St Mary’s Hospital

told to report to the hospital 3 different times for my husbands outpatient surgery. reported at 8:00 am as asked and he was not seen until 1:30 or 2:00 by a very incompetent anesthesiologist who messed up his throat (he’s never had an issue before) she claimed to have come to find me… I was in the room the entire time at which no one offered me as much as a glass of water. After almost 8 hours I couldn’t wait to get out of there. We’ll be at Athens regional from now on. we did have a choice and I regret because our schedules we chose St. Mary’s.

My boyfriend had been suffering from severe abdominal pain and had feared that it was pancreatitis (he’d had it before so he knew what it felt like). It was a Friday night when I took him to the ER at St Mary’s. They saw him soon enough, and they confirmed he had pancreatitis but instead of admitting him they just wrote him a script for some pain medication and told him not to eat anything for a couple days. Fast forward to Monday and he’s still in extreme pain and can’t even keep water down, so he goes back and they finally admit him but not without making him feel like the scum of the earth for having pancreatitis first since it’s caused by heavy drinking. As of now he’s been here over a week, and there has been no improvement and no doctor or nurse has explained what’s going on or what needs to happen. Anytime a doctor examines him they just give him a lecture about his drinking (which he does deserve) but I feel like it would be more professional and appripriate to give us a proper understanding of what needs to be done and fix the problem FIRST, then criticize his bad habits and lifestyle choices. If him or I need to go to a hospital in the future for any reason it will NOT be St Mary’s.

Stopped by to visit a friend who just had her baby. The visitor parking lot is easy to find, but getting to the main building was a little confusing. The elevator only takes you to the other floors of the parking garage, not to the hospital itself. As it was my first time at St. Mary’s, I had to ask for directions once I got inside. The lady at the counter was rude and just pointed to the phone on the wall and told me to dial «0» and someone would pick up. The phone just kept on ringing, so I eventually just texted my friend to see what room she was in and went up the elevator. I did not have to sign in or anything and they let me inside. The rooms are spacious and apparently, if you ask enough, they will provide a mini fridge if you need one. I guess it’s been a while, but it was nice to see that the newborn gets to stay in the room instead of staying in a nursery.

This hospital had a good reputation. Their written pain protocols sound great, Got a knee replaced. The anesthesiologist was so full of hubris he wouldn’t believe his nerve block/​epidural failed. He finally admitted the obvious, and did a second one that also didn’t work. He refused to use diagnostic equipment to guide the block (I admittedly have a lot of scar tissue from previous surgical procedures): «I’ve been doing this for 30 years and don’t need any stinking flouriscope”(xray guidance to precisely guide the needle to do the nerve block).
Rolled into the OR, he still wouldn’t believe the block failed,. «Feel this?» yes. «How many pokes?» Two, three one, none. «Well, guess it didn’t work» Then went on to attempt to give me drugs I was allergic to do full anesthesia, which I have terrible problems with, which he was aware of, until I had to throw up my hand and loudly stated: «I withdraw permission for anesthesia» He finally relented and gave me drugs that wouldn’t make me deathly ill.
Post op, my wife tried for 7 ½ hours to get the nursing staff to give me pain killers… which they didn’t want to do, because of this nerve block… THAT DIDN’T WORK!!!
They finally got me hooked up to the IV pain pump, but treated me like the only reason I had this extremely painful operation just so I could get high.
I had to raise hell to get them to do even the basics. :Like bring me water and change my urine and blood soaked bedding. They injected a drug into my IV that was an appropriate medication, but didn’t properly flush the line, so it mixed with the pain killer and crystallized inside the IV tube. Because the pain killer was running down my gown instead of into my arm, I pushed the button more often… BECAUSE i WASN’T GETTING ANY PAIN RELIEF. So they came in, accusing me of abusing the drug and unhooked me from the machine.
I checked out of the hospital early, since they were trying to give me oral drugs I was allergic to (They had the list) and completely ineffective at reducing pain anyway. I had to hobble out of the hospital, my knee still bleeding and in terrible pain, and go to another doctor to help me.
All this because the anesthesiology department and the ward nurses wouldn’t do their job.
I tried going though channels to complain, to no avail.
St. Mary’s gave me terrible care. I haven’t experienced anything that horrific since dealing with the military hospital system.
Shame on them. I wouldn’t trust them to take care of a dog, even one I didn’t like.

I am having a hip replaced at St. Mary’s on Wednesday. I am NOT a normal patient and have presented myself to the hospital with many different needs. This hospital appears to only cater to a ‘cookie cutter’ cliental. If you have any special needs or concerns that are outside the box, this is probably not the hospital for you. I will see but am having major second thoughts.

Don’t quite get this place, looks like a hospital and a gym combined!
Anyways, got to workout here since the hotel I stayed at, Marriott, has a deal where the guests get to use the gym. I really liked it. Well equipped and spacious, similar to the big chains like Bally or 24 hr fitness.