Pottstown Hospital - Tower Health - Pottstown, Pennsylvania

Suzan W. (.

I have been an outpatient, an emergency room patient and an inpatient at this hospital and always treated by knowledgeable professionals with compassion, that always provided me the best of care. Dr. VanFleet is without a doubt the most superb physician I have ever encountered in all my 66 years. I have had reason through those years to have many, many surgeries, procedures and long hospital cares so I am not without more experience than I ever wanted. She absolutely is a doctor that listens and cares, those two qualities encompassed with her obvious knowledge of her profession make her a 10 star medical professional in a world that only allows 5 star. My gratitude for that kind of quality care and the experience of a superior physician in a most admirable human being was and is a stand out experience in my 66 yrs and appreciated beyond words. She is proof positive that there are exceptional doctors that are in the medical profession because they care and want to make a difference in this world.. and she does.

Joanne T.

This emergency Ward needs to be put out of business. Most unorganized doctors ever. Don't do it, go somewhere else. That emergency Ward is not even safe for a sick person. They could care less about you or your pain or your needs when you're laying in that bed. They don't even come when you push the nurses button 3 4 5 times within 45 minutes. I could have died in that room. There was even a lady next to me screaming for a nurse.

Evan S.

I don’t know what’s normal for a hospital, but my mom just spent 11 days here, constant lack of and conflicting information. Asked for a cognitive eval for someone showing signs of dementia, was told they don’t do that. Asked to see a doctor about another aspect of care, never saw one - in well over a week, I was made to feel like even talking to a Nurse Practitioner was a bridge too far. Then, we were told on Fri we were being discharged Fri, then they said that was a mistake and would be Sat, then on Sat they said it would be Sun, then on Sun we were told Mon, then on Mon the time kept changing. It was driving my already sick mother crazy. She came in with normal sodium levels, then after 8 days, they wouldn’t discharge her because her sodium was too low. We were like then why do you have her on a low sodium diet. So their answer to this was to restrict her water intake which was already down to 12-24 ounces a day. She was able to walk when she came in and could barely stand when we got out of there. Literally one day after leaving she was almost back to herself, the hospital was killing her.

Chris S.

Zero. That’s what I give this hospital. My elderly mother has undergone numerous surgeries at places like Thomas Jefferson, Einstein, and others, but this experience has been by far the worst.

From the moment we walked in, there was zero communication—from the front desk to the ER. I waited 35 minutes before anyone realized my mother had a bed and that I could see her. When I finally went back, both nurses were surprised I hadn’t been brought back earlier.

We learned my mother had a broken hip and were told surgery would most likely happen the next day or, at the latest, the following day. That day was today. At 11 a.m., 12 p.m., and 1 p.m., we were told to prepare for surgery. Fast forward to 6 p.m., and I asked what was happening. The response? "Sorry, it’s not happening today. Did no one tell you?"

I don’t care that the surgery had to be delayed until tomorrow—this is a hospital, and things happen. But some communication over the past three days would have been appreciated. To make matters worse, my mom has only eaten once in the last 60 hours.

This experience has been unprofessional, frustrating, and unacceptable.

Lisa N.

Even though my wait was a bit to get a bed, the staff were great. I was given hot packs to ease one aspect of the pain while I waited. When they ran blood tests, my WBC was quite elevated. When one form of imaging didn't give us answers, they didn't give up and used another form of imaging. I also appreciate the fact that when you need pain relief, and you ask them not to give you narcotics because they make you sick, they respect it. They have non-narcotic forms of pain relievers, which, in my opinion, work better, and they don't make me sick. No, I was never a user and never will be. They just make me sick as a known side effect. I truly appreciate the thoroughness and dedication of the staff to keep me as comfortable as they could while we traversed the journey in finding out what was causing my ailments last evening.

Lynn

Well, Pottstown Hospital, you really had us fooled. We really thought you cared about my 90 year old mother, but it was all a facade. After promises of getting her out of bed ( just to the chair, mind you), she laid in bed for 4 days. She was severely impacted with stool and I was promised by CRNP Holly she would not leave until that was resolved. I am the one who had to ask for enemas for her. After 4 days and 2 enemas with no results, they were pushing us to get out of the hospital and get to a rehab where she would become someone else's problem. The next hospitalist on the case, Mohammad, said my mom was being discharged. I said, no way, not until she is cleared of the stool impaction like we were promised. Within 1 hour of my refusal to have her discharged, the floor nurse gave her a suppository and with assistance, everything was cleared. No one thought to do this 3 days ago to eliminate her suffering. Then out the door of the Pottstown Hospital she went. Oh yeah, and when she arrived at the rehab where I was waiting for her to help set up her room, she still had an IV in her arm. In their rush to get her out the door, they forgot to take it out. You can't make this stuff up. We really thought you all cared. Clearly not the case.

Daisa S.

Took my 6 year old there @ 11:40, we went back around 12:30. The doctor said he has covid his rash looked " like the Michael jackson disease".she left and said I'll get the script and discharge papers. They then took 40 more minutes to discharge after I left the room to see why no one came. The nurses were rude, no bedside manner. I was utterly disgusted. One nurse actually said the doctors time is more valuable then ours. They need to be shut down

Summer F.

If only i could give 0 stars...
On Thanksgiving early morning 11/28/24, my father and i called 911 for my mother. He had found her unresponsive in their bed. Her sugar was through the roof. The paramedics came and while they were moving her downstairs, her heart stopped. They did CPR for a while and got her back. We had asked the paramedics to take her to Lehigh Valley, but they said she was too critical and they had to take her to Pottstown because it was closest. She was on a ventilator for 4 days. She woke up from the sedation on 12/03/24. The doctor had told us she was septic from an infection in her stomach. The ICU nurses and doctors were great. My mom adored her one nurse, Mandy, from the ICU. That is the only good thing i can say about this hospital.
On Friday 12/06/24, they moved my mom down from the ICU to a regular floor. Every time I went to see her, she looked worse and worse. She was extremely weak and tired. All she did was sleep, although that was expected, we knew she needed to rest.
I saw her on 12/09/24 and again, she was looking worse than the day before. They did not have her on any monitors, the nurse would come in to check her sugar but they did not seem too concerned with the fact that she wasn't getting any better.
The room she was moved down to was on the third floor, room 311. She was towards the end of the hallway. On 12/09/24 There were workers doing work on the room right next door to hers, I could see what the workers were doing, there was no barricades, it was not blocked off. It was extremely loud and the work they were doing was vibrating off the walls.
The next day, 12/10/24, my mom saw a rat run from the direction they were doing the work on the room towards the nurses station. She was not the only person that saw the rat; a nurse also saw it. They did not seem too concerned so that made us wonder if it was typical for a rat to be running in the halls in Pottstown Hospital. My mom begged us to get her out of that hospital. She was uncomfortable, she was scared, and she was SICK. After my mom and the nurse saw the rat, they had put up barricades or blockades where they were doing the work.
THE NEXT DAY after seeing the rat, my mom was moved into a rehabilitation center down the street. She was not ready to be moved, she was not healthy enough to be moved. She was still fighting the infection in her stomach but Pottstown Hospital decided she was okay to be moved to a physical therapy rehab. The rehab tried having the physical therapist come in and get my mom to start moving but it only took one day for them to stop all physical therapy because my mom was too sick. She started vomiting while she was in the rehab. She was looking more and more sick while she was in there.
On Saturday, 12/14/24, i got the call from my dad that my mother had died at the rehab. My dad was with her earlier that morning, he came home for a few hours and went back to see her. He walked in, took off his coat and saw that my mother, his wife, was white as a ghost and not breathing. He had to go find the nurses to get help. They tried to revive her but it was too late. She was already gone. There was fluid in her stomach that built up into her lungs.
I am writing this because my mothers death SHOULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED. I 100% believe that her death could have been prevented. She was moved from the hospital too soon, she was not hooked up to ANY monitors after being moved from the ICU. Why? Pottstown Hospital - Tower Health failed my mother. I do NOT want anyone else to have to go through something similar. DO NOT GO TO THIS HOSPITAL.