Fortis - All Facilities but no Systems. Review on Fortis Hospital - Gurgoan

My Worst Experience in Fortis, Gurgaon

Last month in Sept 2014, I was an attendant for a friend who is a stroke patient and I recommended him Fortis Hospital as the doctor we needed was with Fortis. The doctor saw us in the morning and then asked for some tests  - Blood tests, ECHO test and Brain MRI. This could be done as an OPD. But the doctor also recommended that the Sleep Study be conducted and this required us to be admitted. It was fine till now.

Then the trauma started:

1. Nurse: We got admitted to the room at 1230 hrs and the doctor had given a medication. The nurse forgot all about the afternoon medicine. Later at 1700 hrs the head nurse was informed of the missed medication – Excuse given: the nurse was doing a double duty and hence forgot.

2. Lunch – As the admission was not planned, the patient had not eaten and was hungry by the time the admission got done at around 1230 hrs. Lunch was being served, so on enquiring I found out that no lunch was planned for my patient as he has just got admitted. This I understand. So I approached the dietician and requested for an early lunch.

We were given a choice of continental or Indian. As my friend was from Qatar, we requested continental. We waited for the food to arrive and kept reminding, but was getting delayed.  Later as my friend developed a headache, I went down and brought up a sandwich for him to eat. The food arrived at 1430 hrs. We asked for the reason and were told that as we had asked for continental the delay was imminent. We could have been told about this earlier.

1. MRI testing: The attendant took my friend on a wheelchair for the MRI and left us on our own informing that there were 2 patients before us. Another doctor comes ambling around from the MRI control centre and asks us “what are we waiting for?”. We inform him Brain MRI. We saw people walking in and out of the MRI room with mobiles while the MRI was running(noises from the machine were on). After the MRI got over, no one could locate any attendant, we were told wait for him here – After 30 min of waiting, eventually I wheeled my friend back to the room.

2. Wifi Experience: Guest relations office gave us Wifi Extn no to be 2225. But no one lifted the phone. So bought the Wifi card at the reception for Rs. 350/- Did not work and so the complained. After 2 hours of complaining the Reception sent the IT head. He said that the Wifi is weak in our room and the then tried to lie by saying the Wifi is only designed for Laptops and not mobile phones. We asked for a portable Wifi, which was bought to the room, but after 1 hour they could not configure and said that it is not possible to start the Wifi. We asked for a refund, and were informed that only in the morning refund was possible and they walked out. Very callous attitude was exhibited. In the Morning at the reception the lady was informed about the incident and she called Business Centre Head. He came on at the beginning itself as very aggressive and was very very rude indicating that this is a non refundable amount and we can do nothing about it. In case you need we will verify and you have to now come to the room and prove to us. I was very upset and let the Re. 350 just go by as I had over Rs. 80, 000 bill to pay for all the tests. I really wonder on how such a rude person has been placed in the business centre.

3. Sleep Test: In the evening the doctor visited and informed that sleep test will be done. The nurse was informed of the same every 30 min from 1930 hrs onwards. Answer was wait in the room, it will be done. But at 2300 hrs when I raised my voice at the head nurse, I was informed that the technician is not picking up the phone and she did not know why no one had remembered about the test. On enquiring it was found that the file had contained the test and everyone overlooked the same. Head Nurse stated saying that no problem we can do the test tomorrow. I had a problem with this as my friend had to fly out of India tomorrow. I called the doctor – who went out of his way and called the technician from the company. The technician informed that generally the Apnea Link Plus does not need hospitalization, but the bigger equipment like Amletta needs a preparation and now as the time was short only a Apnea link plus was being fitted. The test started at 2430 hrs. From 2200 hrs to 2430 hrs the head nurse kept avoiding us and hiding away from nurse station to nurse station on the 3rd floor. I guess as she did not have any answer to my questions on the status of the test.

4. In the morning, w are informed that we have to undergo an EEG test and an ultrasound test. For this the patient has to be empty stomach till 1000 hrs. Then at 0730 hrs the breakfast for the patient arrives.(We wondered whether there was any co-ordination between the nurses and the dietician)

5. We request to be cleared of the two tests by 1030 hrs as my patient has an international flight in the evening.

6. Later an assistant wheels my patient to the EEG centre which is locked. On some phone calls away the technician arrives and the tests are started.

7. After the tests, the technician searches for the attendant, who seem to have a penchant for disappearing. So we inform that we are aware of the next test to be Ultrasound. The technician is very vehement that we should not roll the patient.(that was nice). So I walk into another room of procedure and request the nurse for an attendant. This attendant now rolls us to the Ultrasound unit  and hands over our file inside the lab. The lab attendant after keeping us waiting for 40 min announces that we do not have any ultrasound but have to go to the Nuclear Medicine lab.

So now another attendant was arranged and we were rolled to the Nuclear Med lab. There again the attendant just dropped us and vanished(which we were quite used to by now), the technician again asked us why are we there. We now genuinely were not aware why we where there. He asked aloud which test has Ms Archana brought for?

I immediately mentioned that my patient was a male and not called Ms Archana. Then a certain doctor kindly took our case and we explained once again our plight and were again asked us to wait. She called up The Neruology dept and later called a certain supervisor from Ultasound centre. It was established that the file and the patient do not match. We waited at the Nuclear Med lab for over 40 min till this was sorted out and another attendant was searched for and we where wheeled back to the Ultrasound.

Here one nurse kept announcing that we do not have an appointment and she has spoken to our floor nurse to put an appointment. But 10 min later the Ultra sound Supervisor walks in announcing that the appointment has been placed early in the morning and enquired to the nurse on why she could not see properly. By now I raised my voice and asked all the persons to identify where the problem was.  I took charge to send one person to the 3rd floor to search for the file, one person to the EEG lab for the file and check whether the EEG was done in the file of the correct patient. The third person was asked to do the ultrasound. Now the test got over in 15 min.

1. The room condition was also not so good

a. The kettle was not working

b. Since 1230 hrs to the next day 1230 hrs no one came to clean the room, clear the dustbin, mop or wipe the room of dust. For 24 hrs no cleaning was done.

c. The persons came to change the sheets and the pillow covers were not changed as they informed that they do not have pillow covers as of now and will see later. This was an Executive single room.

We asked for the Guest Relations officer and informed her of our ordeal. We list out all the above to her in detail. She was apologetic about and we have asked her to please improve the situation. There have been hospitals which open in a grand manner, but due to bad service and feedback from the patients and persons the hospitals are not a preferred place. Please see the admin of Artemis and I am sure your admin can learn a few things on systems.

There is good infrastructure and also the staff are extremely courteous(barring the Business Centre head who was the only rude person). But the basic system does not exists and hence the activities seems to collapse at many areas. The persons are not equipped to handle any activity on their own. No one seems to take full responsibility of the problem and only seemed to be passing the buck leading to this problem. The staff is running around and always seems to be on their toes, but keep making a lot of mistakes as the basic process seems not to be in place.

We thought that we were the only one with the problem and started attributing it to Murphy’s law. But on looking around saw many attendants complaining of simple things and repeating complaints.

As an Indian we are very accommodating, and still I could see so many problems; I wonder what the perceptions of the Expats are who seem to see the smallest defect of us Indians.

We need to improve and establish ourselves as a good quality Nation. I have taken out the time to write this elaborate such a long message to make my point clear so that there is some corrective measure taken.

As of now I would not visit again nor recommend to any friend Fortis hospital, Gurgaon till the systems are established.