"Written by husband - Jamie -
First impression was that he knew what he was doing. He took several hours in the group setting taking care of all questions and explaining the procedure. He was very up front about all the possibilities and risks. His office staff was well informed and helpful through the entire process. They would do anything for their patients.
When we got in the hospital he seemed to be in and out pretty quick and in a hurry. He was thorough and professional but seemed to be a man of few words and always in a hurry.
This impression continued on untill Sheila had to go to the ER 13 days post op. Sunday afternoon about 2pm He was there within 15 - 20 minutes of our arrival. He wrote orders for tests to be run and left. He returned later that night and spent a couple hours in the ER going over charts, talking to us, working with a lung specialist and formulated a game plan to decide what was wrong with her.
He spent a long time both times he was there talking with us about what it could be and what he was going to do to find out and then what each of the cures would entail.
I've always been confident of his skill but now I'm even more assured of his caring about the patients. Over the last few days he's stopped by and taken the time to talk to us about how treatment is going.
He has been very helpful and knowlegeable. If we had to do this all over knowing what we do now, we would choose Dr Stewart again. "
"Though well equipped I would expect any hospital doing weight loss surgery to have extra large cuffs for blood pressure. The inacurate measurements on the lower forarm made me a bit nervious but they think it was close enough to see a potential problem. Another thing was no trapeze on the larger bed we recieved on the 1st trip for a bariatric patient. This would have made getting up and down easier but in the long run it's probably best to learn to do it on your own.
The staff seemed well trained and motivated for the most part. I like many of the nurses but a couple who don't listen/ wont help can ruin any stay. Sheila at one point was given the pain medicine she had previously been taking that caused major headaches for her. The nurse hadn't consulted the notes on the chart at all. They were happy to help anytime we needed and I was overall impressed with the staff. They are under staffed for the number of patients they see and it does take a little bit for a nurse to come at times. They do need to train and keep nurses in the bariatric area. Many of them know what is going on in general for the surgery but don't know the specifics of bariatrics. With 2 -3 patients a week it would be cost effective to cover the material with anybody new comming into that wing so they would be more knowledgeable and prepared for questions or situations. Rotating nurses from other area's due to changing population needs is not the best plan and I feel we were very lucky the nurses rotated in that hadn't been there before picked up on things quickly. Most of the people here were commendable though some tended to be forgetful or apathetic.
Space for family was paramount to us and they did an excelent job. The double rooms used for this had only 1 patient and the chair beds, while not serta quality, were good to have.
Dietary needs to be worked on. On Bypass soft diet they brought a dinner roll, Stringy hamburger meat, and some mashed potatoes.. well Sheila did ok knowing her limits and the potatoes were the main course.. The diet people seem clueless when it comes to bariatric patients though they did finally come by and take menu orders for the soft diet on our 2nd trip after messing up with the roll.
The Cat scan machine has a limit of #350. Many bypass patients can't use it if there becomes a need. Luckily Dr Stewart pushed them enough that they tried it anyway and it worked for what we needed but they still tried to get her to drink much more of the barium stuff than her pouch would ever hold... and they pulled on her wrong and hurt her some when they were laying her down. They should let a family member help especially if we have a routine that works without pain to the patient.
Communication in the hospital needs to be improved %1000. Especially in the ER. They told her to drink the Barium stuff(single 24oz cup)... then stop 5 min later... THEN a couple hours later drink 2 of the 24 oz cups then the nurse mentions she was supposed to stop but that was 45 mins ago and it's a bit late... Then they decide after all they were going to do the CAT scan. The ER man-nurse we had at 1st was rude as hell and wouldn't tell us anything at all. At one point we asked if he knew why we'd been sitting there for hours with no communication and how her tests and xrays looked.. we were told "That's what they send Dr's to medical school for." The ER was very poor on communication with the patient, Family, and any other department in the hospital... "We no longer get to speak to a person about rooming. When a room is ready for the patient we get a page. We don't know when she will be admitted till it happens."
In my oppinion it's a good hospital being run by clueless administrators who are too worried about costs to worry about patient care.
I was very impressed with Dr Stewart's responce to the emergency we had. He was there within 15 minutes of our arrival and came back multiple times that evening. The lung specialist who Dr Stewart consulted was very good and had a wonderful bedside manner. I couldn't have asked for a better person for the job. "
