Riverside Community Hospital is a DANGEROUS hospital. I was hired by Pediatrix, an OB hospitalist company, to work shifts at Riverside Community Hospital. The turnover of OB Hospitalists was very high which was a red flag. I have worked in the healthcare industry as a OB/GYN for more than 20 years. While I have seen incompetence and culture issues in other hospitals that make healthcare unsafe for patients, this was by far the worst. From the very first shift, I had concerns about the safety of OB patients at Riverside Community Hospital. It was such a concern, I requested to be transferred after my first shift, but Pediatrix refused. I have always advocated for patient safety so of course I spoke up about the safety issues I encountered. The hospital administration supports very dangerous and careless OB/GYNs because they bring significant revenue to the hospital. It does not hold its nurses or scrub techs accountable for bad behavior either.

In one example, a scrub tech tried to delay an emergency C-section for a cord prolapse. In another example the neglect at the hands of two OB physicians resulted in a patient experiencing a uterine rupture while laboring. There were concerning signs of this but the nurses did NOT advocate for this patient because of who the doctors were. Politics has no place in medicine but it exists nonetheless. I was the OB Hospitalist on duty and was called to deliver this patient. Luckily, the baby was OK, but mom was not. She had a 4 cm hole in her uterus. The OB was notified but refused to come in to repair the ruptured uterus. Worried, I kept a close eye on the patient. Within 1 hour it was clear the patient was bleeding so I and another OB took the patient to the OR to repair the damage caused by her OB’s neglect. We contacted the OB but he didn’t answer and didn’t even show up until after we had repaired the damage to her uterus and bladder. That same doctor left a sponge in one of his patients and tried to blame a junior physician for it. That patient had to have a bowel resection. Doctors like these are praised by the hospital because they bring in millions of dollars.

Some of the nurses on L & D are dangerous too. They sit around gossiping and do not call the OBs timely for their patients’ deliveries. The community physicians possess a mentality that because there are OB Hospitalists in-house they don’t have to come in. Because of nursing neglect there were babies delivering in toilets and on the floor! When I brought these concerns to the Chief Medical Officer of Riverside Community Hospital as well as to Pediatrix leadership, they tried to silence me and created a narrative that made it look like it was the patients fault that the adverse outcomes happened. Although I documented these safety concerns, the hospital did nothing to address them. It was because of this that I asked to be transferred out of Riverside Community Hospital. As an OB Hospitalist, I felt powerless to protect patients. It was the main reason I went back to private practice. As a community physician I have the leverage to advocate for the safety of my patients.

OB Hospitalists should exist for hospital emergencies and to reduce adverse outcomes. But the way the model is being abused, the safety net that should exist does not. After several years of working in this model for different companies, I realized that the Hospitalist market primarily exists to make the hospital and the companies that run them richer. Patient safety is at the bottom of their list of priorities. I have kept an extensive paper trail and can back up what I speak here. I wish more physicians had the courage to speak up, but most do not. It is important that patients understand the facts about hospitals like Riverside Community Hospital who have the power and deep pockets to create whatever image and narrative they want. It is a dangerous situation. I am writing this review because I am a concerned OB/GYN who is committed to helping patients advocate for themselves and to hold accountable those systems who allow harm to come to them.

Don’t not go to community hospital my 82 year old mom was admitted in June due to a heart attack she was left in her feces for hours her call button she had wrapped around her heart monitor where she couldn’t get access to also she complained nobody checked on her we complained that where our nightmare started the nurses Stephanie and Shasta on the 4 the floor started bulling us w we tried to get my mom transfered they refused we tried to get someone higher up they refused the icing on the cake was when we saw my moms arm it was dark purple she said a medical person was hurting her arm she told this male medical person he was hurting her he grabbed her wrist and pressed on her arm we complained nothing we just had issues with the nurses my mom is now her me recuperating well she got a letter from the hospital they claim they investigated they said Riverside police took a report and RHC took pictures Riverside police said no case for abuse under my mom’s name is in there system and RHC wouldn’t talk to us we asked for a patient advocate we were denied and if you stand up to the nurses on floor 4 they bully lie to cover there butts everything in that letter was a cover up so if you have family don’t ever go to that hospital you will be treated horrible for an 82 year old woman to be abused and they didn’t give a crap and they covered up there butts that hospital needs to be investigated and shut down talk about unprofessional people who don’t care about family they only care about covering up to protect themselves dont go to that hospital

MISDIAGNOSIS will end up costing weeks to recover. Dr. Roberta Dunn saw me for 5 minutes and proceeded to ruin the next month of my life, along with Dr. Phillip Glivar, a spine specialist, who read the CAT scan, making such cavalier decisions about a knee. Here are some bread crumbs doctors, Quack, Quack!!!
It wasn’t so much I was treated poorly in the ER, ignored yes. I have had one person tell me that 15 hours isn’t an unusual amount of time, but for my injuries…?
What really is WRONG was the misdiagnosis. I had an extremely bruised knee and elbow which probably just needed a few days rest. These morons decided I had a fractured elbow and a bone chip around my knee and therefore needed to not put any pressure (weight) on either limp for a week. Since it was my left leg and right arm I couldn’t function on my own and they sent me to the skilled nursing facility or better known as the deepest depth of Hell! Now I have seen a real orthopedic doctor we find out there is no bone chip and, well, if there is a fracture on the elbow it is so minuscule as not to warrant the total prevention of movement. Now, I’m stiff and sore with difficulty moving, it will take time to get back to normal and why? I’M SUFFERING (CAN’T WORK) AND NONE OF THEIR TREATMENT WAS CORRECT. IF I HAD IGNORE THEIR ADVICE AND JUST GONE HOME, I WOULD BE DANCING RIGHT NOW!!!!