Good Samaritan Hospital & Med

02/23/08

Behind the Double Doors

by LEWinter

My one-star rating is for unit 4SE, the inpatient behavioral health, or "psych" unit. I was there recently for depression. Having also been hospitalized at both Providence and St. Vincent, I can tell you the treatment at Good Sam. is vastly inferior. At the latter there is an overarching attitude of disdain for patients. We were often ignored when we tapped on the glass, our one way of getting staff's attention. Rather than seeking to make our stay more comfortable, most of the staff treated us like bothers at best, like soulless criminals at worst. The psychiatrist was useless to me, and the social worker gave me false information about critical topics like housing options. Rather than being a place to get some help and hope, I left feeling nothing short of traumatized, literally frozen with fear and disbelief that this hospital calls itself "Good Samaritan." While of course there were individual differences in the staff, I did not find a single reliable, competent ally on 4 SE.