| Best way to complain about a Hospital? I need to find out where I can complain about Sain Johns Hospital in Santa Monica,CA. The nursing staff is bad. Bedside manner is terrible, while they are arrogant, talking on their cell phones, and making comments about patients that anybody would find unacceptable.
So, where can i send a complaint? Weve talked to the head nurse, and she said she put in a complaint a week ago, but the problem still exists. |
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nonymousPremium
join:2003-09-08
Glendale, AZ | There should be state license boards for both the hospital, nurses and doctors. |
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| reply to billydunwood
Being rude is not illegal and nothing the licensing board will get involved with.
Complain to the hospital administrator and/or whatever corporate entity/church/whatever owns the hospital and if not satisfied, choose a different hospital. |
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 LocoObviously InsanePremium
join:2002-11-09
405 Freeway
kudos:2 | reply to billydunwood
(310) 829-8017 |
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| reply to craig70130
said by craig70130:Being rude is not illegal and nothing the licensing board will get involved with. Complain to the hospital administrator and/or whatever corporate entity/church/whatever owns the hospital and if not satisfied, choose a different hospital. No, but complete misdiagnoisis and sending a 90 year old person home with a big infection might be bordeline abuse. They sent home when he had a big infection, and 2 days later he had a flare up, and is right back in there. This hospital sucks(we have to go here because of insurance reasons). The rudeness just adds to their idiocracy. |
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| None of which you mentioned in your original post. |
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1 edit | said by craig70130:None of which you mentioned in your original post. i tend to forget things when Im typing. They said he had cancer, and two other doctors said " why would they say that. He has no signs of cancer". Complete crap. |
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 dandelionPremium,MVM
join:2003-04-29
Germantown, TN
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| reply to billydunwood
Send a letter to the hospital administrator. Also get the main/admitting doctor to help run interference. That doctor should be able to give you final diagnosis, make sure the floor treats the patient right etc. You are in a cycle now. Legitimate complaint not addressed, add more complaints.. become known as a complainer by staff etc. and complaints are "heard" less and less.
A typical response to the "powerlessness" of an illness is relatives and patients to complain about other problems, nothing tends to make them happy yet this is mainly due to the stress of this illness. Your best bet is to sit down quietly and make a list of exactly those things you would like to change and speak in a calm voice, even your post sounds angry. This won't help you nor the patient.
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| said by dandelion:Send a letter to the hospital administrator. Yes, do it in writing, and cc your insurance company. |
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 jjoshuaPremium
join:2001-06-01
Scotch Plains, NJ
kudos:3 | reply to billydunwood
What are you trying to accomplish?
Are you looking for someone to be fired. Are you looking for money? |
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 John_WPremium
join:2000-04-25
Worcester, MA | reply to billydunwood
A lot of the larger hospitals have patient advocates who will help with patient complaints.
You can complain to the hospital administration who usually forwards it to their risk management dept.
You can complain to JCAHO. That's the Joint Commission. Hospitals live and die by these guys. The do annual inspections of all hospitals. And these inspections are the corporate version of a prostate exam. Nothing means more to a hospital than to get a decent inspection from these guys and nothing stings more than to have major violations. St Johns has a NICU, so I am assuming they value this inspection very highly.
»www.jointcommission.org/generalp···mplaint/
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1 edit | reply to billydunwood
The state boards only address neglect or misconduct charges. I doubt they will handle HR or customer service issues. Unfortunately, courtesy is not part of the licensing requirements
Depending on what the "comments about patients that anybody would find unacceptable" are, the staff may be in violation of HIPA laws, which is something the state board will absolutely help you with.
Sending a patient home with a serious condition is the attending doctor's judgement, not the nurses'. Sometimes insurance factors into the decision.
You can pressure management but if they simply won't act there's not much else you can do besides minimize your dealings with that hospital.
mocycler |
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| reply to John_W
said by John_W:A lot of the larger hospitals have patient advocates who will help with patient complaints. That's probably more to get through red tape than to make the nurses do their jobs.
I know someone whose kid was in the hospital. They rang for the nurse, but the nurse didn't answer. So he went to the nurses station, and the conversation went something like this:
"I rang for a nurse, but no one answered."
"How long ago?"
"20 minutes."
"You've only been waiting for 20 minutes. Why are you complaining?"
He got his kid and walked out the door.
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 lordpufferComfortably NumbPremium
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1 edit | reply to nonymous
said by nonymous:There should be state license boards for both the hospital, nurses and doctors. That's what I would do. However, if you feel that there was negligence on the part of the hospital staff, and that there are damages as a result, you can seek out an Attorney and try to bring a law suit.
Medical Malpractice in CA has a 250K cap, so a lot of Attorney's shy away from many cases, unless they can allege another cause of action that does not have a cap.
EDIT: I should have replied to the OP....Need coffee
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| reply to billydunwood
Re: Best way to complain about a Hospital? Don't just complain sue them for malpractice! You can sue doctors, nurses, social workers and attendants! |
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guppy_fishPremium
join:2003-12-09
Lakeland, FL
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| reply to billydunwood
said by billydunwood:said by craig70130:Being rude is not illegal and nothing the licensing board will get involved with. Complain to the hospital administrator and/or whatever corporate entity/church/whatever owns the hospital and if not satisfied, choose a different hospital. No, but complete misdiagnoisis and sending a 90 year old person home with a big infection might be bordeline abuse. They sent home when he had a big infection, and 2 days later he had a flare up, and is right back in there. This hospital sucks(we have to go here because of insurance reasons). The rudeness just adds to their idiocracy. More like your insurance sucks, the hospital is following the policy of the Medicaid/Medicare, which is looking to cut costs where ever possible
Offer to pay cash and you can have any room, doctor or procedure you want and stay for as long as you want |
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KiwiPremium
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USA/MidWest
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| reply to John_W
The original complaint is worth a written letter, I'm not commenting on the second part because that's not for a forum board to interpret.
John Has the most sensible answer, more than the hospital will take notice of HIPPA violations.
dandelion A quietly responsive attitude will garner better results.
Not all hospitals are equal, nor necessarily are the clients, these days there is a significant drift away from the bedside situation in hospitals generally. It's more apparent than ever before that budget rules over common sense, ethics and integrity; in some settings. |
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scross
join:2002-09-13
Cordova, TN
1 edit | reply to billydunwood
Yes, my wife has been an hospital nurse for over 20 years now, and I can confirm that they live in dread of getting a bad review from the Joint Commission (or "jay-co", as they call it). Whenever they get word that an inspector is about, they go flying through the hallways making sure that everything is ship-shape.
I'm no lover of the our current health-care system (and I am in fact trying to do my part to make it better), but be aware that the choice here may be between "a bad hospital" vs. "no hospital". If things are as bad as you say they are, then the J.C. or whoever may choose to just shut it down completely instead of spending the necessary time and money to fix it, so you need to consider where that would leave you and the entire community. This might be a good thing for the community or a very bad thing, all else considered. |
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 r81984Fair and BalancedPremium
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Katy, TX
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| reply to billydunwood
said by billydunwood:No, but complete misdiagnoisis and sending a 90 year old person home with a big infection might be bordeline abuse. They sent home when he had a big infection, and 2 days later he had a flare up, and is right back in there. This hospital sucks(we have to go here because of insurance reasons). The rudeness just adds to their idiocracy. It sounds like to me that the nurses and doctors are overworked, rushed, and do not have enough time to do everything or have personal lives.
As far as the mis-diagnosis, they probably did nothing wrong. Since they are overworked and short staffed they made the best diagnosis they could out of the information they had.
The only way you can prove malpractice is if they broke protocol in their diagnosis or they can't explain to a judge how they made their diagnosis.
Diagnosing problems with the body is basically the same as diagnosing the problems with anything. You conduct tests/inspections and gather info and then make an assessment. Also, they can be limited by your insurance about what tests they can conduct.
If they are overworked and understaffed your complaining will not do anything as they already know about the problems. Your best shot is to also complain with your insurance company and keep writing letters and making phone calls to get them to approve another hospital.
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