Rabbi Levin is 100% RIGHT about Maimonides Hospital!

Flowerpot

Tue, Dec 15 2009, 12:24 pm

There are so many hospitals around today. You can say this about all the hospitals many stated out jewish. and today they are a money making machine. There is nothing we can do about it. Everyone does whats best for them. The president is looking to build it up (if u think he is doing a good job or not) and you have the choice of choosing a diff. hospital. We still live in a free country and can choose which doctor or hospital to use. Obama care didnt pass yet so take advantage and do what u feel is right before the gov. tells you what to do.

I wouldnt use them if I had a major problem. I just used them for delivery ( to which I was quiet surprised go very good service)

ChutzPAh

Tue, Dec 15 2009, 12:43 pm

I think his video is a bit over the top and does not belong on Youtube. I'm also not sure what he expects to accomplish with his ranting and raving style.

I'm not really sure why you are calling maimo "filthy rich" either. I highly doubt that is the case. It costs A LOT of money to run a hospital, especially one that serves underinsured or medicaid insured patients.
Unfortunately, frum jews demand a lot without wanting to shell out the money to pay for it. (NOT ALL, BUT SOME)

As for the case of transferrring a patient back and forth from the nursing home to the hospital, that is the system anywhere in the US. If you don't have an acute medical need (even if you are on a vent) to be in the hospital, you will be discharged to another facility equipped to handle your nursing needs. You can't just stay in the hospital forever- insurance will not cover it and the family will most likely not be willing to shell out thousands of dollars a day for care that does not need to be done in the hospital.

That being said, I have family who did have bad experiences in Maimo and I think the nurses as a whole have a major chip on their shoulders. Some of the staff (nurses and aids) seems overworked and unhappy, loud and inconsiderate.

Bottom line, if it's not a life threatening emergency you can choose where to go.

marina

Tue, Dec 15 2009, 1:21 pm

I'm happy to participate in this loshon horah fest. So please don't take this the wrong way.

But I know some of you are makpid on halacha. So for those of you who are, can you please clarify why this whole thread is not LH?

Like if I started a thread bashing a particular electronic supply store. Or a Judaica supply shop. Or maybe a schlacht house. Or a particular brand of CY milk that expires before it hits the shelves. Would that be okay? Mods?

Is it okay because this hospital is not run by frum Jews? Or is this okay because e/o at this hospital is gay and Rabbi Levin has matired Lh about gays?

Help me out here. I'm really trying to understand the subtleties of LH, ever since that time a poster informed me that I was very ignorant about these halachos.

From what I gather, deciding that a topic is "l'toeles" is not enough, you have to meet some sort of other criteria, right?

Mama Bear

Tue, Dec 15 2009, 1:36 pm

If any of you CHV have to go to a pediatric ER where it's not a matter of seconds, I cant recommend Brooklyn Hospital more highly. We went there with my then 11 month old who had a choking incident. admittedly brooklyn is about 2 minutes by ambulance from williamsburg, but they wouldve taken him to LICH had he not been in such distress. the Brooklyn pediatric ER ppl were amazing. They were quick, efficient, nice, and I was out of there in an hour. Got a bed right away, triaged right away, chest xray within 1/2 hour, discharged 1/2 hour later.

Btw I myslef ended up in the Mount Sinai ER when my baby was 3 weeks old. I waited 3 hours to be seen by a dr. the ER was OVERCROWDED, people were lined up in the hallway, patients families were made to wait in a waiting room. It took hours to get tested and hours to get admitted. I finally was taken to a room after 16 hours. But I wasnt treaqted like garbage. But I found out the hard way that all ERs are understaffed, overcrowded, and overwhelmed. It's the first place people go to when they have any kind of pain or bleeding. a woman was there with a bee sting, a woman was there because of bleeding at 3 weeks pregnant, an old woman who was disoriented, and I was there for severe pelvic pain. since these things arent life-or-death emergencies, they just go in a random order and it can take hours to be seen.

cookiemilk

Tue, Dec 15 2009, 3:36 pm

Yes 'getreal', that seems to be the intention of most of the people who explore and research hospitals. My father was in maimonides about 20 years ago during the height of the aids epidemic and while he was a patient with thyroid cncr he was put in a room to recover from surgery with an active aids patient. The red garbage bags were over flowing and the hygiene was bad. I was not impressed and have hoped that since then more was discovered aobut how to treat either one of these conditions and as well give maimonides a chance to clean up their act. I am sad to hear that that did not occur.

Mevater

Tue, Dec 15 2009, 4:53 pm

I have given birth there a few times and I was OK w the service.

It's the horrendous ER and the Admin's callousness that I have issues with.

Someone familiar w the hospital policies told a relative that they ship the elerly people back and forth between the hospital and nursing homes, because every time they admit the same person again, they do all kinds of testing all over again, and can bill insurance much more than if the person had stayed on in the first place. That's the epitome of callousness, to have them admitted into the ER, time after time, without food for almost a day, just so that they can make a few more bucks.

the world's best mom

Tue, Dec 15 2009, 5:50 pm

marina wrote:

I'm proud of you, Marina! This does sound like Lashon Harah to me, too. All I can say is, I saw a woman faint in the waiting room at NYU's ER and noone came to help her because they were too crowded. I've never been to Maimonides, but I know I wouldn't want to be in NYU's ER either if I needed emergency care, Chas V'Shalom. I don't know why they don't expand, but I guess they don't have enough money or space. Even when I was in the ER at Beth Israel lately, there was a horribly crowded waiting room. They have a pediatric ER which makes it my first choice for kids, but I don't think there is enough room in NY ERs in general. The only ERs I've been in that weren't so crowded were the ones in the country and I care, which is not really an ER anyway. I don't understand why Maimo is being criticized here if most NY hospitals are like that.

gryp

Tue, Dec 15 2009, 7:14 pm

I'm not watching the video but I had a nutso experience at Maimonides ER. It was summed up completely and exactly by the nurse herself who was taking care of us, when we were on our way out and she happened to mention: "I don't work in the pediatric department too often, I don't have much experience here."
Aha, lady, I could have told YOU that!
The incompetence was incredible, might as well have been a circus act. The disorganization was horrendous. Because the staff was running around trying to accommodate everyone, they were accommodating no one. It resulted in chaos and physical pain for my then 8 month old, all for nothing. I had to put myself in charge. By the time I got out of there, I was sick myself, couldn't get out of bed for 3 days from the stress of what we went through.

mammala120

Tue, Dec 15 2009, 9:44 pm

marina wrote:

I believe that if it is life/death situation then it is not conscidered LH. for example R'levine is saying all neg things about maimonides to try to SAVE LIVES by making people aware of what is going on, so it does not become LH unless it is a lie. which I know from using maimonides over ears that it is not a lie and I volunteered there as RN so I know the place is out of order . both the staff are mistreated by authority and then intern the staff mistreats the patients unintetionaly since they can't handle worload and pressure.

mammala120

Tue, Dec 15 2009, 9:48 pm

the world's best mom wrote:

marina wrote:

I think that the reason most ERs all over are overcrowded is becasue alot of people who don't have any insurance or doc run to ER and since it is emergency they must be provided services and not let to die , so people are taking advantage of ER system.

rainbow

Tue, Dec 15 2009, 10:29 pm

Mevater wrote:

iriska_meller wrote:

..... But her family made a choice to "do everything" and that's why instead of spending shorter time in more a comfortable and dignified situation surrounded by her family, she spent longer time being tortured by various futile medical interventions and being shipped from hospital to nursing home and back.

Wrong. It was a Rov who gave the Psak. Family had zero say.

In any case, I know of many who died because of carelessness there. Prob. more than in NYC hospitals.

My very close relative in New York nearly died there. Lawsuit in progress. I know a few who actually died, young people, and not so young people, sued Maimonides and won nice settlements. Maimonides hospital is notorious for its poor quality care. Many others suffer silently, don't sue.
Is there a site where one can check out how many lawsuits and the natures of each lawsuit?
There's actually a book that contains an expose' of the negligence that goes on there.
I don't recall the name of the book.

bashinda

Wed, Dec 16 2009, 7:55 am

I have a friend was given the wrong medication while at Maimonides and it could have been fatal. I, myself, have never been there because I'm not in Boro Park, so I'm going to take everything with a grain of salt because I don't really know the hospital.

At the same time, I had to be at Methodist right at the beginning of Yom Kippur. I was going to say how great they were but then I remembered the older lady who was on the other side of my mechitza. She was obviously in a lot of pain and not exactly coherent and the doctor started YELLING at her because she wouldn't answer her! It was obvious that she wasn't able to answer her and this doctor took it personally and was mamesh yelling at this poor lady who was probably 30 years older than her from what I could hear.

My doctor, on the other hand, was nice if a bit patronizing. The worst thing he did was pat my foot because he's obviously never heard of shomer negia before.

Hospitals are mixed. They can have great doctors and some great nurses but they can also have horrible nurses.

I was at Staten Island University Hospital to have my first daughter. Everyone was great except one nurse who was asking questions when I was being admitted. She was impatient with me. I said I'm sorry but I was having a contraction. She told me that I couldn't be in too much pain if I could talk (!!) B"H, everyone else was great.

The Children's hospital at Westchester is gorgeous. Everybody gets their own room with a gigantic TV and DVD (okay I could have done without the TV especially since the nurses put the TV on when I wasn't there and I had to attach a note saying don't turn on). The ER wasn't so gorgeous.

Raisin

Wed, Dec 16 2009, 8:52 am

YALT wrote:

Maybe what they should do is have 2 ERs. 1 for patients w/ insurance, 1 for without.
THat should be an easy way to deal with this issue. As soon as they come in, when they sign in, a nurse should be asking to see insurance cards. If they don't have, they are given "VIP service" to another waiting room.

how would you feel if your kid was in an emergency situation and for some reason you did not have insurance and were put behind everyone else (with less serious conditions but insurance)?

manhattanmom

Wed, Dec 16 2009, 10:33 am

YALT wrote:

That's exactly what our country will be like if we were to have socialized medicine. Lots and lots and lots of waiting for life-saving procedures.