Summit Hospital

Had our daughter at Summit. The whole experience was awful. One of the first comments that was made to me by the nurse was ""you don't get a wrist band, you don't matter right now."" I could understand that comment if I was up in the middle of things and in the way, but I was sitting in the husband chair in the corner and hadn't said a word. My wife asked about my wrist band because she wanted me to be involved in the process. There were constant things like this happening through our entire stay. Most of the nurses seemed extremely annoyed that anyone was in the room other than the patient (my wife). I understand that I wasn't the patient, but we both assumed that WE went there to have a child. Instead, the majority of the staff acted like I had no business being there. The staff took what should have been a special family event and made it an awkward, stressful time.\r \r The security guys were great and very helpful.\r more

I brought my teen son into the ER at Summitt Medical Center at 6:00 a.m.on Monday, 1/2/12. My teen son was in extreme pain and had not slept all night, therefore, the ER visit. Upon arriving to the E R , no one was there. There was no one at the receptionists desk, no one in the waiting area, no one in the office, and after peeking into the Triage window, saw no one there. Clearly they were not busy. I yelled out numerous times for attention, and proceeded to knock on the double door windows a few times with no answer. ( there was no bell or buzzer on the desk, but no one came to the desk when we entered, or exited for that matter) finally left after a few minutes due to his pain and drove to Vanderbilt E R where we received immediate help. After explaining the story to Vanderbilt E R nurses, they validated my concerns that there was no one at the front desk, even for 1 minute,and persuaded me to contact you all. I would be even more concerned if this had been a life death situation with someone walking in as we did. This is an unspeakable lack of responsibility on someone's job in that particular area. Even to leave a desk for a moment could be crucial to someone's welfare. more

I was there, hope I never have to go back, at least to the ER. Went to dr for annual physical. All test and bloodwork came back fine a week later, but 3 days after the physical I came down with staph infection on my face. Back to dr for antibiotics, another co-pay of course, 2 days later called dr, to state I'm worse, much worse. Was a Friday, before a weekend. Told to continue antibiotics. By next day, Sat afternoon, in the ER, tremendous swelling to face and severe pain. After a very very long wait and a lot of pain, given painkillers and 2 doctors came in. They went into hall, came back and said they would do bloodwork and left without telling me anything. Tech came in to get blood and I ask what the treatment plan was. Oh, they didn't tell you, you are being admitted. After 3 1/2 days in hospital, nurses on ward were rude and uncaring and not informing me of anything, was told I had less than 1 hr to pack up and get out, even though they wanted me to get a needle aspiration. Discharged me without the hosp doctor coming back in to discuss anything. After I was wheeled out of the room, my sister and brother in law was preparing to leave the room and Dr. David Jenkins, the attending hospital physicain came in and started explaining what his plan of action was. I had already left the room, wheeled away by the discharge nurse. He had never met them, did not know them from Adam and Eve and was discussing my personal health information with them, not me. Then discharge nurse explained as she wheeled me out of the hospital that I was to go immediately to the ENT, not a plastic surgeon, nor an infectious disease dr, but to an ENT, Dr. Kent Murphy's office, where he would aspirate my eye with a needle. No mention of cutting on my face. After waiting about 1 1/2 hrs in a crowded waiting room, he brought me back and then cut my eye open with a scapel, scarring me for life, then sending me home, with nothing for pain, and believe me, not only was I in shock, in severe pain and now a lifetime scar on my face like it was nothing. I guess it was nothing to him. He is male, I am a female and care about my looks. Since I had been discharged, this was considered a dr appt with a specialist, higher co-pay. This should have been done in a hospital setting, not a doctor's office, and not by an ENT Dr. He wanted me to come back in 3 days so he could say, yeah, it's healing, pay me another co-pay. So I canceled the re-check appt. First bill I got from Dr. Murphy said pay in 30 days or be charged interest. The ER and the hospital are all a joke. Where did this hospital get their accredication? I'm ashamed that my doctor, which is normally a good dr. is located and associated with this hospital. I go there because it is close to home. But if your illness or injury interfers with their weekends, holidays, etc, you are just out of luck. Eventually someone will lose their life the way things are being run over there. Someone needs to take notice of the practices that are occuring there and make some serious changes. Think long and hard before going to the ER or the hospital. more

The ER staff that I visited on Wednesday, April 6th was the worst service, bedside manner, and clueless members of any hospital I have ever been to. The only member of the staff that afternoon was the man drawing my blood and his name was James. He was kind and courteous and respectful. The other staff members after 4 hours of being their were ""not as concerned about me as other patience"" -yes, a nurse actually told me that- and the Doctor told me he would run as many test as he could, but I would still probably go home without any answers. If this is how you treat patients with chest pains, shortness of breath, and body swelling, how do you treat a ""normal"" patient? My family and I will no longer EVER be back to Summit for any reason for health care. I would rather take my chance elsewhere and drive farther! more

My Wife woke up today with pain that radiated from her spine around to her chest. She is pregnant thus we became concerned. Her OB and Internal medicine doctor are out of town for the week. So her OB nurse instructed we go to the ER immediately. We assumed Summit being the closest hospital would save some time as opposed to going into Nashville. We arrived around 2pm. We were there for about 30 minutes when we brought back for blood pressure tests and to tell the nurse what was wrong. After that she directed us back to the waiting room. We waited another hour and a half before they called us into the registration room. Then back to the waiting room for another 2 hour wait. As we were finally walking back to see the doctor we over heard one of the nicer nurses there mention to a patient that the current billboard wait time stated 41 minutes. As opposed to the real average time of us and everyone else of nearly 4 hours. During our long wait time we saw 3 of the 8 people that were there when we showed up actually go back and stay back. Once we got back the doctor saw us for all of 3 minutes during which time he stated a chest x-ray would not cause any problems from a pregnancy stand point but he didn't think that was necessary. My wife is not one to go to the hospital or doctor for acute pain. She was nearly in tears most of the day. He told her to take Tylenol and sleep it off. This was my first experience with this Hospital and it will be my last. Aside from 2 nurses that seemed to actually enjoy what they do, we were in a sea of disgruntled workers and patients. Walking down the hall we overheard numerous short tempered staff members and a lot of patient complaints. I work for a Neuro surgeon in the area and no one on our staff would ever be caught talking to a patient in the manor most of these nurses/doctors were conducting in. This place needs to be avoided. Take the extra time to drive to Saint Thomas/Baptist in Nashville. The drive time will be well worth the assumed shorter wait and better staff experience. more

My grandson son was in a motorcycle wreck some time ago and broke his back. His back started huring him really bad and he went to the emergency room at Summit. He waited 4 hours and never saw a doctor. There is no excuse for anyone having to wait that long regardless of why they went to the emergency room. more

I am rating this hospital 1 star and that is ONLY because of the few nurses that were very nice during my 2nd stay and for the very knowledgeable Infectious Disease Doctors. I will just list off my many issues that I had while in the hospital: was admitted to be induced, come to find out the baby was breached (would have been nice for Dr. McCullough to do a ultrasound when she questioned this during one of my doctor visits), the nurse knicked the wrong spot on my spine when giving me my epidural, Dr. McCullough knicked the main artery when giving my son his circumcision on the last day I was there, I ended up having to take him back to the emergency room that night because it would not stop bleeding and my son was in so much pain, while doing my c-section Dr. McCullough knicked my bowl duct which caused an infection and caused me to go back into the hospital for another week. So, at this point I have paid alot of unnecessary money to Summit. I am actually due a refund because unfortunately I did the right thing by paying a bill that they sent to me but come to find out my insurance does not want to pay Summit until they receive an explanation as to why I was admitted for the 2nd time. But of course Summit is being very difficult about giving me my money back! Dr. McCullough is a nice person but clearing has too many patients and is too busy. She did not even remember who I was or what she put me through when I went back for my check-up. I should have to listened to the many people that told me to switch doctors and hospitals when I found out I was pregnant! more

Summit Hopsital is a joke. I know from personal experience. My grandmother was admitted with a stroke. They checked her lungs and everything looked fine to them. After she got out of surgery from receiving a feeding tube, the doctor informed my family she had congestive heart failure. The doctor was too busy to answer my family's questions after her surgery. He then failed to make sure the nursing home received a fax stating the care my grandmother needed. Excuse me, but for $50/hr he could have sat down for five minutes and answered questions instead of saying he would send someone in and then that person never came. This hopsital should be a last resort for anybody. more