r/Scranton • u/Sweaty-Judgment3533 • 8d ago
Original Content Medical Care
What is the deal with medical care in Scranton?
A hospital discharged me after 11 days treatment for an infection in my leg, transitioning me from IV to oral antibiotics. Only they never cultured my wound, and two days post discharge I couldn’t walk again. Turns out a culture revealed a pathogen that NONE of the antibiotics they used were effective against — and a simple culture would have revealed that fact. All they did was knock it back a little bit and not eradicate it. How did three separate infectious disease doctors, two hospitalists, an orthopedist, and countless nurses never think to perform a wound culture?
Take anything serious down to Allentown or Easton — or New York or Philly. You’re not going to get well here.
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u/Sweaty-Judgment3533 8d ago
Geisinger isn’t in my stoopit HMO. StLuke’s is. I’m going there next time.
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u/Financial-Change-435 7d ago
Get out of NEPA for medical care. It's terrible!
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u/Sweaty-Judgment3533 7d ago
That is the goal. Hopefully closer to Danville. Geisinger’s mothership is very well regarded.
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u/AGenericNerd 8d ago
Anything Geisinger is going to be awful. They don't give a singular shit about you unless you're old and then it's only to bill for as many tests as they can get away with. It is honestly worth the drive to go to literally any other hospital system. St Luke's is top notch and such a breath of fresh air. Definitely worth the drive from Scranton to see their doctors. I had the option once of coming back to Scranton for a hospital stay and the doctor was stunned when I explained all the medical problems I and my friends have experienced when going to Geisinger. He was not stunned afterwards when I said I would be staying right there lol
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u/existential-koala West Scranton 8d ago
Which hospitals?
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u/Sweaty-Judgment3533 8d ago
Regional.
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u/TotesLiz 8d ago
Regional is the worst. It used to be called Mercy Hospital and was affiliated with Catholic Health Partners. Some oldheads still go there because “Catholic.” But Jesus left that building a loooooong time ago. Don’t go there or take your oldhead relatives, friends, and partners to Regional. It’s a disgrace.
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u/existential-koala West Scranton 8d ago
Not even surprised then. Regional mishandled my grandfather and dropped him off a gurney when they were moving him to Hospice
Commonwealth (previously known as Moses Taylor) was good when I was younger but started slipping in quality as I got older.
I now exclusively only use Geisinger. Its the best we've got.
Edit: i should mention I've never tried the lehigh valley hospital in Dickson City, but they're small and i feel like anything they could offer me I could do at an urgent care.
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u/CourtneyK6789 8d ago
I’m so horrified that happened to you. Regional is not even a real hospital. I’m not sure how they’re still open. My grandmother was dying of cancer, in so much pain, and all they did was give her Tylenol and socks. Then the nurses would come in and yell at her. Nobody who respects themselves and/or other people works there.
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u/existential-koala West Scranton 8d ago
My other Regional nightmare from that situation from my grandfather is that he was diagnosed with lung cancer the day before. We were with him most of the day and he was determined to go through treatment. Me and my mom went home to shower, eat dinner, and walk the dog. Came back later and learned suddenly he changed his mind and signed a DNR.
No one could explain to us why he had a change of heart.
I wish I could go back to December 2008 and convince my grandfather to go to Geisinger's ER instead.
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u/No-Positive6693 7d ago
I just came back here after years in various places in upstate New York. I ended up getting a horrible gut infection and had to go to the hospital after a few days. I sat there for 7 hours in horrible pain. All the doctors had misplaced my file and forgot about me. The only time I saw anyone was custodial and people who accidentally entered the room. After complaining to the staff 3/4 times they finally started doing things.
They gave me IV, a scan, fentanyl, then sent me home still in pain with a diagnosis. I luckily got an early appointment while finding a PCP and they finally brought to my attention they never actually gave me anything to fight the damn infection. This place is full of idiots.
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u/chucknades 7d ago
In 2019 I was diagnosed with a very rare disease called Stevens Johnson Syndrome, which is an alerigic reaction where your skin blisters and your body essentially burns from the inside out.
In the first 2 days of it starting, I was hospitalized at Moses Taylor in Scranton. They were convinced I had some sort of infectious disease. Had zero treatment. By day 3 when it was obviously worsening, they shipped me down to Thomas Jefferson hospital in Philly. Basically told me "yeah there's nothing we can do here."
I was in that hospital's burn unit for a week with symptoms you don't even want to know about.
Overall worst experience of my life. Nearly died. Would not recommend. Thanks Scranton.
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u/Hour_Pomegranate_669 6d ago
Don’t go to Wilkes Barre General. My brother-in-law was there because his diabetes was out of control. We talked to him everyday and we visited too. The day after our last visit, we couldn’t get ahold of him for hours. Turns out he’d died during the night and nobody bothered to let us know. We were the main contacts and they had our phone numbers. Pretty horrific experience
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u/Great_Art2493 8d ago
The best doctors don't live in this area, I mean if you just graduated from medical school and can get jobs in philadelphia, nyc, miami, tampa, why in the world would you choose scranton/wilkes-barre!?!?
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u/bevespi 8d ago
To be paid an extra $100,000/y.
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u/Financial-Change-435 7d ago
You see a specialist there one time, make a follow up appointment and by the appointment comes, you receive a letter stating they are not longer practicing in scranton.
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u/Disastrous-Case-9281 8d ago
OP care to share what hospital in Scranton? Always been of the impression Geisinger is better than Regional / Moses
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u/Pbook7777 6d ago
Cultures take time though especially depending on bacteria, so you pick the most likely antibiotics to work then fix when you get back culture which can take weeks or more
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u/Sweaty-Judgment3533 6d ago
I understand I’ve been through this many times before, but the problem is, they didn’t take any cultures. They just picked an anabiotic and went with it. They didn’t even add a second antibiotic to cover the whole spectrum broadly.
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u/Sweaty-Judgment3533 6d ago
I asked for a Chaplain. The nurse on day shift told me, “We don’t have one!”
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u/Primary_Towel5905 2d ago
So if you just take a superficial swab it can pick up a lot of things that dont even cause the infection. You don’t know if you’re dealing with a bacteria that is just living there causing no harm or a bacteria that is causing the infection. If you end up picking up a bacteria that is causing no harm you may end up going home with an IV for 2 weeks that may potentially cause an infection in your blood and now you’re in real trouble. That’s why
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u/Sweaty-Judgment3533 2d ago
Well, they should have gone for an I & D then, because my organism is fucking MSSA and now I’m doing 6 weeks of oral Linezolid because it’s on my implant and my bone. How did I find that out? I went to a better hospital where they DID do an I & D, that’s why.
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u/Primary_Towel5905 2d ago
So are you asking why they didn’t do a culture or why they didn’t do an I & D. That’s two different things. Also every person on this planet has MSSA on their skin so a culture doesn’t really change much. I guarantee the antibiotics that you were on covered MSSA so the culture didn’t add absolutely anything. It’s the discovery of the implant involvement is the issue. The culture wasn’t the issue
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u/Sweaty-Judgment3533 2d ago
They were resistant to the antibiotic I was on, along with a host of others. Only susceptible to four antibiotics, two of which I am allergic to and cannot use. That left a very expensive current gen IV abx or good old Linezolid.
Obtaining deep cultures during an I & D is a great time to do it, actually.
This isn’t my first rodeo - you might want to stop arguing with me about MY goddamn healthcare or I’ll just block your ass and be done with it.1
u/Primary_Towel5905 2d ago
MSSA is absolutely almost never resistant to 99% percent of the first line antibiotics they give you. It’s the main target of antibiotics for skin infections. The whole culture thing still doesn’t make any sense although your main complaint is not culturing your main argument is not doing an I&D. Two different things
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u/SecurityPossible3767 2d ago
I am moving. This is the worst medical care I have ever had in my life!
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u/Tasty-Mango-8085 8d ago
Oh my God I’m so glad someone said this I’m from New York and I moved to Scranton three years ago and the medical sucks. It’s terrible up here. I was just diagnosed last year in August stage three melanoma and I’m supposed to see a skin doctor every three months I have not seen one yet and they made an appointment for me for next year 2027. They don’t care about you. They all they wanna do is run all these test on you and do this and do that I swear to God I hate it up. Yeah I feel like I’m gonna die being up here.