University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics

Positive experience: I’m appalled at some of the things that happened to my sister from beginning through discharge. She had half of her left lung removed on February 21, which involved a huge incision and going through the ribs. Extremely painful. Before she was admitted a nurse told her not to bring her CPAP so she didn’t. On February 25 she was put into the ICU to go on the bipap. On the 26th my sister called me in tears and frustrated. She was hallucinating and they had given her ketamine thru her IV along with dilaudid and oxycodone. Missy cannot take ketamine because it causes her to have hallucinations. The nurse was trying to restart her second IV to give her more and Missy was refusing. She told me this as I was on video with her. I heard the nurse say she was NOT giving her ketamine. I reassured Missy that it would be illegal for the nurse to give her ketamine after promising she wasn’t. I later found out ahead of time had the ketamine ready to go for the new IV but decided not to after hearing me. We also found out Missy should have been in her CPAP and may have avoided ICU had that happened. I know there’s plenty more that I have forgotten. In planning for discharge, on Friday morning the doctor told her she would have to go to a skilled facility for care. By Friday night she was discharged to home. Steve and I got there shortly after 8pm to get her. I asked what about her Oxygen as the doctor told her before surgery she would go home on oxygen. The nurse said she no longer needed it. By 3 am her oxygen saturation was down to 84%. She had to go to ER. Oxygen was then ordered for her by the Newton ER. I am thankful for the surgeon’s skills during the surgery. I am thankful she is now cancer free. But I am stunned that the best hospital in our state failed her miserably. Edit to add: and they didn’t ever mention her catheter. No orders for care of it. No instruction to care for it. Nothing. Home care doesn’t know anything about it and no orders. This is the worst discharge.i have ever seen. They must have needed the bed. She should not have been sent home. She cannot afford the supplies that she has to pay out of pocket since it’s all “OTC”. If University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics cares about patients, they certainly do not demonstrate that in this case.

Positive experience: My brother was transferred by ambulance to Iowa city of Sunday January 28, 2024. He is a quadriplegic and requires special care with illnesses. He went into surgery 2 hours after arriving to remove gangrene that was spreading quickly. The trauma team saved his life that day. He was then taken to ICU again because he requires so much additional care than an average patient. While in ICU we encountered many good nurses, but 1 in particular stood out. Tim Smith was his nurse and needs to be recognized for his superior compassion and care! Tim was attentive, understood my brothers disability and severe limitations to help him. One of the many things Tim did was range of motion on his legs to help with muscle spasms. No other nurse thus far has done that. The hospital administration needs to know how fantastic Tim is. If this review were only about Tim, the rating would easily have been a 5. I rated a 4 only because not all nursing staff has been great. I feel some just don't understand the restrictions of a quadriplegic, and a few were not helpful at all to him when he needed it. They were actually rude to him.