Tampa General Hospital

02/28/08

one of the best hospitals i have ever worked

by flablossom at Citysearch

i am a travel rn, i was giving the opportunity for an assignment in the vicu. it has been the most pleasant assignment yet. Kelly cares about her staff and is sincere in giving top quality care of the patients. the patients are always one to one nursing care if pt care warrants, otherwise the patient care is 2 patients to one nurse. the standards are set high to give the best quality care. the employees are treated with autonomy and respected for the knowledge and and skills. i loved it there and could not say enough good about TGH.

10/12/09

Heaven forbid if you upset your Nurse!

by Tammy Miller at Citysearch

My mother was in a very serious accident about 12 years ago and this hospital is the one that the flew her to. She was in ICU for 6 weeks, and also in coma. After she got out of ICU they started her recovery on a different floor she didnt know who she was or where she was. Well she had to have assistance to get to the restroom and waited nearly 1 hr before she finally got a nurse to help her. About the 3rd week they said that she was extremely hositle and placed my mother in some kind of mesh body bag and left her there for several hours. I was only 12 at the time but when my father would take me to see her I was sooo upset leaving the hospital after seeing that my mother was clearly not happy at this hospital! Everytime that we would visit her she would say that the nurses were very mean if she asked for anything. I would not suggest this hospital to anyone! There are several other issues that I would like to address but I dont feel like getting into further detail. If you care for your loved one I would highly recommend in taking them somewhere other than TGH!

• Pros: none
• Cons: Poor Nurses on staff!!

04/22/09

Do not have your child here!

by rbeglen at Citysearch

I recently delivered my fifth child at TGH. I had been receiving routine care there for several weeks due to problems with my pregnancy, I had always been treated with kindness and respect and expected my delivery and recovery to be wonderful. I went through my induced labor and had a wonderful experience. When it came to recovery though it was a disaster. First I had to wait for a room. Because I am a new to this Medicaid thing I didn't realize that qualified me for substandard recovery care. I was put into a semi-private room with a roommate from hell. There was never any privacy because every time a staff member came in they never closed the door. My breasts were exposed to anyone who wanted to see them walking down the hall. Anytime I asked for something it took hours to receive it. I asked for extra blankets, towels and pillows and it took 5 hours and constant reminders for my nurse to bring it. I was in an extreme amount of pain due to the number of children I've had and the epidural I received during labor. I was told that Motrin and Tylenol #3 was all I could receive even though I know from experience that is a lie. I requested to see an oncall physician or midwife 3 times out of worries that the epidural may have caused damage to my back. I was told that they would be paged. I never saw them. On the day I was released I received a visit from a midwife but because she didn't identify herself when she entered my room I thought she was simply a nurse and was unable to tell her my issues.

Anyway, I don't want to completely bash TGH but I didn't realize that my comfort and care was based on what insurance I had. I would like to thank Ms. Sally Soucy for making my labor and delivery comfortable and for showing me support. To all of you who treated me like s**t in recovery I hope you never have to feel like I did. It is a shame that for the rest of my life I have to remember some of the happiest days of my life were some of the most miserable.

• Pros: Very nice midwives and labor and delivery area.
• Cons: Recovery area is overcrowded/inadequate care.

02/20/09

If it's an actual emergency, you're out of luck

by whatsawhat3 at Citysearch

Tampa General Hospital is the WORST ER I've ever been to and is not reccommended if you have an actual emergency. When I got to the ER at 10:30 pm I was having cold sweats, I couldn't walk straight and when we got to the desk I could barely breathe, they told me I'd be "next" to go into a room to see a doctor and sat me down in the waiting room. I was there for an hour without even my vitals being checked and a friend that had taken me in to the ER went up to ask what was going on since I wasn't getting any better. They responded with "I thought we already took your vitals." They can't keep track of their patients! It was four hours later, I was still shaking and had yet to see a doctor. The nurses don't even come by walking to see if everyone is okay in the sitting room.

We went to talk to patients advocacy and asked why I hadn't been seen yet and wanted to know how they prioritize things, "vitals,pressure." was his answer. Okay, so I might be dying but my vitals and pressure is fine, then what?

Then I got in to see a doctor after complaining for an hour, they did testing to make sure I wasn't diabetic and said they were going to hook me up to an IV for fluids. They put the needle in my arm and left for an hour. For an HOUR I had the "IV" in my arm with nothing hooked up to it. Then my bld pressure started to drop from 103/58 to 83/56, my friend told the doctor and he said "It's not my responsbility, go talk to a nurse." You're a doctor and it's not your responsibility to look after a patient?

After another hour we were told that there was nothing wrong with me and I was sent home. I spoke to the lady that signs the paperwork and she said "You got in here at...." and quickly changed the topic to "Okay, well I hope you're feeling better!" Once she realized I had been there for about 10 hours. She didn't even want to say what time I had gotten in.

Bottomline, if it's a real emergency, don't go here. Take your chances in brandon

• Pros: If you like long waits you're golden
• Cons: Pretty much everything

11/01/08

Do not go there for major surgery!

by desertroset at Citysearch

I am new to the Tampa Area but I do have excellant insurance. When I started having trouble with blockage of my leg again, I called my surgeon in Dallas. He recommended me go see a particular surgeon saying he was the best in his field and going back to Dallas would be not advised.

The doctor had a fancy office and said he would do the surgery. I went into Tampa General at which time, I was attended by students and another doctor. I never saw the first doctor again and the surgery was botched, apparently the surgeon or perhaps a student cut into a lymph node and I have been unable to work because of a "tunneling wound that is healing but still has not closed and must be packed because of the depth. When I went to get the stitches out, (almost 3 weeks later) without any testing, the surgeon that did the surgery said" You must go back in to the hospital and reopen the wound, because you have an infection." I refused, telling him that not only did he have no proof of an infection, the hospital had infection control issues that I was not willing to take since I know a bit about the subject. I never went back, found a local doctor and he has been overlooking my recovery. I went into Tampa General on Sept 11 and as of Nov 1 I still have to have my wound pack, my leg is numb and I have not been able to walk any great distant which was what the surgery was for to begin with!

Surgery and recovery time for my type of surgery is less than a month, I should be up and walking a good distance within 2 weeks. How do I know ? The Surgeon in Texas did the other leg two years ago! I was back to work within 6 weeks!

• Pros: none
• Cons: No nice places outside to sit, smoking allowed all over except the Macdonalds they have

07/08/08

Would Rather Die

by thedrdrew at Citysearch

I would rather die than be a patient at Tampa General Hospital. As an employee of this hospital I worked around incompetence. They basically have brand new nurses at this hospital that don't know what they are doing. There is so much incompetence at this hospital that I will not even say anything for fear of retribution. I told every person that I know personally that if it is a matter of life and death and the only hospital that is available is Tampa General Hospital...let me die.

05/19/08

DO NOT GO TO THIS ER IF YOU ARE INJURED

by angelmel at Citysearch

I think Tampa General is one of the best hospitals in the area in many capacities. I have two doctors here that I visit frequently. However, DO NOT go to this ER if you have an emergency...unless you are in near fatal condition. I recently brought my fiance here because it is literally 2 minutes from where we live. He ruptured his achilles during a basketball game and were there for 12 hours. After exactly 8 hours, and my complaining that he was swelling and in severe pain and that we had been waiting for a full workday, they finally admitted us to a room where we waited another 2 hours to be seen by a doctor. Once the doctor saw us, it took an hour to get Motrin, x-rays, and a cast. We arrived at 8:45pm and arrived home at 8:45am. Granted, his injury was not as critical as say, a heart attack, however, we were treated rudely at the front desk by a few people and my fiance was not offered so much as ice or any pain medication, and again, we were in the main waiting room for 8 hours. I have heard multiple people tell me that I should not have taken him there. Though the care and facilities seem adequate, the fact that nobody bothered to even check on him the entire time we were sitting there I felt, was unacceptable.

09/23/07

Avoid leaving your loved ones on the 6C1 Nursing Unit without checking on them often.They abuse the ones they can get away with, the Geriatric, Patients with head injuries, heavilly medicated/confused

by k_temple at Citysearch

Dear Friends, My name is Kimberly Oglesby and I was employed at the Tampa General Hospital September 5,2000. I sustained 2 on the job injuries, witnessed and reported patient abuse, and was then denied medical treatment, slandered, black listed and illegally terminated. I totaled my Honda September 19, 2007 and was taken to St. Josephs Hospital whwere I was subjected to abuse at St. Josephs Hospital because Dixie bennett, a LPN I reported at TGH just so happens to now be employed at the Health Care facility. I wrote more about this in a review about St. Josephs Hospital. My conscious is clean--I can tell you what i saw happpen to patients while I worked there and what they did to me but you'll have to decide for yourselves.

--Kimberly Oglesby

• Pros: McDonalds
• Cons: Too may to list..