Robert Wood Johnson Hospital

My husband, Brian Daniels, was a Coronary Patient who had a quadruple bypass on March 19, 2021. This hospital, despite being given my cell phone number as his wife, and ADVOCATE, never received a call the day of surgery. His surgery was over at 3pm that day, and he was placed in Intensive Care, unbenownst to us until WE called, frantic, at 6:30pm! Apparently they had our OLD phone number from 7 years ago still on record, and we of course, never got that call. Only after my daughter-in-law called and demanded to know what Brian's status was did we know he was ok but still intubated. My son called ICU and the nurse there said it would be awhile and he would call when extubated. It was midnight, and still no return call. My son called AGAIN, and it was a different nurse who said he had been extubated at 11:30pm, so she put him on the phone and I heard his voice and only then did I feel some relief. After several more hours he was released into a private room, we never got a call about that either. We had informed them of my and my son's phone number so they could change it on the record, and call with updates, and that was NEVER done. We had to keep calling there, and because of Covid, I couldn't be there through all of this! When I was permitted to go there on 3/22/21, I spoke to the Physician's Assistant, Stephanie, who got an earful from me about how I never received ANY calls about my husband. She seemed sympathetic and promised she would note my phone number and make sure I got calls as to his progress from that point onward. However, once again, I never got ONE call. During my husband's stay, especially during the first few days, the surgeon never went to see him to evaluate him, but his PA's and nurses provided all evaluation and care. The surgeon, Dr. Lee, never contacted me, before or after his surgery, which I found extremely unprofessional and upsetting. I am grateful that he has a stellar repulation as a top surgeon, but I found his lack of follow up to be extremely lacking. He only visited after I called my husband's primary care cardiologist and told him what was going on, he apparently was never kept in the loop either. As if this wasn't enough, my husband's gold wedding band, which never left his finger for 42 years, was lost by security or tossed by one of the staff. My husband never saw the ring returned in the envelope with his cell phone, and when he asked for it, they did a frantic search and called security, but the ring was never returned or found. I called security and asked for a report to be filed, and when I heard nothing, I called the charge nurse, Nikita, and she said she would email Risk Management and get back to me. She never got back to me, ARE YOU SURPRISED? I was not. I finally called and wanted a supervisor, and her Director called me back and said because my husband signed for his cell phone, they ASSUMED the ring was in the envelope, and there was nothing to be done to compensate my husband. If I didn't call, they would have just left us hanging, like they did the entire time we were there. ANOTHER EXAMPLE of non existent communication! Please do yourself a favor and go to another hospital, this one is more concerned with their bottom line than patient or family care. I will make sure everyone we know spreads the word.

Review: Regarding MRI date of service June 22, 2013. My date of birth [redacted] I had to get an MRI of my entire spine to develop why all the pain each day. I did my due diligence and looked up the hospital Robert Wood Johnson Univ in Hamilton and was in Network and was a PPO provider.

Unknowingly the hospital hired an outside source to read the MRI. I have had many in the past and this is the first time the hospital has done this. The hospital did not advise me that [redacted] would be involved in the reading of my MRI. I did not hire her nor would I have agreed to it. Not being told this was going to take place was totally unable to circumvent this out of network problem.

Today I receive a bill for $622.00 due to her being out of network. I have no idea who [redacted] is but she was never authorized by me the patient to read my MRI.

I have been a patient of Robert Wood Johnson Hospital for many years and I think this is horrible that they hire outside providers and do not make the patient aware so we can check if in network. I will be considering other sources in the future.Desired Settlement: Bill should be forgiven. Patients need to be aware in future who will be reading MRI's so we can investigate our insurance options.