Carilion Medical Center

Overall: Not Recommended

This place is a death trap. It's filthy and staffed by rude, insolent unprofessional people. I've unfortunately had a few hideous experiences. The first was a ruptured appendix many years ago. It was mid day and the ER was empty. I was told to "go home honey, you have cramps". I was blatantly symptomatic of appendicitis and it wasn't that time of the month. After waiting quietly for 7 hours, I passed out and awoke 4 days later. Total hospital stay = 12 days for generalized peritonitis due to them allowing my appendix to rupture. I'd have died if I'd gone home. My father went in last Christmas Eve with severe abdominal pain. CT showed an area corresponding to the pain. The Dr called it a red herring and wanted to schedule him for gallbladder surgery the following week. I fought tooth and nail to get him out of there and drove him to DC, where he was found to have a perforated Meckel's diverticulum (that red herring), and emergency surgery was performed. Carilion lied on his chart and said he was discharged because he stated he "was feeling better." My best friend received emergency surgery after a trauma and while they did save her life, they ignored her when she said she had severe back pain and was losing feeling in one leg. After being warehoused for a week with no therapy and no care plan, she transferred to Lewis Gale where an MRI showed shattered vertebrae. Yes, a broken back. For over a week. Lewis Gale performed surgery but the nerve damage was already done. They provided excellent rehab. Carilion's rehab rooms are jokes. They have no car to practice getting in and out of, no grocery store set ups or anything else to practice real life situations. They will kill you, and do it with a sneer. Ask around and you'll be shocked by how many locals have had unecessary gallbladder removals thanks to RMH. One nurse at Lewis Gale had his intestines punctured during a RMH gallbladder surgery and spent a year at UVA. After the surgery, Carilion nurses left him lying in feces for so long that he had to call 911 to get cleaned up and transferred. Another acquaintance visited for over a year with itchiness so severe, it'd make him cry (health care professionals reading just perked up to the need for liver function tests right??). Carilion treated him as a drug seeker sometimes, and as a psych patient others. Towards the end of that year, someone finally ordered a liver panel, which was off so scans were ordered. They were clean. A month later, VCU in Richmond rescanned and noted a massive tumor. He died of cholangiocarcinoma not long after. He suffered his last year being treated like he was crazy or a drug seeker with blatant symptoms. Carilion robbed his last year of any quality of life and dignity. Truly, truly a death trap. I know of many people who've had missed tumors on scans with RMH. They need to either update their machinery, change the settings, or swap out their entire team of radiologists. In addition, the last time I visited the ER (and left after 4 hours of worsening vitals and being snapped at when I asked how much longer, so I went to Lewis Gale and received good treatment), the chairs were FILTHY. I took a picture. They were black smears chunked up all over them, and corresponding smears on the floor where months of dirt had built up under feet. They can't get billing right, either. I was quadruple billed for a fracture repair surgery. I tried for months to get RMH to review the bill and correct the mistake. Instead, they set a date to take me to court. As they own their own room in the courthouse, no doubt they would have successfully fleeced me out of $50k. Luckily, I have a family member that works in the finance department and after months, she was able to convince someone to review the bill. The result was that the surgery had gone through a midnight and caused the billing glitch. I know many who haven't been so lucky and have unjustly lost everything to Carilion. Not only that, but I was on crutches for 6 months following surgery. You'd think physical therapy would be offered. It wasn't, and I herniated a disc within a year of coming off crutches. All 125 lbs of, so no, the back issue wasn't obesity related. No doubt it was related to walking crooked for so long with no offer of help getting my strength back. RMH and Carilion in general get an F-, from billing to "services".