Greenslopes hospital

Hi all, just thought i would share my experience at the hospital.  my first 24hrs were great apart from feeling constantly sick, the staff were so kind and polite and really seemed to know what they were doing.  After that it just went downhill.  I was certainly no difficult patient, i was fully independent, and the only time i ever rang the call bell was when my IV had finished or had air in the line.  i found by day 2 i was given nurses who really didn't seem to know what they are doing, and i know this as i am a nurse myself.  not one nurse ever had a look at my dressings to make sure they weren't oozing too much, i had one that was oozing badly and had to insist on it being changed.  
When i had my swallow test the nurse had to stay with me and she made it very obvious that she was not happy about doing so.  Then when the doctor put me on clear fluids....the nurse in charge was present every doctor visit.....i was told i would get clear soups and juices at meal times, i never got anything, i had to ask everytime and so all they ever gave me was water and a tiny bit of apple juice.  

by Monday my cannula was hurting badly so i asked for it to be taken out, nurse tells me its ok just let me flush it, i said no, its been in over the max 3 days they are allowed in and that it was no longer working, so she shoves the flush anyway and it felt like my hand was being stabbed with a hot iron poker.  As of today my hand is still swollen and painful to touch.
then on my last day i was converted to free fluids, so i asked for a sustagen at morning tea, and was told by doc and nurses that i had to stay until i had some of the lunch i would be provided.  So 12pm comes, the lunch trolley comes, and yet again no meal.  I grabbed a nurse and said i was going because i had been drinking sustagen all morning now half my day was wasted waiting for lunch that never came.  

Plus several of my nurses had colds/flu and would cough and sneeze in my room, just what you want when you already feel crap and run down after surgery.

Now i don't want to offend anyone here but all the bad experiences i had were with Indian nurses, basically after my first night i had Indian nurses the whole time.  I don't want to sound as though i am being racist here, that is not my intention, (i was at one point in a long term relationship with an indian/australian man) but I just don't think they have the standard of training that nurses in Australia have, plus they are very blunt with no bedside manner.

I honestly felt like because i didn't make a fuss and kept to myself that i was completely forgotten about.

Aside from the ward experience the whole pre op and theatre experience was great and the staff knew what they were doing and went out of their way to make you feel relaxed.  
oh and the cleaning staff were so lovely, always up for a chat and so polite!

I know this is not a typical experience at greenslopes as many people have had wonderful experiences there, i just wanted to make people aware of some of the downfalls that happened to me, so hopefully other people will be able to speak up if they are getting neglected or ignored, because i sure didn't and that is part of my self confidence issues i have with my size.  next time i will ring that bell all day long, then they wont forget about me.

P.S  My doctor was awesome, came and saw me everyday including the weekend and public holiday, even came and saw me at 8pm the day of my surgery.  Dr Hatzifotis is his name!

Hi Lioness,

I hope you have put this in writing to the Hospital itself.
They need to now .. and at least acknowledge their level of care during your stay.


Glad you are home now. It's soooo much nicer to heal at home.

Tara

Hi Tara,

yeah i have thought about it, might do it at some stage.

thanks

I need to point out that I have never been a patient at Greenslopes Hospital but my mother has.

Like you, she had a cannula in her arm for far too long. When I asked them to change it they said she didn't need it and they would take it out. It stayed there for two more days and got infected. They also used to connect and disconnect her fluids every time she had antibiotics. This is against Q Health policy but even worse was that the same bag of fluid and line was used for a minimum of 4 days. Lines are to be changed every time they are disconnected and fluids need to be changed every 24 hours.  The Infection Management was abysmal.

My mother had not been in hospital for thirty years but within a week of being in Greenslopes she became VRE and ESBL positive. For those here that aren't aware....these are hospital acquired super bugs.  It doesn't say much for their infection control procedures.

Mum complained of diarrhoea and stomach pain for a week and lost heaps of weight. I asked the nurses to document it in her chart so the doctor could see it but nothing was done until I saw the doctor personally. It turned out she was having large bowel bleeds and that explained why she had needed two blood transfusions. If I hadn't said something she could easily have died.

I'm convinced that most patients think that if the nurses are nice and the doctor is nice, that their care is good but that isn't always the case. A lot of people think that if they have complications it's just unlucky. They don't always get told that something went wrong with their care that caused that complication.

It's a case of not knowing enough to know when the care is substandard.

Hi swayback,

That's a horrible experience your mum went thru I hope she is fine now. 

Thanks for sharing your experiences, I was worried I came across as a whinger, I know there is no such thing as a perfect hospital.  I just hope it draws attention to those having their ops that things can go wrong because of the staff, and you should not be made to feel neglected when you are recovering.

Hi.

My Mum was not aware at any time that her care was horrible. She kept saying "the nurses are so nice" etc.

I had to ask the doctor to write on her medication chart for her to be walked twice a day and the nurses had to sign to say they did it because they weren't doing anything to help her keep mobile.

They kept putting oxygen on her when her O2 sats were 99%. Without oxygen her sats were around 97% she didn't need oxygen but it made Mum think she was still really sick. I had to ask the doctor to write down that she wasn't to have oxygen unless the sats fell below 92%. She never had oxygen after that.

No one ever helped her sit up to eat and it's dangerous lying down to eat. I was the only one who tried to make her more independant etc.

Mum ended up insisting that she wouldn't have any procedures like gastroscopies, pleurocentesis etc unless I was in the room with her because after she found out she had been bleeding from the bowel and no one had done anything about it she didn't trust them any more but she did keep saying how nice they were!

Yeah thats what i found, they are really nice.....mostly, some were cold.  But nice doesn't mean much if your not getting the proper treatment.  

its scary that QLD hospitals are looking to employ more nurses from overseas from places like india, where they can get people to work for less money.  I know this as the hospital i work at has been dealing with the nurses union about exactly that.  

All my bad experiences were with the indian nurses, it was that their level of competence wasn't inline with the nurses i had from australia and scotland (had a couple of them).  not to mention their bedside manner is not very good.  I can handle cold/cranky if i know the person is damn good at their job though.

I just hope hospitals don't get rid of their excellent nurses and replace them with cheaper labour from foreign countries.

Does anyone have more feedback about their experiences at "Greenslopes" ?

Always interesting to hear the good & the bad from everyone. :)

Hi Lioness

I have been a patient at Greenslopes 6 times over the last 2 years.

I have never had any problems with the staff and my treatment.  Mind you I don't let anybody get away with anything.   If I had any problems I dealt with No 1 Matron or my Doctor.

I know that Greenslopes is understaffed, and you do now have to wait for a lot of things.  I had to wait 2 hours to get discharged.

What annoys me is that I pay good money for my Private Health Insurance, so in return I expect to be looked after.

I am really sorry that you had a bad experience.  I would make sure I sent the Hospital a very detailed complaint and also send a copy to your Surgeon. 

Val

Hi All I had a sleeve done 20 Jan 2015 at Greenslopes. I find it to be ok except the whole time I was in (5Days) they were short nurses on the ward. I found I would ring the buzzer and was lucky if someone responded in 30 mins. They were always sorry and apologised, and explained how short staffed they were. My IV tissued after 3 days and it had to be removed and redone. I am needle phobic so they got a specialist down to do it, and she was BRILLIANT. The hospital was beautiful, the nurses were great, it was just that they were run off their feet because there were not enough of them.

I'm in PA at the moment for something unrelated (well, not really). I have an infected Jejeunostomy feeding tube. The nurses here were saying they would NEVER work at Greenslopes Hospital because the staffing levels border on dangerous. Mostly they employ untrained personal carers with one RN to oversee a large number of patients. It's not the first time I've heard nurses complaining about the staffing levels at Greenslopes.

Hi,
Did you complain to your doctor or his office. Maybe the more complaints the doctor get the more they can do to make sure your care is acceptable.

I was in for 3 nights for my sleeve and found it to be okay, not exceptional, but okay.  I didn't have any major issues, got my meals delivered each time and had fairly good assistance from nurses (maybe one was a bit slack but I only saw her for one shift).  There were a couple of times when I had to wait a while though and I didn't buzz that often.  I think the comment about them being a bit short staffed could be right.

Compared to when I had my knees done at the Brisbane Private (in two separate stays), it was just not quite as "crisp".

I know people are always much more likely to remember and share a bad experience... but I was wondering if anyone had any positive comments about Greenslopes..? I was thinking maybe they had had enough time to sort out their staffing problems by now.

I am booked there in April and am about to pay my surgeons fee, but now I am concerned about my stay at Greenslopes! Would it be worth me finding if my doc performs his surgery at another hospital? Or even changing docs?

Hi everyone, 
I am booked at Greenslopes this Friday 23/10/2015. I have the same surgeon Dr Michael Hatzofois. 
As a nurse you hear on the grapevine how things are going at different hospitals, and being private you definitely hear. 
I know my surgeon has one of the best reputations in Brisbane, so am hoping the other shortcomings are small and surgery goes well.
I get emotional when I know things aren't as they should be, and find it difficult communicate my wishes. Hopefully my hubby will advocate for me.
I'm procrastinating about packing. Pack light right.

I have just been discharged from Greenslopes hospital. I had a very positive experience. All the nurses and everyone i interacted with, were very warm and caring. I felt very safe there and like i was in a hotel room. I didn't want to leave! haha.

isabelle310 wrote:

I have just been discharged from Greenslopes hospital. I had a very positive experience. All the nurses and everyone i interacted with, were very warm and caring. I felt very safe there and like i was in a hotel room. I didn't want to leave! haha.

great news Isabelle!
I am planning  to go with Dr Hatzifotis in a few months, 
good to hear that they have improved in the hospital
thank you for the post!

which doctor was your surgeon?
agus