The University of Vermont Medical Center

STAY AWAY From NICOLE BROWN in the ER. She has no idea what she is doing, her #1 goal is to get you gone. I couldn’t even walk and they kicked me out into the cold. Had a very bad attitude and does not care about her patient. Have a history of back pain and just told me to deal with it

Visiting from California, I got really ill, had to go to the E.R. at the University of Vermont Hospital. From the moment I step in the building I have to say I received the most outstanding care, the E.R. doctor and nurses were super thorough and very professional, they ran a bunch of test, drew some blood hook me up to an I.V. with saline and antibiotics and within an hour they had a diagnosis. I felt so much better afterwards. The best E.R. Experience ever

I avoid the FAHC/​UVM Medical Center Emergency Dept/​Room at ALL costs. I suffer from severe chronic migraines with a tendency for low potassium levels. If I do go into the ED it is with great trepidation. As a migraine patient I am often treated like a drug seeker. They give you a predetermined «cocktail» that is the standard protocol. This «cocktail» is weaker than the prescribed migraine, nausea and pain medications I have already taken prior to going to the ED. I see a highly reputable neurologist out of DHMC and the communication between the two hospitals is less than ideal. My neurologist has sent me into the ED for evaluation/​blood work and given me her direct number in which to give the attending. The attending DR had no interest in her phone number (during business hours) and begrudgingly done blood work that I requested (per my neurologist). I left the ED approximately 2 pain levels below what I was. It was obvious I wasn’t going to get «proper» relief so I gave up and agreed to be discharged.
ED’s for a migraine patient are a horrific experience. This hospital has a way of sending you into a room (eventually) off in a corner and forgetting about you. Unlike an average pain patient we do not scream or cry as it makes the pain worse. The only thing that has worked for stat attention would be to puke on a nurse’s shoes. Not my favorite thing to do to someone.
Other times I have gone to this particular ED for other things in the past couple of years (severe abdominal pain = GIANT kidney stone as well as digestational distress) the staff has been friendly but the wait times long. Apparently if you aren’t into screaming bloody murder due to pain you get put on the back burner. Triage is a process and I completely understand but I ended up needing surgery in one of the cases! The one 5 star experience I did have was when I had chest pain (unexplained). The care was first rate and it turned out I wasn’t dying. YAY!
If you have a visibly emergent situation this ED is fine. If you suffer from an «invisible illness» be prepared to wait.

I am impressed with Fletcher Allen’s responsiveness and efficiency. I have found everyone friendly and supportive. I highly recommend the Ezem Berry Smoothie when getting a CT scan. Very refreshing!

Good for a hospital food center, I guess. I have to say though, the food there is marginally better than UVM’s campus food. I especially recommend the yogurt.

I went into the ER, initially. It was relatively painless for me. I had gone in post cycling crash, so I was rushed through the ER while other people waited. I felt kind of bad about that, but it was nice to be fast tracked through (and the poor triage nurse getting yelled at by a mother who wanted her teenage daughter seen right that second, while I was being seen first because of the severity of my injuries… haha. Oh well) The ER was about as pleasant as they can be. The orderly wheeling me around was hilarious too. It sort of brightened up the visit.
My second visit here though was some what of a different experience. I was in for an outpatient procedure, and I get the gripes about going to a teaching hospital. Registration was somewhat of a nightmare. I checked in with a lady who didn’t even look up to see me. Following the check in, she would just bark out peoples last names and a number. No eye contact, or shred of humanity it seemed. The actual registration lady was nice, but had some problems with some of my information – but for the cycling accident I was seeing several different doctors in different locations so my charts were a bit of a mess I guess. It took her a while to get everything in order, but after I did, I was sent for the appropriate tests. The lady at the radiology desk seemed nice, and the radiologist I dealt with was nice. But otherwise, you do run into the occasional nervous resident, or you’ll have to repeat yourself to a few different people following your cases.
Bonus though, this is one of the smallest hospitals I’ve ever been with, and was easy to navigate. Everything is marked pretty well. The only strange thing is registration is on the 3^rd floor, but they called and told me where to go a few days before.

We had a problem receiving proper treatment in their ER, and ended up having to drive four hours the next day to another hospital. When we contacted the patient advocacy department to complain about our experience, we were treated with disrespect and utter incompetence by the manager of the department. She added insult to injury (as it were) by eluding to represent my concerns, but in reality, misrepresenting what I said to protect the hospital. I hope someone addresses the very serious problem with your patient advocacy department… my experience with them dwarfed my initial concern with not receiving proper treatment in the ER.

Ugh. FAHC. You go because you have to, not because you want to. Ended up in and out of the ER twice and spent a night in the hospital itself a couple of years ago. The ER can be a zoo, as ERs are. That’s expected. The ER doctor I saw, though, apparently gave me too much blood thinner (which my hematologist a floor up was NOT happy to hear). Unfortunately, when you know a little about a lot of different things something is going to not be done quite right.
This is a teaching facility so if you spend the night, be prepared to be swarmed by a flock of med students and repeat the same story time and time again (frustrating if you are upset, dazed and confused). There is nothing really personal about this hospital — people in and out of your room all the time, you never see the same nurse twice.
My biggest complaint about this hospital is it is SO darn big and EASY to get lost. Seriously. They employ someone full time just to hand out maps! Bring some breadcrumbs!
The hematologist I worked with and her assistant were phenomenal, however, and I probably owe them my life. They calmed me when they knew it was not a time to be calm and diligently followed up during a personally scary experience.
So the specialists get an ‘A’ in my book but the corporate atmosphere there could use some work.