Patients Complain - Hospital Answers ; Hospital Gripes Topic of Meeting

              SHREVEPORT JOURNAL • SHREVEPORT-BOSSIER CITY. LA., THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 1980 Shreveport Metro
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Patients Complain — Hospital Answers
• The mother of 4-year-old Tory Green
is angry after what she calls "a dis-graceful
incident" during which a physi-cian
at LSU Hospital slapped her son
while giving him a blood test.
• A 29-year-old woman who has several
complaints about service at LSU Medical
Center says she received an anonymous
telephone call from someone at the hos-pital
who told her that if she voiced her
complaints to the press, she and her
family would no longer be able to receive
treatment
• A woman who underwent surgery at
the medical center last year says she was
operated on so that doctors there could
learn and practice.
By EVANGELINE TOLLESON
And MARY DURUSAU
Journal Staff Writers
These and other complaints have led some to
question the practices at LSU Hospital.
But hospital spokesmen have agreed to
respond to every complaint posed by Journal
reporters as long as the patients are willing to
sign a release form allowing the hospital to
release medical information. The medical cen-ter
is prohibited by law to discuss the cases
unless the release forms are signed.
Hospital critic Jerry Tim Brooks has com-piled
a list of 36 such complaints about the
medical center. But hospital spokesmen note
approximately a quarter of a million people
are treated at the center annually.
Karen Green said she took her 4-year-old son
Tory to the LSU walk-in clinic on Dec. 18,
where she waited most of the morning and
afternoon without seeing a doctor.
"After waiting most of all day I took my
little boy to see a private physician, even
though we can't afford it," Mrs. Green said. A
doctor at the Family Clinic examined the child
as well as took a blood sample.
"He told me my baby had pneumonia and
wrote me out a note saying he needed to be
hospitalized," Mrs. Green said, adding she
returned to LSU Hospital where she waited
another four hours before a doctor came to see
her child.
"When I finally went up and asked someone
if the doctor knew that me and my child were
waiting to see him a nurse told me: 'Yes, he
knows you're here but he's downstairs eating
supper.'"
The doctor had the child X-rayed and also
ordered some blood work. "But he'd already
had a blood sample and he (the child) wouldn't
let the nurse prick his finger," Mrs. Green
said.
According to Mrs. Green, the nurse threat-ened
the child saying, "If you don't behave
we're going to get the doctor up here and it's
going to be real hard on you."
"I thought she was just kidding but the
doctor came in and held him while they stuck
his finger. But then when the nurse had
finished he hit my child against the side of his
head as he was letting him go," she said.
Mrs. Green said she protested and grabbed
the child. "The doctor just looked at me like,
'You're not supposed to get upset about this.
You're supposed to accept what I do," she
added.
After Mrs. Green complained to a head
nurse on the floor, the nurse took her to the
doctors' lounge where she pointed out which
physician had struck the child. "He apologized
but I said, 'My child is sick and all you're going
to do is apologize.' Then they called the guard
who said for us 'niggers' to get out of there and
we left."
Since that time the boy has been under
treatment by a private physician. "But I feel
like if he'd been put in the hospital then he
would be well by now, but he isn't," she said.
"It's not like I was asking for anything
outrageous," Mrs. Green said. "But my child
was sick and had fever of 104 and all I wanted
was for someone to see about him.
Mrs. Green said there is no excuse for the
way the hospital is run. "The way they feel
about it is you might get to see an doctor and
then again you might not."
Hospital Administrator Robert Hall said he
has investigated this complaint by interview-ing
everyone at the scene or who had dealt
with the situation.
"Our findings, which we feel are complete
and factual, are:
"That the physician was called by the medi-cal
technologist to the laboratory because the
technologist found the child to be uncon-trollable
and that it was not possible for the
technologist to get the blood sample for the
tests ordered by the physician," Hall said.
"That the physician was concerned enough
about the patient to go to the laboratory to see
if he could assist in getting the child's blood
sample.
"That the child was unmanageable and
uncooperative and that the physician lightly
slapped the child with an open palm on the side
of the child's face in an effort to control the
child, but did not use force or hurt the child.
"That the mother became extremely upset
after the incident.
"That the physician admitted he should not
have used those means to calm the child and
apologized several times to the mother."
Hall said that the doctor said the action
"was a spontaneous one and was only to try to
quiet the child enough to obtain the blood
sample." The child had been quite upset prior
to the slap but calmed down afterward, he
said.
The mother, however, became abusive fol-lowing
the incident, Hall said. "Extreme pro-fanity
was used by the mother in her confron-tation
with staff members," he said. "Numer-ous
attempts to calm her down were unsuc-cessful."
"LSU Hospital administration is sorry this
incident occurred," Hall said. "We do not
condone abusive treatment of patients by any
employee. Appropriate action will be taken
anytime such behavior occurs."
Hall said Mrs. Green's records do not show
that she went to the walk-in clinic during the
morning. He acknowledged that she was at the
clinic for several hours during the afternoon.
Lucille Webert, a longtime patient of LSU
Hospital, listed numerous complaints about
the hospital's service. She agreed Tuesday to
sign release forms to allow the hospital to
release medical records to the Journal so that
reporters could investigate the story further.
However, on Wednesday, she said she had
changed her mind and would not sign the form.
Mrs. Webert said she had received an
anonymous telephone call from "a white man"
at the hospital.
She said the man told her that if she signed
the forms, people would not believe her be-cause
she had been a patient on the hospital's
10th floor, the psychiatric ward. She said she is
not ashamed she sought help for her problems.
Hospital Gripes Topic of Meeting
By EVANGELINE TOLLESON
And MARY DURUSAU
Journal Staff Writers
An open meeting to discuss problems at LSU
Hospital tonight is expected to draw the atten-tion
of city, parish and state officials, as well
as that of the hospital administration.
The meeting at 7 p.m. at Winnfield Funeral
Home is being held to air the grievances of a
group of area residents who claim the medical
care being provided through LSU Hospital is
"poor at best."
Jerry Tim Brooks, chairman of the
Mooretown Executive Committee, says he
hopes today's meeting will spur an investiga-tion
into what he calls "the horrible conditions
at LSU Hospital."
An unsuccessful candidate for the state
Legislature last fall, Brooks is head of the
Community Health Service of Caddo Parish
Inc. The group is seeking funding for an
outpatient clinic in the Mooretown area be-cause
it feels LSU Hospital has not adequately
met the needs of many people.
"There are many, many problems at LSU,"
Brooks said. "But if you ask any of the officials
there they will just tell you they have too many
people to deal with.
"Well, a clinic such as we are proposing
would help alleviate some of the load on LSU,"
he said. "We can't replace LSU Hospital and
don't want to. But we do want to see that
people can get better medical care than they
are presently receiving."
Brooks says he knows many people who
have spent literally days waiting to see a
doctor at LSU Hospital.
"We're going to have a meeting to air these
problems," Brooks said. "We've invited a lot
of public officials — city and parish officials as
well as legislators and even the governor-elect
— so they can hear first-hand the things that
have gone on in that hospital."
Brooks contends that many of the problems
at LSU stem from the attitudes of the staff.
"They are supposed to be doctors and nurses
who are concerned about people's welfare. But
I'm telling you there are people up there that
don't care if people live or die," he said.
"Especially if they are black people."
In response, hospital officials point to the
staggering 250,000 persons which are proc-essed
through the hospital during a year.
Officials estimate that 60,000 of those receive
treatment through the walk-in clinic, which is
open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Based on those figures, approximately 164
persons are processed through the walk-in
clinic each day and numerous others come to
specialty clinics such as surgery or or-thopedics.
In addition, there are more than
20,400 admissions annually.
There are 157 "house officer" physicians
who work at the hospital, according to Dr.
Perry Rigby, associate dean for academic
affairs at the medical center. These physicians
cover all areas of the hospital and some of
these work at the Veterans Administration
Medical Center as well.
Hospital Administrator Robert Hall said
there is usually a maximum of about seven
house officers working during the busy week-day
hours at the walk-in clinic.
Rigby said there is a need for more physi-cians
at the walk-in clinic, but a lack of space
adds to the problem. "You've got to have both
— a place for a doctor to be in and a doctor to
be in it.
"One thing is abundantly clear. Without the
space we can't do much better for a long
period of time. It's like a patient with a bad
disease — you've got to work on everything at
once," he said.
Rigby added that while some people do wait
for a long time, those needing immediate help
are treated first. "It's a constant struggle.
There are a lot of people trying hard."
Hospital spokesman Mac Griffith said volun-teer
workers survey patients at the hospital to
get input about patient care. "Complaints are
followed up with written reports. We've con-tinually
tried to indicate to the patients as
The woman said the caller told her that if
she voiced her complaints further, neither she
nor her children would receive medical treat-ment
at the hospital. "I have no where to go,"
she said.
Mac Griffith, hospital spokesman, said Mrs.
Webert's accusation about the phone call is not
true. "Very obviously, it is totally and in-credibly
false," he said.
"I'm very disappointed," Hall said. "It's
something we would definitely like to respond
to.
"The hospital has nothing to be ashamed of
in this case and a review of that record and
discussion with a physician who has treated
Mrs. Webert would show that," Hall said.
Ruth DuBois, 59, said she underwent surgery
last May after doctors at the medical center
told her she might have thyroid cancer. She
said she asked her physician how big the scar
would be and said she had been told it would be
about two inches long.
Mrs. DuBois' scar is T-shaped and extends
across her neck and down her chest. She said
the doctors told her after the surgery that the
lump on her neck was not caused by cancer but
was an enlarged blood vessel.
"The only thing they wanted was to learn, to
practice, to see inside of me," she said. "It's
just horrible. It's not right to butcher people
like that. They've butchered me already ... I
can't be helped — that's past. If I tell my story,
maybe it will help someone else," she said.
Hall said Mrs. DuBois had been admitted to
LSU Hospital last May. After she had ap-propriate
studies for a neck mass, which
included a thyroid scan, the doctors de-termined
she needed exploratory surgery.
During the operation, doctors learned she
had an unusual "takeoff" of the left carotid
artery, which extends toward the heart down
the chest bone. The artery was impending on
the trachea, Hall said.
"It was determined that an extended sur-gical
procedure was not warranted to correct
this lesion and the patient's neck was closed,"
Hall said.
"The surgical procedure was explained to
the patient, including the extent of the incision
on both sides of the neck," he said. "The
diagnosis which required surgical exploration
would have been impossible to perform
without having the incision made the extent it
was."
Jerry Tim Brooks
much as possible if they have any complaints
to come to us," he said. "Let somebody know
so we can investigate and correct it if there is
some difficulty."
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