bo anselmo The system at Saratoga Hospital ER is completely broken. I will never go there ever again and out of kindness and concern I will tell everyone I know to avoid it so that they don’t have to endure an experience such as ours.
We spent 28 hours total in the ER with a mental health emergency where the patient I brought was initially compliant with getting help. The first 12 hours were in the large waiting room with no wifi, 1 bar of cell service, and no water to drink unless you buy a bottle, then you can’t even refill it because the water fountains are off.
Next we spent 14 hours in a windowless ER room and she was not allowed to go outside just to get a breath of fresh air and was not brought or offered any food or water. I had to leave her alone in a fragile state to get food for her from town.
So, 26 hours after we arrived, she finally saw the clinician, and at that point she just wanted to be released home, who would blame her? Any hope I had for her of getting an evaluation and a transfer to an inpatient program where she would get some medication management was destroyed. The inefficient system of this hospital completely undermined our ability to get much needed care.
Lastly, the admin person in the ER spoke very disrespectfully to me when I was consulting with our nurse, implying that I needed to wait for the assigned nurse to return and not bother a different staff member. I was speaking with our nurse.
The patient I was with also heard the staff talking badly about other patients in the ER using language that was gossipy, judgmental, and truly unprofessional.
All I am asking is that the hospital assess its system, read these reviews, and make changes:
1. If a telehealth crisis evaluation was available for mental healthcare, wait time would be much improved instead of having one provider who can only see 3 patients per 7 hour shift.
2. Have a water bottle filling station in the waiting area.
3. Provide wifi in the waiting area.
4. Provide some training on patient care, advocacy, respect, kindness, and empathy.
It is a beautiful facility and the waiting room is impressive looking and there is lovely art on the walls, but for a town as well resourced as Saratoga, I feel like we can do a lot better as far as care goes.
1 /5
Kevin W Admin support, care management, social workers are all underhanded, don’t follow-up as they say nor do they practice carrying out tasks within timelines and guidelines established in medical policy.
Furthermore, One would think when you’re dealing with after care and transferring a patient to nursing care you’d provide the family with a checklist and assist more in the process before sending a lifelong Saratoga county resident over an hour away against family concerns. Save your family and yourself aggrevation, find an alternative.
1 /5
Susan White Very disappointing in Emergency Care. This rating is for Saratoga Hospitals Urgent Care and ER. My husband who is a high risk senior was very sick, coughing terribly for a week. Urgent Care did not do chest x-ray but sent him home with antibiotics for a sinus infection. 4 days later he was back, sicker than ever - finally a chest x-ray - Pneumonia and low oxygen and they sent him to ER in an ambulance. Neither time did they test him for Covid although he had all the symptoms. He was finally tested and diagnosed with covid pneumonia in the ER. He was stuck in ER for almost 2 days. For over 10 hours he received no food, and no water no matter how much he begged he was dehydrated and thirsty. No one bothered to find a doctor and get approval to give him a drink of water. During those 2 days they moved him to a different ER room 4 times - not once did they put a mask on him for transport. At 10pm they finally gave him a drink of water and a stale turkey sandwich. Most workers going into his room wore no mask. How many people were infected due to lack of precautions? While he was in the ER, probably while he was sleeping, someone stole $80 out of his wallet (leaving a couple of $1 bills so he wouldnt notice) He was finally transported to a hospital room, without mask, - and THEN he was put in strict isolation. While in the ER the person who started an IV did not get it in right and it fell out onto the floor. She picked it up off the floor and tried again with the one that was on the floor. She herself sat on the floor while she was inserting it.
His care once he was in a hospital room was very good, no complaints there. On floor nursing care is not an issue at all.
There appears to be a lot of training of staff needed especially in Wilton Urgent Care and ER. This should have been caught and treated appropriately on the first day he sought help. He could have died.
I dont blame the nurses in ER for the poor communications and neglect, they work hard. I blame nurses understaffing and failure to train aids and ancillary workers to at least exhibit some caring and compassion. Those people should be the go-between to check on patients, carry messages and get information when nurses and doctors are too busy to interact with patients. The whole experience in ER is no one cares. Nurses station always seemed busy, but no one actually interacting with patients only each other. He reported the theft of the money. No one got back to him. He sent a letter to the patient care board about his experience but no one has acknowledged it.
2 /5
fran capelouto Id go to a alternate hospital if I could. In Aug.2024 my mother went to emergency and told it was a heart attack in no uncertain terms.
Later that day cardiologist said heart failure and she was put in room with another woman patient that had a wild and raucous party for this other woman thrown by the nurses. A birthday party? for a town VIP maybe? It kept my mother up who had a heart problem of SOME kind, I found out. Next morning they sent her home. Heart patient. 1 day in hospital. Day she came home that night had cardiac arrest and died. She told she was kept up by this party and could not sleep any the day she died. But fun is fun right? Year before 2023 she had pacemaker installed then came down with sepsis few days later. Still want to go to Saratoga Hospital?
1 /5
Krista Bowens I really have to say that this hospital is very busy and yes the wait for the time is long. But I suffer from a heart issue and I have gone to 3 other hospitals in new york and never had my issue resolved until I went to Saratoga. I may have had long waits but they did ask the testing needed and found the issue and fixed it for me. I am blessed to all be alive today. Yes hospitals are no fun going to or being admitted to but I am happy with the care I received. The nurses I had while I had a short stay were great especially Bobby. Im glad Saratoga took care of me and Im in the road to recovery again. Only reason for 4 stars is yes the wait time but I was understating with the amount of people that needed care and treatment. They sure are busy and do try there hardest.
4 /5