Posted by ChuckInCt on June 25, 2012 at 11:23:20:In Reply to: Stanford Hospital posted by 2003nc on June 23, 2012 at 23:00:05:
In 2005 I had UP3 surgery performed by a local surgeon in a local hospital here in Connecticut. The overnight hospital stay was not good. I spent a painful night, fully awake. The nursing staff was in my room for a good portion of the night, attending to my roommate. At one point, the TV was turned on (loudly) for his benefit. Nobody asked me if I would mind. I could not wait to leave in the morning.
When I was considering having the MMA procedure, my first priority was to choose a surgeon. After my consultation with Dr. KL, the deal was sealed. At that point, I would have followed him to any hospital. It was my surgeon who dictated that I use Stanford. If it was good enough for one of the world’s best surgeons, it was good enough for me. So, yes I would recommend Stanford for this procedure.
I don’t believe we can count on any hospital to fulfill all our expectations. For me, single rooms are an insurance issue. You need to check to see what your plan allows. If you are in a double room there are no guarantees that you will be alone. It was very busy during my stay at Stanford. The rooms were fully booked.
My experience with Stanford Hospital overall was a good one. Prior to my MMA surgery date last November I learned that the hospital and my insurance company were in contract negotiations. However, although the contract had expired, the hospital guaranteed ‘in network’ rates for my procedure. The check-in procedure was a breeze. The pre-op stuff went pretty smoothly. My night in the ICU was the longest of my life, though; the nurse for my room was very attentive. The ICU was a dark and very quiet room. I had a roommate but both of us were too out of it to be aware of each other. The next day, when a bed became available I was wheeled into a regular room with a window view bed. Overall, I thought the room was a bit small. I guess I had bigger expectations. Yes, I always had a roommate. There was one incident that threw me for a loop. During my first night in the regular room a new roommate was wheeled in. He was wigging out for some reason, wanting to open the window to cool off. He may have been going through drug withdrawal or a psychotic episode, who knows? After a while of this I wrote a note on my tablet to my nurse, either he goes or I’m out of here. Thankfully, they sympathized with me and moved him to another room. Another roommate was wheeled in who was terrific. There were some other minor missteps but my wife was always right on top of the situation. As a peace offering the hospital gave her a gift. But, quite frankly, I don’t think any of this was unique to Stanford. My UP3 experience locally was actually worse.
The Stanford nursing staff was very good. They tried their best to accommodate any request I had. They were very interested in my procedure and thought the world of Dr. KL. In fact, one nurse told me that Dr. KL occasionally allowed nurses to scrub in to see the procedure first hand. She did have the privilege of attending one so she pretty much knew what I had been through. Dr. KL visited me every day and I pretty much had 24/7 availability to him. You need to talk with your surgeon and raise availability concerns with him/her. As far as any other concerns, I found that the hospital staff would do their best to work with us to address them. As I look back at the grand scheme of things, the few issues I had at Stanford Hospital were just inconveniences weighed against the severity of the procedure and the recovery that continues to this day.
Good luck,
Chuck