West Boca Medical Center

Elite '09

2885

1549

Andrea R.

Chicago, IL

2/8/2007

There's nothing quite like a trip to the emergency room in the middle of the night,  especially when in Boca Raton, which I've learned (from growing up here) that they don't have the best doctors.  

After days of severe ear pain I decided to give in and go to the emergency room at West Boca Medical Center at 4 am last night. My mom and I pulled  up and walked into an empty hospital.  Things were looking up- I'd be in and out of here in no time.  Wrong!  I answered questions for a nurse and then sat down and was told the doctor would be with me shortly.  Waiting, waiting, waiting, still waiting.  

Finally they called out "Adrienne to the front desk".  My name is Andrea, but close enough, and I can't blame the nurse  for not being able to read at 4:30 am.  More questions and then we were told to sit down again in the waiting room. What??? Who exactly are they working on? We gave them the benefit of the doubt and figured they must be short staffed.  By this time two older gentleman had also walked into the emergency room (independently), but they greeted each other like old friends...apparently they come here often!

Finally I was called in to see the doctor. Once inside I counted at least 15 members of the hospital staff just sitting around and doing nothing, while I had been dying of pain in the waiting room. Nice. oh wait, maybe they weren't completely doing nothing...they were in a very involved conversation regarding Prince's half time Super Bowl show.  

The nurse  who was assigned to me was the most incompetent nurses I've ever dealt with, but she was sweet so it was hard to get upset.  She didn't seem to understand any of my serious ear problems and just wanted to make sure I didn't get water in my ear when taking a shower.  Finally, the doctor came over. He was nice enough and it turned out his father in law was one of my mom's patients so he was even more willing to help out.  Unfortunately, he moved at the same speed as the rest of the office as I waited for them to bring me some drugs and the incompetent nurse to give me a shot that would put me at ease until I had the chance to get to an ENT later in the day.    Finally my mom took control over the situation and asked them to please write prescriptions so  I could get out of there.  Hours later I left, much happier since I was now medicated, but still confused as to how the emergency room could spend almost 3 hours on 1 patient when they hardly even did anything for me.  

I have a whole new respect for Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago after this experience!

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