Adventist Shawnee Mission Medical Center Poor treatment, poor patient advocacy Shawnee Mission KS

I would strongly recommend visiting another ER if you are having medical problems. This ER makes too many mistakes. I'll list out the last two examples.

Back in Oct-18, I visited the ER because it felt like my left foot was fractured. I was seen by a nurse practitioner only. They completed an x-ray and determined it wasn't fractured. The nurse practitioner diagnosed me with cellulitis and sent me away with a pain killer and an antibiotic. When the pain hadn't cleared up days later, I visited my primary medical care doctor, an internist. He looked at my foot and immediately said their diagnosis was wrong. He asked me if the nurse practitioner had bothered to lift my foot to determine if the swelling and redness dissipated. She didn't. Because it did, and because I complained of bone pain, there was no way it was cellulitis--rather, it was most likely gout of pseudogout. He prescribed me prednisone and more painkillers. He stated if this cleared up the problem then this was probably the diagnosis. It did. He then referred me to a rheumatologist.

I complained to their patient care advocate, Katie Norwood. Although they wiped out my insurance copays, they didn't refund anything to my insurance and downplayed their responsibility in the wrong diagnosis. I filed a grievance with Blue Cross Blue Shield.

Around mid-Jan-2019, I had to go back to this ER. Again, they failed to properly diagnosis me and sent me away with elevated blood pressure of 180/130 without blood pressure treatment. It had been high for over two weeks. They knew the entire background of why I was there and my symptoms. I had also been seen in an ER a few weeks prior with similar symptoms. When I went to my follow up appointment with my internist, he was really upset. He stated Adventist ER is obviously not advocating on my behalf. He diagnosed me with PTSD and put me on two blood pressure medications: amlodipine and bisoprolol. They knew everything that my internist knew in order to make the proper diagnosis. Plus, they have a psychiatric unit at the hospital, so they should fully be familiar with PTSD symptoms and should have been able to make a more accurate diagnosis than him. He showed me their medical records that they sent to his office and they went as far to write that I was fine. The lowest my blood pressure went while there was around 160ish over 110ish. He said they never should have sent me away without giving me blood pressure medication. My OBGYN said she couldn't believe they didn't admit me.

Again, I was all but blown off by their patient advocate when I complained. She sent me a follow-up letter that said their protocol was fine. It was not, and I have had three doctors now validate they screwed up: my internist, my OBGYN, and a therapist. I have since filed another grievance with Blue Cross Blue Shield and I have requested an administrator contact me from the hospital. I also plan on filing complaints with the state.

This ER is a joke.