Teaching hospital better for high risk births?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Absolutely go to a teaching hospital. Shady Grove did nearly everything they could to let my wife bleed out. PACU, ICU and radiology staff were not competent, confirmed by stories we heard from hospital staff weeks after the incident. She ended up needing to get flown up to Baltimore, very nearly losing her arm to complications as they were desperately trying to save her life.

I don't think they're well equipped to handle a lot of cases there. I know of two other women who were transferred from Shady Grove to Johns Hopkins after complications got out of hand.

[Anonymous]

I think people are put off by the big size of Inova Fairfax but it is absolutely a good place to be if you or your baby is high risk. They have a Level IV NICU and all sorts of pediatric surgeons and specialists.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Absolutely go to a teaching hospital. Shady Grove did nearly everything they could to let my wife bleed out. PACU, ICU and radiology staff were not competent, confirmed by stories we heard from hospital staff weeks after the incident. She ended up needing to get flown up to Baltimore, very nearly losing her arm to complications as they were desperately trying to save her life.

I don't think they're well equipped to handle a lot of cases there. I know of two other women who were transferred from Shady Grove to Johns Hopkins after complications got out of hand.

Indeed. Looking back I don't know why, but we were more concerned about the babies going into the delivery, and we knew the head of the NICU there.

We still had our concerns. My wife worked there years ago, and we never would have gone there for anything except a delivery. We asked around to a several doctors in the community, and no one expressed any reservations about delivering there. Of course, after the delivery the same doctors told us they didn't understand why went there in the first place. I think that's a cultural thing with doctors- they don't want to criticize each other.

Still, I thought a hospital that does the number of deliveries SGMC does would be better equipped to handle a PPH. I had no idea that they didn't actually have someone trained in how to do a uterine artery embolization properly. That radiologist doesn't realize how lucky he was that my wife isn't litigious, because we ended up learning a lot from friends that still worked in the hospital.

[Anonymous]

Shady Grove, despite the high-level NICU, still feels like a smaller community hospital. Three times I've been in the ER, and two times we had to wait for staff members to get to the hospital before things could get moving.

1. I was 17 and in a major car accident, brought to the ER via ambulance. Pediatric emergency doc had to be called in, was not at the hospital. Same with ped neurologist.

2. Broken ankle. Fortunately that didn't require anyone to be called, a very straightforward clean break.

3. Directed by my gastro to go immediately to the ER for a HIDA scan for suspected gallbladder dysfunction. 4 am, and what a nightmare experience. ER staff insisted it was gastric reflux. I demanded the scan anyway since I had written orders for one. Then told me since it wasn't an emergency, radiology wouldn't do the scan until "staff gets here at 7."

Screw Shady Grove, basically.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Shady Grove, despite the high-level NICU, still feels like a smaller community hospital. Three times I've been in the ER, and two times we had to wait for staff members to get to the hospital before things could get moving.

1. I was 17 and in a major car accident, brought to the ER via ambulance. Pediatric emergency doc had to be called in, was not at the hospital. Same with ped neurologist.

2. Broken ankle. Fortunately that didn't require anyone to be called, a very straightforward clean break.

3. Directed by my gastro to go immediately to the ER for a HIDA scan for suspected gallbladder dysfunction. 4 am, and what a nightmare experience. ER staff insisted it was gastric reflux. I demanded the scan anyway since I had written orders for one. Then told me since it wasn't an emergency, radiology wouldn't do the scan until "staff gets here at 7."

Screw Shady Grove, basically.

On the other hand while fairfax inova does feel really busy (lots of births) it also feels like a top tier trauma center and nicu. They also get a lot of the highest risk cases from elsewhere in the inova system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Shady Grove, despite the high-level NICU, still feels like a smaller community hospital. Three times I've been in the ER, and two times we had to wait for staff members to get to the hospital before things could get moving.

1. I was 17 and in a major car accident, brought to the ER via ambulance. Pediatric emergency doc had to be called in, was not at the hospital. Same with ped neurologist.

2. Broken ankle. Fortunately that didn't require anyone to be called, a very straightforward clean break.

3. Directed by my gastro to go immediately to the ER for a HIDA scan for suspected gallbladder dysfunction. 4 am, and what a nightmare experience. ER staff insisted it was gastric reflux. I demanded the scan anyway since I had written orders for one. Then told me since it wasn't an emergency, radiology wouldn't do the scan until "staff gets here at 7."

Screw Shady Grove, basically.

Shady Grove IS a smaller community hospital and does not have a higher-level NICU....

[Anonymous]

Shady Grove is level III, same as VHC. For comparison, Sibley is level II.

[Anonymous]

I been to Georgetown and Fairfax. Both were good people. I did feel Georgetown pushed toward c-section, but Fairfax messup on the epidural shot; would pick Fairfax minus the epidural if I can do over! THB

[Anonymous]

I could have sworn Shady Grove used to have a IIB NICU, but it does look like its level III now.