Saint John's Pleasant Valley Hospital

Overall: Not Recommended

My experience at this ER was poor. Unprofessional staff, not helpful medical records girl, front desk ER person clueless about procedure to release medical records. A patient should not have to go physically back to the hospital after release to hunt down a medical records staff, who gives attitude when asked to do her job. Someone have a staff meeting and tell staff they are there to serve and do their jobs professionally. They are the face of the hospital

Overall: Not Recommended

Incompetent staff, neglected to follow dr. orders more than once (no IV fluids, forgot to do brain MRI even though I've asked the tech about it). I was stuck in ER for over 27 hours (4:30pm to 7:30pm the next day). I was not seen by a doctor in over 28 hours (8am to 12noon the next day) the cardiologist is like the wizard of Oz, sits in his room and reads test reports and issues orders, yet does not bother to see patients, even though I was told multiple times that he would see me. told them I am vegetarian and keep kosher, yet first meal they attempted to give me pork and the next meal they gave me another dead animal to eat (even though prior to dinner time the nurse verified that they have kosher vegetarian in the computer). when I asked for replacement dinner, was told that cooks have left for the day and the kitchen was closed. had to settle for three graham crackers and tiny serving of apple sauce. they wanted to give me a blood thinner, I assumed because of my condition, but then found out that they just give it to all patient as a preventative against clotting since they make patients just lay down in bed all day waiting for doctors, not because it is medically necessary! makes me wonder what else was done for their convenience that was also not medically necessary? the nurses refused to give me any of the test results saying that only a doctor can, yet no doctor showed up for over 28 hours and even then only gave me summary of the tests the only person in the hospital that seemed to really care about me and called me twice was the lady from the billing department. she really cared very much about me being able to pay the $5,2000 deductible... makes me wonder if all these tests and procedures were just done to rack up my bill I made an appointment with my own cardiologist for 2pm in Northridge. they promised that a doctor would come by 11:30 to discuss and discharge me. the doctor only showed up after noon. claimed that I was seen by another doctor earlier (which was true, but earlier was 28 hours earlier) the doctor agreed to discharge me since all the test were "normal for a person your age" yet gave me no further details for any of the tests. they probably run of of excuses to do more unnecessary test and bill me for it she then neglected to enter the discharge orders into the computer and the nurse could not remove my IV and let me go. the doctor ignored pages and phone calls from the nurse, who had to walk around the floor chase and find the doctor. the discharge paper showed that I had complained about chest pains (false), probably just to bill for unnecessary tests. my only complaint was dizziness. also told them that it could not have been dehydration, since I drunk plenty the previous day (water supplemented with electrolytes). yet they ordered IV fluids (which they forgot to do till the next morning, when a nurse showed up to replace a non-existent IV bag...) I told the that it was not vertigo (we am familiar with it and I did not have sensation of spinning nor did I have nystagmus). yet again, vertigo complaint was on the discharge papers... the only complaint that I told them about, the low heart rate they ignored, they even ignored alarms from the heart monitor when my heart rate fell below 50 dozens of times (I have photos of the alarms list in the device)