I went to Chester River Hospital Center for an appointment today. The woman at the check-in desk was wearing a mask below her nose. Either she didn’t know how to wear it properly and the hospital failed to teach her, or she was violating a rule that the hospital was failing to enforce. And this was the first person that every visitor to the hospital is required to interact with.
It certainly doesn’t instill confidence in the operation of Chester River Hospital Center. The hospital does have a “contact us” link on its web page. I wrote this criticism there. The “send” failed to function. And so it goes.
John Lang
Kingstown
Kingstown
Deborah Bethel says
I had the same issue on Tuesday, November 30, 2021. I went to the registration desk and the employee had her mask below her nose, I thought the same thing, but I’m sure she knows how to wear her mask properly and chooses not to. My experience went a step further, I was there to register for my 2 appointments and was told to go to my first appointment. The employee was too busy talking with a friend to do my registration. I told her I needed to register and was told again, not very nicely at all to go to my first appointment. When I finished I went back to the registration desk and the employees friend was sitting behind her in a chair and they were talking, she finally took my paperwork and registered me for my second appointment. When I usually got to register, I have to show my ID, and sign paperwork, none of that happened. She took her time and printed me out paperwork and off I went. She was too busy talking with her friend and gave me horrible customer service. I called her Supervisor and guess what? She never called me back. Very poorly run operation at the Chestertown hospital.
Sheri darling says
Bravo. Even telling our doctor about our negative experience makes zero difference! The doctor’s office said we hear that all day long. What does it take to change the status quo? I had the same experience with the employee wearing a mask below the nose! No interest in a smile or a Hello.
Someone needs to step in and change things or see folks changing doctors to not have such a negative experience!
Caroline Baldwin says
I recently had to go to the emergency room via ambulance because I was having a very difficult time breathing. I got there around around 7 AM and was there all day into the night and was never offered anything to eat all day. When I did say something to the night shift doctor he ran out and personally brought back a frozen dinner that he had heated up. It was obviously a commercial frozen dinner that he probably brought to work to eat. So I thanked him very much for that.
I was told that I would have to stay overnight for observation but that they didn’t have any regular rooms available so I would have to stay in the bed I was in in the emergency room. I had asked to have the alarms turned off on the machines that were monitoring me because they were going off for various reasons that nobody ever really responded to. I was told that they couldn’t be turned off which I know not to be true. They can be turned off locally but the alarms would still show at the nurse’s desk which should be monitored all the time. I had also asked for the Nicotine patch, yes I am a smoker, sorry. I was told that I couldn’t get one unless I was there for at least 3 days and that I wouldn’t get one while I was in the emergency room. Well that is nothing but nonsense! I had already been a full day without a cigarette and my cool was getting lost by the second. I also have a bad hip and was having difficulty getting out of the bed to toilet. I was told that if they couldn’t respond in time that I should just go ahead and go in the bed. Well that sucked!
It was obvious to me that moral was very low. I found out that the hospital had really been stripped of not much more than having the beds for Covid and the emergency room. Many of the nurses, aides and techs had been lured away by other hospitals that were very busy and the ones left at CRH were just biding their time and waiting for the other shoe to drop. I can’t say that I blame them.
Overall the only highlight was the night shift doctor who went and got me a frozen dinner heated it up and brought it back to me himself. But between the lack of morale, the toileting procedure, the lack of the nicotine patch, the lack of food and the constant alarms I decided I would be better off in my own bed. So under potential penalty of death I had to sign a hold harmless agreement and I left.
I am doing fine now and my breathing is back to normal but I sincerely hope that the University of Maryland medical system do something to improve the services being provided at the Chester river hospital in Chestertown.