WakeMed ER

If I could rate a zero, I would! This Pathetic excuse for nursing staff who only came in when sought out and the dungeon looking room my 83 year old mother was stuck in and forgotten for at least 12 of the 24 hours she’s been here so far. As we were told she was getting admitted but yet here we are still in this pathetic excuse for a room! My sister that lives with my parents and is in Quarantine because she has Covid also had to call the ER TWICE so that someone would help my mother to use the bed pan!!!! The nurses, I don’t know their names were rude and showed no sort of empathy or concern for her at all!!!!! I mean seriously not to mention that my parents will only go to WakeMed and all the two dozen times or so that they’ve been here we have never encountered this! The floors were very dirty, trash can overflowing all night and still is this morning!!! My mother who just had a heart attack one week ago had a stent put in at this very hospital then ended up with Covid, already had unstable heart rate and oxygen levels, severely dehydrated and sustained two bad falls in two days due to dizziness which is what brought us in yesterday 6/28/23, was left in the room and forgotten! In the two hours it took me to drive here my sister called from home to the ER twice to get my mother help!!! Utterly negligible!

This was the most horrific visit ever! If I could rate this place 0 stars I would, they don't even deserve ONE star! The bedside etiquette is trash and their customer service is even worse. Further more I stayed in the waiting room a total of 10 hours only for them to send me back home with the same ailments. If I really needed to be admitted to the hospital, I'd probably be dead.The wait time id ridiculous, I don't recommend 3000 New Bern Ave WakeMed hospital to anyone! Patient care should be the first priority,not treating people inhumane as if they are animals and have no rights! However, thank you Dr. Vice.

Wake Med is trying to accommodate all the patients, like myself that enjoy the attention that they receive at this hospital, however the ED is a war zone. It is an improvement over 6 years ago when I first visited the ED, but it is confusing with all the back and forth people have to go through now. I get the reason for it, but if you are in pain or feel really bad, you don't want to go in the back for blood, then to the waiting room, then back for x-rays, then waiting room. You start to feel like a yo-yo. The staff looked more rushed and frazzled than before, but granted there weren't people in beds in the hallways. Overall, they do a great job and how they keep a positive attitude is beyond me. I couldn't do it. Hats off to the ED dept! You are the best. Another thing, those vending machines were full of junk. Not what you want to find in a hospital. How about some healthier options like granola bars, veggie chips, protein bars? I was starving but decided to wait until I was discharged.

All the emergency room people did a great job. The staff took me in immediately. They worked quickly and were very thorough. I felt completely confident with all the people that attended me. They really put me at ease. My wound is healing nicely and the pain from the wound is gone. I was impressed that they gave medicine to prevent any after effects. My visit was because a neighbor's dog bit me. The staff notified the public health officials. By the time I returned home the public health officials had checked out the dog to see that it was up to date on its shots and had visited my neighbor's home. Thanks for your excellent service Ernie Morgenegg

Thankful WakeMed ER was able to diagnose and immediately treat my wife, who is also an oncology patient, for a UTI turned severe sepsis 5-days of critical care after a previous local hospital missed the diagnosis two days earlier and let her go home. Most of the staff to include many nurses in A & C-Bays were excellent and compassionate to include Xavier, an exceptional employee who visited regularly to draw blood and went above and beyond to provide her with comfort, warmth, and cheer. In my opinion opportunities for improvement include more frequent, less rushed in-room doctor visits with better communication to both the patient and loved one caregiver present to include taking the time for Q & A's. MyChart updates concerning lab work and tests occur with high frequency and often present results that lead to more questions and worry. Primary caregivers such as immediate family loves ones that provide support at home for oncology patients when not in a hospital setting are often ordinary people with no medical training or background. In my opinion the goal to achieve successful recovery for a loved one is a team effort and more primary caregiver education, preparation, and counseling to include easy access to 24/7 hotline to her doctor, could reduce the chances that a dreadful emergency like this will occur or repeat itself. For the primary caregiver, relying on Google, discharge instructions, MyChart, and other instructions usually provided in a 15-minute setting are simply not enough especially when this is unfortunately a new experience for not just the patient but her support system. Last, a request for a shower was granted for my wife while waiting in C-Bay 2.5-days for a room. The shower was down a hall in C-Bay and did not have any hot water in the sink or shower. To make matters worse, the single shower handle to adjust water from hot to cold was not secured and fell on her foot.

I received excellent care. Joel, the PA who set my wrist, was friendly and extremely competent. He was very reassuring and put me at ease. Jeremiah, the nurse was exceptional! He went above and beyond to see to my care and comfort. I can’t thank him enough for how well he took care of me!

My care was excellent but the wait time was too much. I don’t think you have control over this but I know there were a lot of migrants that were there for non-emergency situations. I heard several of them get diagnosed with things that an urgent care could have taken care of or a GP. I know these were migrants that don’t have insurance and used the ER for there regular care because they needed interpreters for them. Maybe the ER needs to have a separate area for those that don’t have insurance. I waited 6 hours and that is the longest I’ve ever had to wait. I was having chest pains and heart palpitations and don’t feel I was triaged properly because I sure should have been ahead of someone with a yeast infection.

sat there for 12 hours with my husband...the er waiting room was so dirty, the ladies bathroom, so disgusting I couldn't use it. My husband was the patient...s/p chemo, fall risk, abdominal pain and they kept shuffleing us back and forth. I don't know but making a fall risk walk back and forth??? Thank God for my chart. I retrieved his lab results, CT results. The PA came out to the waiting room not to give results, but to state that she had a page out to the surgical team ct was negative to see what they wanted to do. If results were negative why involve the surgical team??? We had his IV removed and left the facility. This was after explaining that my husband hadn't had anything to eat, hadn't had his medication and was freezing asked the PA for a blanket, never got one. Will have to look into an alternate hospital in the future. We most certainly do understand how busy the ER is and we do NOT expect any special treatment BUT when you have a chemo patient who is obviously in distress at least offer a blanket and not make them walk back and forth he was wearing a "FALL RISK" band which was obviously ignored.

Before going into the ER I tried to get an important/priority message to my primary care doctor and my urologist. The Wake Med system strongly encourages you to submit questions and make appointments through the MyChart App. That can take days to get a response. The phone menu system tries to get you to use the MyChart App. It is difficult to talk to someone and then it appears to be a call center and not the doctor’s office. It is difficult or impossible to talk to the office nurse or receptionist. I described my symptoms and all I was told was that the doctor had “No Availability” and they could put me on a waiting list. They would not get a message to the doctor. My six hour stay in the ER was good and included an ultrasound, IV, and antibiotics, blood tests, etc. Could it have been done in the doctor’s office? I don’t know but I would have liked to talk to my doctor before going to the hospital emergency room. The phone system and the MyChart system has two processes 1 the slow method that could take days or 2 Call 911 for emergencies. There needs to be a third method that allows you to get an important priority message to talk to your doctor.

I went there for dental pain, really bad toothache, process was quick, I spent 90mins total not bad for ER visit. The DR came and look in my mouth and suggested that it could be an infection so, they gave me antibiotic and pain med and I was discharged. I was still in so much pain when I left. I could barely talk. Pain med didn't work until 4 hrs later was able to fall asleep. Everything went well, then came the bill, I have an Insurance so they covered about 60% but the problem was, they charged me $379 for Surgical services or materials gauze they didn't give me any gauze for my mouth, I wasn't bleeding, I didn't have my teeth removed, nothing. Dr didn't even spend 5 mins with me. If I didn't look at the details of the bill I wouldn't even know. That's illegal and it's not the first time something like this happened. It's quite common in the medical field. They charge you for service you didn't receive, if you caught then they will refund you, if you don't, then that's it. I'm waiting to hear from them. Will take up to 45 days they said. It took them 3 days from the time I was in the ER to bill me but will take up to 45 days to review the charge. That's the world we live in!!! P.S The service I received was good. Can't complain there. Wished they gave me something to relieve the pain quicker. Everyone was professional and courteous.