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Who do I write about a hospital concern?

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isis297

Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? NY

Hi. I understand there is an agency that I can write if I feel like my family didn't receive the proper care at a hospital. Who would that be and what is the statute of limitations for writing them?

Thank you.
 


quincy

Senior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? NY

Hi. I understand there is an agency that I can write if I feel like my family didn't receive the proper care at a hospital. Who would that be and what is the statute of limitations for writing them?

Thank you.
If you have a complaint about medical care, you should first address your concerns to the doctor and/or hospital. If a complaint cannot be resolved, you can file a complaint with the New York State Department of Health.

Following are three links, the first to NY State's Department of Health complaint information and the second to frequently asked questions and the third to statute of limitations for civil actions:

http://www.health.ny.gov/facilities/hospital/complaint/complaint_form.htm

https://www.health.ny.gov/professionals/doctors/conduct/frequently_asked_questions.htm

http://statelaws.findlaw.com/new-york-law/new-york-civil-statute-of-limitations-laws.html
 

ecmst12

Senior Member
Depending on the complaint, you could also talk to the state medical board. But the hospital should have a patient advocate or patient liason or something like that to address complaints first.
 

quincy

Senior Member
Depending on the complaint, you could also talk to the state medical board. But the hospital should have a patient advocate or patient liason or something like that to address complaints first.
The second link I provided has information on professional misconduct and to whom one should address a complaint about a medical professional - i.e., the Office of Professional Medical Conduct (OPMC), New York State Department of Health, Albany, New York.
 

quincy

Senior Member
Is there a statute of limitations like there is for lawsuits?
There is no time limit for complaining. There are limitations for filing a lawsuit.

I am interested, too, in exactly what it is you want to accomplish. Did improper care at a hospital result in demonstrable harm to one of your family members?
 

isis297

Member
I wrote a long response and didn't think I'd need to copy it before I posted it, but I should have because the site lost it somehow. I'm at a hospital in MA with my son right now so I'll have to rewrite it again later when my son is sleeping again.
 

quincy

Senior Member
I wrote a long response and didn't think I'd need to copy it before I posted it, but I should have because the site lost it somehow. I'm at a hospital in MA with my son right now so I'll have to rewrite it again later when my son is sleeping again.
Not a problem. Someone will be here when you post again. I hope your son's hospital visit is for something minor.
 

isis297

Member
I am very sorry about the delay in responding back. My son's recovery hasn't gone as smoothly as I'd like and he has been my first priority. I'm going to just apologize now for the book I'm about to send.

There were 2 situations so I'll separate them...

My issue with this hospital started with my mom in 2014. My mom had had health issues most of her life. She even survived life support a few times when the doctors all thought she wouldn't make it. We knew eventually she wouldn't be so lucky, but at only 68, we didn't think it would be any time soon.

After going back and forth a few times between the hospital and a rehab center, the hospital convinced her that she needed a DNR. My mom always refused having one because she never wanted to not fight to stay alive. She suffered from COPD and CHF and was having repeat episodes that weren't responding as well to treatment as they used to. So they got her to sign a DNR and put a pleurisy catheter in saying that it was part of palliative care. Hospice said she was no where ready for them and to send her back to the rehab center. I began working with the rehab center to bring her home as when she was still demanding aggressive care with no DNR, they didn't feel comfortable with her coming home. The night I went to get her, excited that since getting the catheter put in she had neither had episodes of COPD OR CHF, I was surprised to find that her kidneys had begun to fail again. The rehab center asked if she just wanted to be made comfortable and she said no. She wanted to go to the hospital and be treated so they sent her via ambulance.

The ER doctor that night was wonderful and was mostly worried about getting her stable and admitted. He knew about her catheter and said he'd make sure it was taken care of as it needed to be drained a couple of times a day. The next day we visited with her and she seemed tired and twitchy, but other than that was her usual self especially with my children. That afternoon I talked to a doctor on the phone who asked what I thought they should do. I told them to treat her, but that I didn't know what to do exactly in this case because of how much had changed. He said DNR only has to do with what happens when the heart stops beating. It doesn't affect the treatment received up to then. He suggested we treat her and wait until Monday morning and have hospice come back out and create a plan with us.

I called every few hours and was told she was fine and not much had changed. In the very early hours of the next day, I spoke with a nurse who told me she didn't know my mom had a catheter that needed draining. She also said that the doctor I had spoken with the day before stopped treating my mom. I asked her why as that wasn't the plan. She said she didn't know. She thought it was because my mom wouldn't drink something that was supposed to help bind the extra potassium she had in her body and get rid of it. I flipped out. I told her I wanted a call from the doctor who was on duty. That doctor called and said that they didn't have all of the specialists on site that day because it was a Sunday. She suggested we still wait and have the meeting with hospice Monday morning as my mom's stats weren't changing much. I told her I'd be there first thing Monday morning and I was.

I was devastated. My mom was in very different shape. She was very confused and lethargic. I had to keep leaving the room for a minute to gather myself because it took every ounce of strength I had to not fall apart in front of her. All she kept asking was if we were going to be going home. (She thought we were at a restaurant.) :'(

When hospice came, she looked at me like we were crazy. She said she had just seen my mom a week before and she was fine. She saw my mom for 2 minutes and said she needed to call her superior because she couldn't believe how rapidly my mom had declined. She got permission to move her to hospice and I had to sign the paperwork.

I lost it on the lady in charge of palliative care. I asked why more things hadn't been done such as dialysis or an LVAD or SOMETHING. All she kept repeating was that they had done everything that made sense to do and that sometimes you just have to sign the person into hospice even if they can't be rational about how "it's time". I told her the only reason I signed my mom into hospice was because of the condition them refusing to treat her had put her in. I called patient advocate for the hospital who told me he couldn't find the name of the doctor I spoke with that Saturday. He said he couldn't find his name at all which made no sense to me if he was the one who stopped her treatment considering nobody can do anything without written doctor's orders!

That night my mom arrived at hospice was the last time I was able to talk to her. Instead of having one last Thanksgiving with her, I was making her funeral arrangements.

I actually contacted three law firms within the first year (it's been 2 now) and both said they didn't feel I had a case. Her lawyer back home and I don't understand how that could be, but that's what I was repeatedly told so I accepted that and I just live with the grief that I didn't have the knowledge or say the right things to fight hard enough for her. :'(
 

isis297

Member
Fast forward to March 1st of this year and my son fell and fractured his hip at the growth plate. Our small local hospital didn't feel they had the best qualifications to operate on him being 12 and it being his growth plate so they sent him to the same hospital my mom was at. This hospital is supposed to be our "big" hospital - the one with the trauma center, children's hospital, is a training hospital, etc.

I was so mad at how my son was treated in the ER. They did nothing for him, but leave him on a stretcher in the hallway for hours flat on his back. Our hospital had already done the pain medicine, x-rays, IV, etc. We were told they would decide quickly whether to do surgery that night or the next morning because they knew he hadn't eaten since 11 or so that morning and it was already nighttime. My son also tried for hours to pee into a urinal while laying flat on his back in a hallway because he had received numerous bags of solution at that point and hadn't gone to the bathroom since earlier that day. It took me really standing firm to get the poor boy a catheter so he could finally be relieved and to finally get the resident to come back who said they would operate the next day and that he could have a little bit of something to eat before it hit midnight. It was literally 11:55 or so that night and he told my son to quickly eat and that he didn't want to know if he went a couple of minutes past midnight.

In talking with the attendee the next morning, everything in my gut told me this guy was bad news. I had met him briefly the night before and felt the same way. He said he was going to pin his leg where it landed. My son had the most severest fracture a kid could have. I told him I didn't feel comfortable with that and why weren't they going to put everything back where it belonged. He said there was too much risk in regards to blood flow. I told him I wasn't comfortable with what he was doing, but there was nothing I could do. I knew the blood flow WAS an issue, but the way he was pinning his leg just didn't seem right to me. But...they were the premier orthopedic group and hospital so I trusted they knew more than me.

My son was in and out in 30 minutes or so. A week or so after surgery, I knew something wasn't right. My son's leg was so far turned out and shorter it was awful. My son began to look like an "S" in his back from the way he had to sit. I would call the office and be told he was fine. They do this all the time. I kept telling them I didn't care. Something was wrong. At his first follow up, the doctor asked if his leg had always been turned out that far. We said no and he seemed concerned, but then seemed to brush it off. I also learned at this visit that this guy was a board certified hand and upper body extremist orthopedic! There wasn't anything pediatric about him forget him having anything to do with the hip!!

I got to talk to the mom of a student at my son's school whose daughter had the same fracture a few months before, but the pediatric orthopedic they had still worked there at the time. That was the middle of December. She said that doctor put her daughter's leg back in proper place, pinned both hips, had her non-weight bearing for 3 months and in less than 4 months, she was walking and fine. My son's doctor put him into physical therapy within about a month. After a few weeks, the physical therapist said that she agreed with me about my concerns. She couldn't get my son's leg to a neutral position for anything, he couldn't ride a stationary bike, etc. So I tracked down the doctor that had left who is now at a real children's hospital in a neighboring state and had his reports and scans sent to her. She said if she had gotten him first, she could have taken care of him, but because by this point it had been almost 3 months, she didn't even feel she was the best person to try to help him. So we got referred to another doctor there who has been absolutely amazing.

Unfortunately, we both thought one more surgery would fix him. It didn't. He has now had a third surgery, has a 1.25 inch lift on his shoe because our doctor now could only reclaim so much of his length, etc. He has been in a wheelchair or on crutches since March 2nd. He's endured tons of IVs, blood tests, catheters, pain, and more. It has affected his anxiety and his schooling horribly. Now the doctor thinks he may have no choice but to do a hip replacement next year. My son is only 13. Whether we can find other options or not, it is evident this is going to affect my son now for the rest of his life. I just find it completely negligent that especially for being the hospital they pride themselves as being, that they never replaced the pediatric orthopedic.

Our doctor now said that it appears my son was born with a shallow hip socket, but that the situation was made much worse by his leg being in the position it was from surgery as it caused the bone to knock against the hip socket and flatten it even more. Even if he tried to reshape things, there was no guarantee it would take because the socket itself is in bad shape now. The only way to get around that is to do a pelvic osteotomy which would make things very complicated when the time comes for him to get a hip replacement which seems definite now at SOME point no matter what or to just wait and see what happens in the next year and maybe just do the hip replacement instead.

I just feel like I need someone who knows more about these situations to look into them so that if it is agreed they did do wrong by us that the next family doesn't have to go through the same things hopefully.

Thank you for your time. I'm sorry I'm not more concise. I just want to write the correct people and figured the details would help you guide me.

Thank you again.
 

quincy

Senior Member
Fast forward to March 1st of this year and my son fell and fractured his hip at the growth plate. Our small local hospital didn't feel they had the best qualifications to operate on him being 12 and it being his growth plate so they sent him to the same hospital my mom was at. This hospital is supposed to be our "big" hospital - the one with the trauma center, children's hospital, is a training hospital, etc.

I was so mad at how my son was treated in the ER. They did nothing for him, but leave him on a stretcher in the hallway for hours flat on his back. Our hospital had already done the pain medicine, x-rays, IV, etc. We were told they would decide quickly whether to do surgery that night or the next morning because they knew he hadn't eaten since 11 or so that morning and it was already nighttime. My son also tried for hours to pee into a urinal while laying flat on his back in a hallway because he had received numerous bags of solution at that point and hadn't gone to the bathroom since earlier that day. It took me really standing firm to get the poor boy a catheter so he could finally be relieved and to finally get the resident to come back who said they would operate the next day and that he could have a little bit of something to eat before it hit midnight. It was literally 11:55 or so that night and he told my son to quickly eat and that he didn't want to know if he went a couple of minutes past midnight.

In talking with the attendee the next morning, everything in my gut told me this guy was bad news. I had met him briefly the night before and felt the same way. He said he was going to pin his leg where it landed. My son had the most severest fracture a kid could have. I told him I didn't feel comfortable with that and why weren't they going to put everything back where it belonged. He said there was too much risk in regards to blood flow. I told him I wasn't comfortable with what he was doing, but there was nothing I could do. I knew the blood flow WAS an issue, but the way he was pinning his leg just didn't seem right to me. But...they were the premier orthopedic group and hospital so I trusted they knew more than me.

My son was in and out in 30 minutes or so. A week or so after surgery, I knew something wasn't right. My son's leg was so far turned out and shorter it was awful. My son began to look like an "S" in his back from the way he had to sit. I would call the office and be told he was fine. They do this all the time. I kept telling them I didn't care. Something was wrong. At his first follow up, the doctor asked if his leg had always been turned out that far. We said no and he seemed concerned, but then seemed to brush it off. I also learned at this visit that this guy was a board certified hand and upper body extremist orthopedic! There wasn't anything pediatric about him forget him having anything to do with the hip!!

I got to talk to the mom of a student at my son's school whose daughter had the same fracture a few months before, but the pediatric orthopedic they had still worked there at the time. That was the middle of December. She said that doctor put her daughter's leg back in proper place, pinned both hips, had her non-weight bearing for 3 months and in less than 4 months, she was walking and fine. My son's doctor put him into physical therapy within about a month. After a few weeks, the physical therapist said that she agreed with me about my concerns. She couldn't get my son's leg to a neutral position for anything, he couldn't ride a stationary bike, etc. So I tracked down the doctor that had left who is now at a real children's hospital in a neighboring state and had his reports and scans sent to her. She said if she had gotten him first, she could have taken care of him, but because by this point it had been almost 3 months, she didn't even feel she was the best person to try to help him. So we got referred to another doctor there who has been absolutely amazing.

Unfortunately, we both thought one more surgery would fix him. It didn't. He has now had a third surgery, has a 1.25 inch lift on his shoe because our doctor now could only reclaim so much of his length, etc. He has been in a wheelchair or on crutches since March 2nd. He's endured tons of IVs, blood tests, catheters, pain, and more. It has affected his anxiety and his schooling horribly. Now the doctor thinks he may have no choice but to do a hip replacement next year. My son is only 13. Whether we can find other options or not, it is evident this is going to affect my son now for the rest of his life. I just find it completely negligent that especially for being the hospital they pride themselves as being, that they never replaced the pediatric orthopedic.

Our doctor now said that it appears my son was born with a shallow hip socket, but that the situation was made much worse by his leg being in the position it was from surgery as it caused the bone to knock against the hip socket and flatten it even more. Even if he tried to reshape things, there was no guarantee it would take because the socket itself is in bad shape now. The only way to get around that is to do a pelvic osteotomy which would make things very complicated when the time comes for him to get a hip replacement which seems definite now at SOME point no matter what or to just wait and see what happens in the next year and maybe just do the hip replacement instead.

I just feel like I need someone who knows more about these situations to look into them so that if it is agreed they did do wrong by us that the next family doesn't have to go through the same things hopefully.

Thank you for your time. I'm sorry I'm not more concise. I just want to write the correct people and figured the details would help you guide me.

Thank you again.
I recommend you speak to a medical malpractice attorney in your area, isis297.

I am not sure there is much you can do about the questionable care your mother received when she was hospitalized, other than file a complaint with the OMPC (they'll investigate), but I notice some problems with your son's treatment that appear to deserve a personal review.

I am sorry to hear about your son's injury.
 

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