I used Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge many times from the late 1980's till 2013. (Unfortunately this review posted to the Allston site.) This includes day surgery, a fractured femur, a few tests including blood tests, bone density, probably a mammogram, a few ER visits, doctor appointments in their facility, physical therapy for my feet, I had a primary care doctor there who isn't there anymore, and...let's see what else....various tests and xrays.
Pros: The doctors I saw there on an outpatient level were very good. I saw an ear, nose, and throat specialist in 2011 who had the best bedside manner of almost any doctor I've ever seen. My first physical therapy experience there worked out fine and the foot problems I was having never returned, probably this was around 1991. The PCP I saw there was good too, but she's not there anymore. The blood lab people did their job fine.
I had my tubes tied at Mount Auburn in 1995 and this went okay, too. I was given clear instructions before and after the surgery. There were no unexpected complications nor infection nor pain. I was back at work in a week.
Cons' The ER. I don't remember ever having a positive experience in this ER. Once I was misdiagnosed with the common cold when what I was suffering from was a post-trauma reaction to having been assaulted. Another time I went there and was diagnosed with "anxiety," was told I had had a panic attack and that explained why I felt faint. I left there wondering if I was going to drop dead that night because this was NOT the problem. Another time I had cardiac symptoms and as I was wheeled in, the nurse said, "Oh, anxiety," and they wheeled me into a dark, empty psych room. I waited there alone for the first ten minutes with no call bell and no one even took my vitals. Okay....
Inpatient: I was sent there mid-August, via ambulance. From that very moment, everything that happened was all wrong. I was not informed fully about my condition. This was COVERUP. I was on Needham 4. The unit was so noisy due to the deafening sound of call bells ringing day and night and loudspeaker noise that the nurses had to shout to hear each other and the doctors couldn't stand it. We patients had to live with it 24/7. The doctor called me a liar and verbally abused me many times. A few personnel also physically abused me (shoving) and poked fun of me. They insisted on having male staff in my room when their raggedy johnies barely covered my body. Many personnel stared rudely, made rude comments, or grabbed the remote from me or the phone so they could use it themselves. The nurses would come in, ask a question, then leave when I was still mid-sentence. They spoke of other patients right in front of me, saying that those patients were a pain in the butt. I even heard them talking about me. Not nice stuff.
Finally, I asked to leave, and the doctor in charge of my case said the following: "I'd let you go but if I were to do so and something terrible happened to you, it would be on me. Do you understand? I've got my reputation to worry about." I then knew these personnel thought of me as subhuman. Yes, not even human.
They made medication errors. This was in part due to a name mixup. Also, someone there (I don't know who) ordered an illegal search of my apartment. I only knew this upon my arrival home when I saw the place torn apart. I don't know who did the search. I was also given a drug I had not taken in three years, and if I had actually swallowed this ridiculous dose of pills I would have died. I was terrified. They tried to give me drugs I'd had bad reactions to in the past. They took me off high doses of two anticonvulsants (one I had been taking for months, the other a number of years) cold turkey.
They threatened me constantly, called me names, spoke of me like I wasn't there, and treated me like a three-year-old. They tried to transfer me to a psych unit , repeating over and over that I was a danger to myself. I knew I wasn't. They refused to believe me. They tried to force drug me. Finally, an outside agency said I didn't qualify for any psych unit because I wasn't a danger to myself. Guess what? They had no choice, they finally let me go.
I came home and found the wreckage in my apartment. I was shocked. I was further shocked when I opened the paperwork someone had given me by accident and found out that I'd gone into full code in the ER and they never even told me.
Afterward, my life was hell. I suffer from PTSD from the abuse to this day. I tried to get a lawyer to sue the place but I have no money. I cried every day for months, saying "Why did they abuse me?" I was alone with no one to answer my cries. I was scared of the sound of sirens, ambulances, police, anything resembling a doctor. Do these people realize that they did? Do they even realize the consequences of their actions? They got off scot free. As for me, I lived in terror till I moved out of town. Far away where they can no longer harm m read more