Capital Health Medical Center - Hopewell

J GL

For any person expecting a child please consider this review. I gave birth to twins in July, they are our first. I had no issues for any of my NSTs and appointments with the maternity appointments. The day of my induction I tested positive for covid, so I knew this would alter my experience but in no way is it an excuse for the horrible care we received. First and foremost, we were told once the babies were here they did not have a nursery. If this is your first baby/babies, I highly recommend finding a hospital with a well staffed hospital that has a nursery available. When admitted, our maternity nurses were amazing. They were accommodating, punctual and kept us well informed as we waited for labor. The issues began once we were admitted to the post maternity ward. My one baby struggled to latch and this hospital is *extremely* breast fed forward. At one point a nurse and a lactation nurse spent 2 hours trying to latch my screaming baby to my nipple. I asked if I could use formula as a substitute and was told "formula would change their GI biomes and was not recommended". To keep trying to breast feed and pump. I did so despite our babies clearly not getting enough to eat and crying for hours. I paged the nurses constantly. I finally had a literal mental break down in front of one of the nurses begging them to let me supplement with something. Only then did the nurses give me the option of donor milk to feed. Once they were properly fed my babies slept, confirming they were not getting enough from my breast. Checks on the babies and myself were irregular and if we paged for something or had a question we had to wait sometimes over an hour before anyone stopped in. Newborns need to eat every 2 hours, and you are encouraged to stick to this schedule as well as document all feedings/bowel movements/urinations. Knowing the nurses were busy/overstaffed/hesitant to come to our room, we started paging for the donor milk 30min before feeding would be due. We were never able to actual feed our babies when they needed, which was every 2 hours, because they just wouldn't come for at least an hour after we requested their donor milk. I even asked a nurse what we can do to make this easier, you don't have a fridge in the room and the milk needs to be defrosted and cannot stay out for more than an hour. We literally had to still rely on them to feed our babies. So once again, our babies would cry until we were able to satiate them. I expressed my concerns to the nurses and lactation staff the entire time. Its cruel and unfair to both the mother and child to not recognize that breastfeeding sometimes is not possible. A friend of mine is a nurse and let me know some hospitals receive $$ on mothers who are discharged breastfeeding. I have no idea how true this is, but from the way these nurses and lactation nurses pushed it so hard even though my babies were literally not eating, i believe it. Not once did anyone come in to change my bloody sheets or take our trash, only when we requested this to be done. We should *NOT* have to ask for basic hygienic protocols. Now, me being covid positive should literally not have any affect on our care. Its a hospital, they see infectious disease DAILY, this is not an excuse. My impression was the nursing staff was overwhelmed and understaffed, it is a hassle to go into full PPE (which some of the nurses literally said to us) which i believe is why we received such poor care. This should not mean myself nor my two newborns should suffer. Once discharged I did bring my concerns up to the patient relations advocate but all we received was a letter in the mail saying "We will educate our team better, and your babies did receive donor milk" completely disregarding the entire situation. Hopewell- do better. If your nurses are overwhelmed, its because you have not properly staffed them. If your nurses are not properly educated, its because you have not given them the proper avenues to improve.

Cortney B

Had to take my toddler to the ER in the middle of the night and the doctor was very judgmental. He also made a big deal about me not letting my daughter walk around with bare feet. We ran out of the house without shoes for her because she was screaming in pain. Nurse was excellent she understood our concerns and reassured us that we did the right thing by bringing her. Had a day shift nurse from a previous ER visit who had no bedside manner and made a HIPAA error. Left computer open and unlocked I could see all the patients who were in the ER I had access to everything so she needs to be careful. Made me uncomfortable because other patients could probably see my kids information if she did that in another room.

Mick W.

I had to make an emergency visit to the ER a few weeks ago for undefined abdominal pain. I was taken via ambulance by 2 very caring EMT's . Needless to say my care there was anything but. I was placed in a hallway and my letter "k" in the hallway. Although my spouse walked around and told me there were open rooms , unless I was told I had chest pain I wouldn't be placed in a room. I entered the ER before my family came with my pain a 9/10 and the nurse was asking me my demographics. Now if your pain , coming via ambulance is a 9/10 how would you answer? I would sometimes like people to know in that reverse way how they would feel/respond/answer. I literally saw a Dr. Baptiste 3xs over the course of 12° for a total of 5 minutes TOTAL.( Incidentally my husband told me she was looking up things in a book) I have ALWAYS thought that Capital health-Hopewell hospital was an A+ hospital all these years , but my last visit proved me wrong. I was not even offered a pillow and was actually told they "didn't have any." Does that come off my bill? And was told 1 blanket per patient. Very sad and disgusted to actually hear people complain about it and all those years I defended the hospital. *In reviewing the REVIEWS I see there are actually more negative lately than positive, So that tells me it cannot just be me.

Maureen Murphy

I was checked into the ER so quickly and professionally. The staf were top notch, especially the nurses in IMU. Thank you Kelly, Kelly, Jen and Dana: your crew is exceptional. Maureen M