Bethesda North Hospital

The emergency room employees are very uncompassionate and cold hearted. I went there in severe pain, by the request of my doctor. I asked that I have a place to lay down ASAP, as standing and sitting was very uncomfortable. When I was brought to the back from the waiting room they put me in a chair, in the hallway, with no privacy and called it a room. I again requested a bed and was ignored. When the emergency room doc came to talk to me, he said all he could do was give me pain pills and send me home. I asked for a CAT scan that was requested by my doctor. He proceeded to tell me, with a very poor bedside manner and without checking anything, he knew there was nothing wrong with me. I then had to demand a CAT scan. They then expected me to wait an hour, while still sitting in pain and very uncomfortable. I chose to go out to my car and lay down while waiting. Upon returning I waited another 20 minutes for my husband to meet with me. When he went to the reception desk to find out what was going on he was greeted very coldly and told I had been signed out, not by my choice which really upset me, and receptionist knowing this and seeing me never said a word. She was real good at giving dirty looks and being extremely rude, though. I was then called back a 2nd time after being signed back in, to be put in a leather recliner, yes better then a chair, but it took 4 hours before my request to lay down happened. 15 minutes after giving me a narcotic pain shot, I was sent home, without asking how I felt and I was never offered a wheel chair to the door so my husband could get the car. My whole purpose for going was because my doctor felt I would get better and immediate care, so much for that wrong thought. I had another bad experience 5 years backs and thought things might be different, boy they fooled me. Never a gain will I be returning to Bethesda North Hospital emergency room. In all my years I have never experienced such poor, inconsiderate, rude, uncompassionte people in a place where employees should be lovine and caring. more

Bethesda North ignorance and irresponsible made me suffer 30 hr hunger and wasted 2 sick days. The most important things for them ""Do you have insurance?"" and ""What and where are they? Show me!"" I was scheduled to have a colonoscopy test on July 22 Friday afternoon. Without having food for 30 hrs, I arrived at 1:30 pm, later, I found out my appointment was 4 (hospital phone pre-register personel told me to arrive at 1:30) and doctor would delay 1 hr. At 5, the Bethesda North East Wing was almost a ghost town. My wife and I still sit at the waiting room. I started to worry my wife's safety to wait there along in this empty building. We went to the recovering room and asked. They said at least I need to wait another 45 min, around 6 pm Friday night. I decide that I had to abandon my appointment and went home. As I know, colonoscopy requires whole body anesthesia. (1) Unless emergency, I can't let them anesthetize me for only a routine physical test at Friday afternoon 6:00 pm (it is overtime). (2) my wife is required to wait outside during the procedure. (who can guarantee her safety. The place is a ghost town at Friday night.) more

I can not believe the lack of attention shown to my wife. At the request of a resident OB my wife was sceduled for blood drawn to check her hcg level. She is loosing her baby and yet her hcg level is rising. (Possible epitopic pregnancy.) Should she have this and it burst it could be very dangerous. For two hours the receptionist at the Lab could not find the perscription. She finally sent my wife home saying ""sorry we are closed."" She came home to me crying. So me being the ""husband calls the ER. Eventially the contection at the er goes dead. (I think they hung up on me) I saw a chart in the ER rating performance at 46 percent satisfaction 2 years ago. It is now up to 70 some if my memory serves me right. Small people there drop the ball. I am sure a hcg test would be far less in cost than a law suit; should my wife keel over. So no I do not rate this hospital very well. The Ob and student who work with my wife were excellent as well as the first emergency Doc. But somewhere along the way a ball was dropped. The ball being my wife! more

I have delivered both my daughters at Bethesda North and couldn't be happier about my experiences. I have also had gallbladder surgery there, my son has gone to the ER and my husband has had procedures done there, all our experiences were excellent ones. My youngest daughter, only 5 months currently, spent 9 days in their Special Care Nursery (NICU) because she was 3 weeks early and her lungs were not ready, she wasn't getting oxygen and she quickly developed pneumonia. We couldn't be more pleased with the care she received and the treatment and relationships we developed with her nurses. They truly cared about our daughter and making sure we always knew everything that was going on with her care. We never once saw any nurse NOT wash her hands, they handled themselves very professionally. We even had one nurse cry because our daughter threw an IV and it left a mark, wasn't the nurses fault at all, it was on our daughter's foot and I would kick at something like that too. I have NO complaints about the SNC or Maternity/Delivery services. I would highly recommend Bethesda North to anyone who is considering delivering a baby or any other procedure there. The only complaint I would have is uncomfortable beds, but I have never heard of anyone who goes to a hospital and comes out saying, ""boy that bed was so comfortable"". more

My daughter was just born in bethesda north. however, i do not like this hospital at all. 1) the mother / baby unit is awfully tiny and really uncomfortable. 2) vaccine and lab test were not done right after the doctor order. instead, they waited right before we were discharged. 3) bad air condition. The baby and I kept sneezing in the room. more

When I came into the ER at Bethesda North I expected to be well taken care of because I was having chest pains and trouble breathing.\r \r They paraded me out into the ER in a hospital gown and sat me in a chair by the nurses station. The nurse set up the blood pressure cuff but did not start it. She went running away, came back and went to take the cuff off. I told her it never started so she set it up again. She did this 3 times with the same exact results!!!\r \r Once they took me to a room a nurse came to hook up an IV. She grinded into my wrist and left a bruise the size of a lemon. Not once did they check my oxygen levels and everytime the cuff took my BP it would ding because my BP was so low-noone came in to check on me. My BP was in the low 80's and 90's. \r \r First, they took me for an xray, came back and said parts of my lungs were collapsed...then they did an MRI and said oh never mind. \r \r They ended up sending me home with a prescription for prilosec instead of working to find a solution. \r \r Instead of having me listed for having insurance they had me listed as self pay. As soon as my husband went to them to update the information they came in to send me home. What a coinkydink, huh?\r \r I would not take my dying dog to this hospital. I had just moved back to Cincinnati and had no idea this hospital was so bad. Never again!!! more

I delivered by daughter at this hospital, she quickly developed a hospital-caused infection. The nurses who had been checking my cervix during labor must not have washed their hands first, because they introduced a gram positive bacillus bacteria into the amniotic fluid (my water was already broken) which got into my baby's lungs and caused severe sepsis after delivery. The bacteria was NOT one found normally in the human body (I didn't have it or carry it) - it was hospital acquired by nurses with unclean hands who obviously grabbed the outside of their plastic gloves with dirty hands and then put those unclean gloves inside me. God forbid they do something as simple as wash their hands FIRST.\r My poor baby was in the hospital for a week after delivery, put on strong, dangerous antibiotics (Tobrimyicin - which can cause deafness, but nobody told me that or asked my consent - luckily my child can still hear) and ordered for a spinal tap to see if the bacteria had gotten into her spinal fluid. All because of dirty hands by inept nurses who cannot be bothered with washing their hands. \r The experience in the NICU was no better. The nurses ROUTINELY came back from lunch or where-ever and did NOT wash their hands before touching the premies and other babies in the NICU (they are supposed to wash thoroughly each time). Plus they often went from one baby to the next without washing hands. I stayed in that NICU as much as possible trying to prevent them from touching my baby without washing their hands. They already made her deathly ill once, I was not about to witness them do it again. She very nearly died. The neonatologist said that she very well could have died from the septic illness in her little body.\r My advice ... RUN from this hospital. I wouldn't go back there again for anything in the world, and I DEFINITELY would never deliver another child there.Total incompetence - total nightmare with this hospital. They should be ashamed of themselves. Cons: Total Incompetence, dirty, inept nurses more