!
Why are you so offended at being presumed his spouse? It seems like
they made a rational guess considering the situation and the time of
night.
And why, as a professional in the healthcare field, weren't you doing
anything to calm him down? If you can calm down a stranger in a few
minutes, calming someone who knows and trusts you should be a snap!
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by tea_granny Posted Sun January 21, 2007 @ 5:54 PM
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While I sympathize with your situation, and understand that your
friend was in a lot of pain, and possibly scared, based on your
description, I think he behaved very badly, and didn't help his
situation at all.
A hospital is a busy place, and there are a lot of sick people to deal
with all at once. That is the point of triage.
If I was a patient, lying there, sick and in pain, myself, I certainly
would not be impressed listening to some guy swearing and shouting
about a pain in his head.
You didn't specify what was wrong, but apparently, it wasn't life
threatening.
I understand he has a phobia of needles, but your description of what
occurred makes me want to smack your friend.
You claim to be a trained EMT, and mention that you have had to calm
patients down. Why didn't you do that for your friend?
You claim it wasn't your job, and that it was the hospital's job. I'm
sorry, but if I have the training and ability to do that type of
thing, and I am sitting there with a scared friend who is behaving
like a 2 year old child, then I am going to use that experience to
calm him down for his own sake, as well as those around him.
If the tech isn't explaining what is happening, then I am going to
explain in words my friend can understand.
If the tech isn't making the situation easier, then I am going to do
all I can to distract my friend and prevent him from focusing on the
needle.
I don't have any experience with this medical care facility, but I
don't necessarily think they behaved unprofessionally either.
If the patient doesn't have a life threatening illness, but is acting
like a baby about it, then I can certainly understand why they would
move on and focus more on those who are not going to fight their
medical treatment and cause a scene at every step.
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Exactly!
by PaintedLady Sun January 21, 2007 @ 7:59 PM
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SHARED LETTERS 
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