ER at UM Upper Chesapeake Medical Center Bel Air

Presented to ER for extreme abdominal pain. Ended up being diagnosed with appendicitis and needing emergency surgery. During my time in ER, I had Nurse Phillip and he was the best nurse I have ever had. I don’t do well in medical settings, and unplanned surgery didn’t help with my anxiety. He made an anxious and unsure patient confident with my decision and comfortable. I am grateful for his light during an uncomfortable and unsure time. I had a good surgery and the post-surgery nurse was good as well.

Let me preface this by saying that the doctor I had was actually informative and friendly. However, as soon as I arrived, the nurse standing there doing triage and getting people's vitals off to the left was irritated that I was standing there. I’m in literal pain and I’m not familiar with the setup since this is my first time, and she directed me to one of the coordinators behind the glass counter. The lady I had was extremely rude to me. I tried to explain to her on several occasions that it was hard to breathe, and she kept asking me several demographic questions. I get that these are a priority and you need to know, but nobody asked me if I was taking any sort of medications or if I had any allergies. All you were concerned about was what my race was, where I worked, and that was about it. I will say I moved pretty quickly from my insurance to getting an x-ray. But then I got to the nurse who gave me an EKG. I had not had an opportunity to put a shirt on before I came to the ER because I literally could not breathe and could not catch my breath. She ordered me to lift my sweater up entirely, exposing me. After I told her that I didn’t have a shirt on, she looked at me and was like, “Okay, well, either way, you have to do this.” Do you think maybe your nurses could have a little bit better bedside manner? How do you not know that I am a victim of SA? Do you want me to lift my shirt up like this? Why couldn’t you feed your wires up my shirt without exposing me? She literally watched my face flood with tears. I could not stop crying. She had to run the EKG additional times, and I could not stop crying. She did not give me any warning that she was about to draw my blood with the biggest needle possible. At this point, I was just waiting there with my husband, and they called me back. I sat on a bed that was exposed to each of the hallways from the left, the right, the front, and facing me was the elevator. Every person coming from every direction could see me. People who stood at the elevator would just stare at me. People who were walking around the hallways were staring at me, and several people asked me what I was there for, like it was any of their business. This was the most uncomfortable feeling ever. As somebody who has diagnosed anxiety, it was mortifying being in the hallway. My nurse Jenna did not look like she was having a good time either. She saw me ONCE in two hours. Another nurse was checking my vitals. After about 2.5 hours of waiting for her to come back, I snagged the nurse who did my vitals to grab her. By the time she came over, it had already been 3 hours since I saw her last, and she was like, “Oh, the doctor hasn’t come by yet?” Um, ma’am, do you think I would be asking for you if the doctor came by already? NO, HE HAD NOT. She left, and he finally showed up after 4 hours of waiting in a hallway. The only two people who asked me if I was doing OK were the two people who kept emptying the trash cans. Nobody offered me a blanket. I had to walk around the corner to pull one out of this cabinet by myself. A nurse took me to CT, ended up bringing me warm blankets, and was extremely kind to me. Honestly, I will be making a full report about the lady who made me expose myself while doing the EKG and watching my tears just pour out. I’m pretty sure all my privacy rights were violated while I was just hanging out in the hallway and people were just staring at me and asking me questions left and right about why I was there. This place's bedside manner SUCKS. IT’S SUPER SAD WHEN YOUR MAINTENANCE CREW CARES MORE ABOUT THE PATIENTS THAN THE ACTUAL NURSES DO. Also, shout out to the doctor for actually being friendly, explaining things, and not making me wait an additional few hours. DO BETTER.

The waiting time is ridiculous. I made the mistake AGAIN waiting and I left. I said I am taking my kid somewhere else. However, the triage nurse (the short lady who is sitting between the front desk and the nurse office.  If she  worried about people's information and yelled at you saying to stay away from them when you need to get their attention because she was on her PHONE and not paying attention to the customer's questions. I think the easiest solution for this hospital to offer better services to protect and to keep confidential their costumer/patient' information is to invest and to buy a Computer Privacy Screen Filter so the nurse do not have to  take a very rude actitud towards the people who have been waiting for so long. I WAS told by the hospital staff that the hospital will charged my visit (waiting in the lobby) to my insurance for the triage. I said really!!!! I saw UM ER response. I am not a doctor. I don't know what an emergency is. But when an 8 year old kid is having difficulty breathing I had to go to the ER on Friday night. She had a weird shrimp reaction. Since Saturday.

Staff was friendly. Wait time was atrocious. No PA for 3 hours. Only reason we got any tylenol was because I had to flag down a nurse. After 90m. Only 1 doc and 1 PA to service all of the ER on this night. Hospital could be great but it's critically understaffed.

I’ve never received such POOR ER care. I went in for chest pain. Arrived at 3:40pm. Sat in the waiting room until 8pm where I was placed in a room that looked like a closet with a CHAIR in it bc there was no way a bed could have fit into it. I have a heart condition and any other time I’ve been seen in the ER for anything heart related at Franklin square care has been quick and prompt. Usually while waiting in the room to speak with a Dr leads are placed to monitor heart activity for them to go over. I sat in the room checked on ONCE for vitals until the DR finally came in at 11:40 asked a couple of questions listen to my heart and lungs told me he’d me “right back” and after 45 min of not seeing him I overhead a nurse telling another nurse “it’s going to be a long night the dr was called over to the ER so who knows when or if he’ll be able to make it back over here we might have to find another Dr to come over here”. Which meant additional hours of sitting and waiting with no sort of monitoring to allow a different Dr to come in and catch up on charts. At 12:30 I was fed up and requested my IV be removed for me to leave to which the nurse ENCOURAGED bc I’d be waiting forever for a Dr. clearly with the care I was receiving I wasn’t going to have a heart attack so I left. I’ve never been treated so poorly and next time I will make the drive to Franklin square where they take chest pain of any kind seriously.