On Monday January 10th my newborn's pediatrician arranged for my husband and i to take our newborn to the heart of FL because his jaundice level was really high. we live in southchase so my preference was going to Arnold Palmer but there was a 25 patient wait time in the ER. whereas our pediatrician already had a room arranged for us at the Heart of FL and a Dr. Ahmed would be assisting our baby. it was Monday evening and we went to the ER and explained to them our situation and that our Dr. already arranged for us to just walk in. well this receptionist didn't have a clue and checked my baby in as an ER patient. there was 1 person in the waiting room. they called us in and we were greeted by a rude black female nurse and a male nurse. we explained to them our situation again. that we weren't supposed to be in ER but up in the pediatric ward. they ignored us and the black female nurse talked to us like we were stupid. i was going to lose it but i held my composure. they took us to a room and we waited for the ER dr. to see us. the room they put us in was FILTHY!!!! dirt and mud stains on the floor. used cotton balls and gauze by the trash can. i'm from Chicago and i felt like i was in Cook County hospital. it was awful! the dr. came and we explained to him that Dr. ahmed was supposed to see our baby and we had a room set up and he also ingnored us and sent a phlabotomist to take a blood sample from the baby she came w/ a Latina nurse w/ curly hair and a mole above her lip. my husband had enough of this bad service. he was not going to let anyone take blood from our baby. no one was listening to us. we decided we were going to leave. we felt our baby was going to get more sick in that nasty ER and we'd wait all day at Arnold Palmer hospital if we had to. we asked the latina nurse w/ the mole to give us discharge papers that we were leaving. which she did have them printed out. we signed them but i didn't want to leave w/o speaking to the head person in charged. they paged patty, the staff manager that evening. it took her like half an hour to come down and see us. she apologized up and down. there was a miscommunication w/ her staff. they were never told we had a room. HELLO!! we told everyone that took care of us that we had a room and they ignored us. at this point i had it. i felt so sad. i was crying and emotional holding my first born in my arms in a dirty ER filled w/ sick people. my husband said forget it we're leaving and then they start telling us we can't leave b/c it's against the law to take a child after it's been admitted in the ER. well maybe they should teach that to their staff because we already signed the papers. the manager Patty was infuriated that her staff would do this. she apologized to us again and got me a wheel chair and they wheeled us up to the pediatric ward where our room was waiting for us. it was 2 hours wasted in the ER. i was a mess! thank God the staff in pediatric ward was so warm and welcoming. and our room was immaculate. they took good care of my baby. the next day a lady name virginia came from guest services and i explained to her our awful experience. she apologized and she sent steve sellers, the er manager (i think that his position) and he came and spoke w/ us and explained how sorry he was. but you know what, all the ""i'm sorry's"" will never make up for the bad experience i had at heart of fl. they need to fire everyone from that ER and hire a staff that is kind and courteous to peoples needs. and hire people w/ common sense, good listening and problem solving skills. how hard is it to pick up that darn phone and page a DR., or call the pediatric floor and see what's going on. thank God my baby is doing good now. ER sucks, pediatric fl rocks.
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