Palos Community Hospital

Today i got a bill for a mommogram that was done in 2015. Obamma care was supposed to cover mammorams. WHAT A PIECE OF CRAP HOSPIAL

This place is a TOTAL JOKE. Do not go here. Do not bring your loved one’s here. Find someplace where they give a shit about people. It must be run by the Illinois government it’s so poorly ran. The employees are clearly only there for the paycheck. It’s criminal the way they treat sick people.

Recently had orthopedic surgery at Palos. The new ortho wing is beautiful as is most of the rest of the hospital. I was treated very well by the doctors, nursing staff and physical therapist. My only complaint was in the fact that in my 4 day stay my bed linens and gown were only changed once (the day before I was discharged)! I questioned why I was not given the opportunity to sponge bathe and get new linens and kept being told «we’ll be back to assist you» but no one ever arrived. The support staff left a little to be desired.

Disgusting ER. Self righteous ER Doctor told me my 25 yo daughter was on drugs, and that was the cause of her diminished mental status. Wanted to toss her in psychiatric. Tox screen came back negative down the line! Still she would not admit there was a physical problem. Had to contact attorney to back off the psychiatric «do goodies»…some jerk walked into her room and asked «When was the last time YOU drank alcohol?» no introduction, just a nosy question. So all these psychiatric do goodies WILL BE REPORTED FOR INSURANCE FRAUD!!! Don’t go there, I wouldn’t take my dog there (Because I love my dog very much) They need to get their act straight in the ER. Bunch of Robotic, preprogrammed jerks who can’t see what’s in front of them. By the way, my kid had a serious blood disease. Uh Yeah, where were the Psych do goodies for that? Apparently out chasing someone else who at 25 might have had an alcoholic drink in the past year…/ Sickening place, disgusting care.

I want to say I had a good experience but I didn’t. I’ve been in this emergency room before and the doctors are usually nice. However, the doctor I had came in asked me my symptoms which I believe to be a sinus infection. You know just because it is what I believe it is doesn’t mean you can just skip being a doctor. He barely checked me out didn’t even check my nose or my sinuses. Barely felt my neck which was swollen. Told him I’ve had a zpack before and he just gave the prescription right up. Wow, so very very sad what this hospital has been brought down too. Now I’ll have to go to an urgent care or my doctors office on Monday for actually care. Had I known it’d be this lazy I would have stayed home.

So… WHAT HOSPITAL ALLOWS A DEMENTIA PATIENT TO MAKE DECISIONS WHEN BROUGHT IN BY AMBULANCE??? That’s right, you got it THIS ONE-​PALOS COMMUNITY HOSPITAL… only to then transfer that patient to a hospital in Chicago because that patient did not want to be there (at Palos). No confirmation call &/​or advising the Spouse of their intent to transfer so far away or to what Hospital (whom by the way has POWER OF ATTORNEY as that is the only way the EMT’s were able to take the patient which also included contact info). The Hospital the patient was transferred to could not understand why that was done in the first place. Patient was then transferred to a Hospital down from the other due to other medical conditions & that one could not understand it either. Patient is not aware of surroundings! ARE WE MISSING SOMETHING PALOS (besides the patient)??? IF OTHER HOSPITALS CAN NOT UNDERSTAND WHY YOU DID WHAT YOU DID, WHAT WERE YOU REALLY SUPPOSED TO DO PALOS??? Spouse contacted Palos, was transferred so many times & then advised they had no information on Patient-​REALLY??? Patient was in Palos Hospital many times prior, so what do you do with EMERGENCY ROOM PAPERWORK??? Palos was contacted regarding this debacle again 04/15/16-Friday…where Marilynn (708−923−4725) was advised of the situation in part She then said it would be forwarded to Leona (708−923−4780) who would make contact… STILL WAITING… GUESS WITH ALL THEIR FANCY UPGRADES THEY STILL HAVE SOME QUESTIONABLE EMPLOYEES THERE. IS IT A CYA NOW PALOS??? I guess we have a couple other options if Palos does not acknowledge the error of their ways… either via an Attorney &/​or News. Palos, we can explain it to you, but we cannot understand it for you! Now, due to no response by any of them &/​or no message left, I called Marilynn on 04/​22/​16-​Friday & was transferred now to Kathy (708−923−4574) whom advised me Leona was not there & she was handling this matter. Kathy advised me she would call me
04/​25/​16-​Monday as she was still gathering information & do you think I received a call or message… you guessed it at of 5:35 p.m. NO! I did leave Kathy another message to call me. STILL WAITING.

Do not ever go there!!! My daughter was in Palos 3 times in a week, not only would they not take her right away, when I told them my daughter could not breath!!! They made her sit in the waiting room, not even offering her a wheel chair! She was curled up on a chair in and crying!!! By the 3 rd trip there, we called a ambulance… Thinking she would get help qicker … WRONG!!! They just dumped her in a room and left there!!! 2 hours went by with no help, she rang the call light, numerous times… No one ever came… I will say this… Years ago, it was a great hospital, when they started going fancy and high tech, it went down… And fast!!! Their patient care sucks! When the Nun, ran things there… It was great, now I have no words to describe this hospital! Except, RUN FOR Your LIFE!!!, oh and by the way, the 3 tines my daughter was there in a week, they came up with 3 different diagnoses… What a joke… And she us still suffering, they should have admitted her, to really find out what was wrong with her, instead, just give her prescription, and shove her out the door!!! Booooooooo

Another bad hospital they also have people waiting in the halls! Here’s the sea the bring you into the ER to make sure they get the money then they stack you up in the ER and tell you they have no more rooms. The real answer is they are taking in more patience then they can handle and they know this because it about the money not the patience. They are now in peak census meaning the hit their financial goal they have stacked them to the rim in the ER.

This hospital gets and A+ for its newer décor and scanning everything… but an F on everything else. I was admitted and discharged twice in one week, two different problems. The first was a definite reason to admit… the 2^nd one I truly feel that my problem could have been diagnosed and treated in a manner of hours, but they felt they had to admit me for 1 ½ day stay and ran a gazillion of test. I would say ½ of the nursing staff are warm and caring and ½ are on auto pilot… The nurses aides most of them have a personality of wet rag. I had to have cardiac tests, and the nurse and tech were behind in their schedule which caused them to rush rush rush, which made me stressed… After waiting in that area for almost 3 hours you want to rush with me?! You almost feel forgot in that hospital but they seem to come in the room incessantly for nothing. They were late giving me my meds and sometimes forgot all together. Their room service type menu is nice, but they need more selection. I do have to say their hospital food was better than most. Their ER doctors need personality and bedside upgrades. The ER nurses were the most compassionate. I think I will steer away from this hospital next time.

I want to lie and say I had a bad experience so that this would be my best kept secret but I can’t. We went to the ER last night because my 18 year old son was suffering from the stomach flu and dehydration. He was in triage before I could park the car and so that’s where I joined him. Then we were back in the waiting room for less than 10 minutes and got our room. The doctor came in immediately and before the nurse was done with putting in an IV, X-​ray techs were there to take him.
Fast, thorough, and compassionate. The nurse, I can’t remember her first name but her last name was Holt, was on top of her game. When she didn’t have the pain med from the pharmacy yet she called and nicely, but sternly told them to get it to her. And they did.
We were there for 4 hours, but not forgotten about, just had a lot of lab work done. My son left feeling 90% better and that’s more than we could ask for.

So the other day I woke up with blood coming from my ears and I was a little freaked out. I called my doctor and she told me to either go to Palos ER or Christ ER. My boyfriend has much more experience with emergency rooms then I do and told me Palos was much faster. I had never been a patient in an emergency room before but I didn’t think the wait was unreasonable. I was probably there for about three hours total. The nurses and the doctor I spoke with were very kind and personable. The only reason I’m giving four stars instead of five is because the pop machine was broken and I was getting so thirsty! The cafeteria wasn’t far but the receptionist said I should wait nearby in case they called my name.

I have been here for my mother more than a dozen times in the last 13 years. My sisters and I also take shifts and are there all day instead of only during visitor hours, so I think we have a better understanding of the ins and outs of this place. Experiences here never cease to disappoint me.
The positives:
–They constructed a brand new building which is very nice
–It is close to home
Negatives:
–Understaffed; it’s as bad as a nursing home where the NAs and CNAs don’t come back for hours to check on patients
–Staff inexperienced employees (NAs, CNAs, etc.; we’ve been in the emergency room many times– my mom has a recorded latex allergy, and they’ve given her a latex catheder twice now… IN the ER)
–The majority of doctors are extremely rude, spend so little time with you and read nothing about the patient, requiring you to repeat yourself time and time again; to elaborate, I’ve met at least 20 or more doctors at this hospital
I have also met a few great nurse assistants/​nurses/​doctors here as well, but emphasis on «few».
If you can go anywhere else, go there. If they haven’t fixed the understaffing in 13 years since my family started going there, they won’t be anytime soon.

The doctors were a pain in the ass and the communication in house leaves a fair bit to be desired. However most of the nurses we encountered in the couple day stay at the hospital were really decent people. An unfortunately rare thing these days. One nurse really stood out though and made it an overall good experience. Gayl was awesome, genuinely helpful, caring and, attentive. Thanks Gayl

I presented to ER in horrible horrible pain and severe painful vomiting and nausea for what may have been an gallbladder attack with possible gynecological secondary factors. Although no one still knows for sure. I did not have a primary care physician as I was in between physicians and had an appt two weeks later scheduled for a new primary care physician in Chicago at Rush. Gynecologist was out of town. In the ER was treated with the assumption that I was a «drug addict» because I was requesting drugs to relieve the pain. Then I had a mean nurse who was not at all compassion but was miserable and crabby. She could not get my blood pressure because the cuff she was using was not working properly. After several attempts while in horrible pain I ended up pulling the thing off and demanding she find one that fits and works. I asked her several times if she could try to be nicer. By then end of the er visit, she told me that the doctors there didn’t know anything and that I needed to go to a university hospital in chicago. I was then admitted for observation and waited all night til mid-​morning to see a doctor who they assigned named Shahbain, he came in asked me what my symptoms were and then cut me off in the middle of my first response and basically left within 2 minutes of the visit. He did not ask me if I had any questions, he did not CARE — it was very apparent that he did not CARE — he was absolutely useless!!! It is very disconcerting to be in such a vulnerable position, scared and in pain, in the hospital and to have a doctor come in to help you who could obviously CARE LESS! He and the ER care are the reasons I will never go back to this hospital ever again. Taking Nurse Monster’s advice to go to a University Hospital from now on. When you are stressed out and in terrible pain and scared to death, the last thing you need is to be visited by a doctor who doesn’t care and who is barely going through the motions. This idiot doesn’t deserve to practice. The nurses caring for me overnight and one of the emergency room nurses were very nice and compassionate. I was visited by a gynecologist, Dr. Mar and he was very kind and compassionate but his advice for me, unfortunately, was not a solution that was in my best interests. I knew this and it was confirmed from a Dr. from Rush who said that going on the drugs they were recommending would have had «devastating results» on my body. also, how the hell is it that they don’t have access to my medical records from my previous ER visit a month earlier? The ER doctor should be able to access those records. Also, I could hear the ER doctor talking to me to the previous primary care physician. Shut the door if you are going to talk about your patients on the phone to someone you aren’t authorized to talk to!

My mom was admitted with horrible stomach pain and found to have diverticulitis and problems with the colon. The doctors seemed very nice and very caring, but she was put into the old section which was like living in a slum. The nurses did not care, never answered the call button. The freaking CNA never washed her or helped her clean up for 4 days. The staff put all their garbage on the window ledge and noone ever came to clean. When my mom was able to get up, she got a garbage bag at 2am and cleaned the room. Its so weird because when you take the elevator up, one side is the new hospital, and the other is the old. The new is uncluttered and with hardwood floors. The floors didn’t look real clean but not dirty. Then you turn right to look down the hall of the old section, and its a disgrace. Floors are dirty, garbage on the floor, Machines all up and down the hall scattered everywhere. I told my dad that I’m glad I came here, because if I ever get sick I would pass this place right up.

The emergency staff here is comforting and efficient at what they do. The new buildings are beautiful but the cafeteria isn’t all that.

I switched doctors and my new doc wanted me to go through a battery of tests. I had a couple of choices but I went with Palos Hospital because all three of my children were born there. I haven’t been here since they remodeled. Its all brand new. I needed to get blood work, chest x rays and a stress test. Everyone was really nice to me and were super efficient. Especially the cardiology department. I was in and out in before lunch.

This is my community hospital and I would go there only for routine matters. The hospital lacks expertise in treating serious health matters. I lost my brother due to the fact that the hospital would not allow us to airlift him to a higher level hospital. I also know SEVERALl other people who had near death experiences due to inadequate care. On the positive side, the staff is friendly, facility is newly remodeled and convenient. Do not make the mistake of going there just because it is convenient if you have a serious condition. Go to UofC, Rush or Loyola.

Despite being here due to my fall, everyone here is amazing! My nurse was Naela and was so sweet :-) luckily I only have a sprain. Wouldn’t hesitate to come back here again. Hopefully just to visit!

My family member recently found out he had a pretty dangerous blood clot and was admitted to the Palos Critical care unit due to proximity. The nurses in the CCU were fantastic but once he was moved into a regular room, we were extremely disappointed in the treatment he received.
The nurse call button went unnoticed for unimaginable amounts of time and the staff were some of the most apathetic I’ve encountered. Unless you are completely option-​less, I’d avoid this place.