South Bay Hospital

My wait time was approximately 10 minutes. I was taken to triage where a detailed history of my back pain was taken and I was taken to a room and examined by a physician's assistant. I was given pain meds, a round of steroids, x-rays, prescriptions, a written report of diagnosis and findings along with a DVD of my x-rays to take to my physician. The whole thing took about 90 minutes. I could not praise this hospital's ER enough. EVERYONE was friendly and caring and I felt that my comfort was important to them. This is without a doubt the BEST ER experience of my life. I left in considerably less pain and was able to handle the 1 hour drive (my husband drove) down to my regular physician which I would not have been able to do without their consideration and treatment.

We sat in the waiting room for a total of approximately 50 minutes although the online posted wait time was 19 min. There were 3 or 4 people ahead of my husband and the triage nurse saw each of them. This took about 30 minutes. After seeing the four patients ahead of us she left her office. There was nobody in the triage office and we sat for an additional 20 minutes. The triage nurse did not return. My husband has had health problems: quadruple bypass, pacemaker, prostate cancer, diabetes. He was able to get a CT scan the day prior to our ER visit and had the report in his hand for the physician to look at. He finally said that he could not sit there any longer and we left.

I am New to Angie's List, so while this is not a recent experience, it is one that should be posted to this facility's credit. After dealing and suffering with my medical problem for years, it was necessary for me to go to the Emergency room. I have previously gone to other area ERs, but was not satisfied with the care, so I opted to go to South Bay Hospital. As a Nurse, I am aware of the Triage Priorities, so my wait time was actually quite fast taking into consideration the amount of patients at the time. I was promptly evaluated by the ER doctor and sent for testing. Blood work was done and I also received an Ultrasound test. Based on the testing, the ER Physician informed me he was calling a surgeon to evaluate me. The Surgeon was there to see me within 20 minutes of being informed I needed to be seen by him. The surgeon had already reviewed my tests and informed me that there was nothing serious but that I could chose to have surgical intervention as an outpatient, or he could admit me that same day and perform the correcting procedure next day! I was surprised at the ease of availability and chose to get admitted. The Hospital took care of all the paperwork for me. This ER experience is the best one I have ever received in any hospital and I would certainly go here again.

After about a week the doctor said she only had about a 10% chance of survival. Shortly after that they got her well enough to come home, but instead they shipped her to another hospital. It turned out the people that owned the intensive care unit at South Bay owned that hospital as well. Every time she started to make an improvement something always happened to her and they had to put her someplace else. It has been a year and she is still surviving. I believe and the rest of the family believes that if South Bay sees that they have a chance to keep you in a long-term facility, they will.