1. ambulatory surgery appointment time: 7am. time brought to the OR: 5:45pm. Pressuring the front desk yielded that there was a table time of 1pm (then why must I be there at 7am?) and an emergency surgery sometime around table time. the patient had not eaten since dinnertime the day before, not expecting to have to fast for over 24 hours.
2. 2:30pm we asked to see the hospital's patient advocate. the nursing staff became very attentive and got a resident to hang an IV bag to hydrate the patient. the patient was advised that dr. flores was behind because he had an emergency case and that it would be another hour.
3. 5:45pm the patient was finally brought in for surgery. dr. flores did not bother to see her before this time.
4. after surgery, the patient was given some apple juice, but nothing to eat. by this time, she had not had anything to eat or drink for over 24 hours. the lack of food made her light-headed and nauseated. she ended up vomiting as a result.
5. discharge instructions from dr. flores included a prescription for a drug (codeine) to which the patient was allergic. fortunately, we knew that tylenol #3 contains codeine (not something everyone knows, it's a good thing we caught it). note that the patient was wearing a red band around her wrist that indicated clearly that she is allergic to codeine, and it was clearly noted in her chart.
6. we had to wait for another hour, nagging and pressuring the nursing staff, who paged physician after physician (including dr. flores, who advised them to page someone else) to change the prescription.
we were advised that dr flores had been operating since 7am, patients back-to-back. i can't speak to his technical skills, presumably they're very good; however, i am uncomfortable with the prospect of being on a surgical assembly line. whatever his skills are, it's clear that he doesn't see patients as people and doesn't have even a modicum of respect for them.
we won't EVER be back, and we hope that posting this review will prevent others from having to go through the kind of experience we suffered.
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