KAUVERY HOSPITAL, RADIAL ROAD, CHENNAI – NOT RECOMMENDED IF YOURE LOOKING A GOOD MEDICAL TREAMENT

 A Poor Replica of a “Best-in-Class Hospital”

And that’s what Kauvery hospital calls itself - Best-in-Class. These delusions of being awesome have resulted in the worst experience for us. For all those who think, proper medical treatment means going to a famous doctor with a great track record they are sadly mistaken. A significant contribution to good medical treatment is from nursing services, housekeeping services, Doctor Support team, Canteen Services, Billing and Insurance department. Unfortunately, Kauvery Hospitals @ Radial Road, Chennai scores a BIG ZERO in all these areas. The hospital really needs to learn a thing or 100 (not 2) from MGM Hospital and Apollo Hospital with whom they seem to want to compete. We had gone to Dr K Sridhar who had previously treated a relative at MGM Hospital and we had a great experience. This time as well, Medical Services from Dr. T Swati, Physiotherapy Dept Head Dr Purachtirasan and Physiotherpist Md. Shabeer were awesone. But for the other services, for the current patient, we did not get the same type of service and experience at Kauvery Hospital Radial Road as well not withstanding the fact that we have to travel 100 kms (From Annanagar to Radial Road – 26kms one way) every day to see our patient at the hospital.

1.     Doctors Support team – The worst of the Lot

a.     No safety in the ICU – our patient got hurt when a plastic edge of a tray hit her eye while she was in the ICU for a catheter procedure. She came back with a bruise and the worst part is the that no one came to even apologize for the accident. Icing on the cake is that they billed us for the analgesic cream.

b.     Dr Vignesh – Mannerless and full of Ego – This doctor kept on asking questions without giving us the time to respond to them, and then he says – “Don’t you understand English? Should I call a translator?” I almost could see the shallowness of his character as a human being.

c.    Vincent Joseph – Aggressive and Over smart - He is the support staff for the Dept of Neurosciences. Sort of relationship manager, but he is so defensive in his posturing that he refuses to accept anyone pointing out anything to him. He always opens his mouth with a “No”. He doesn’t make me feel comfortable.

d.     Unprepared Team Doctors – I have never had the experience of doctors coming into a patients’ room unprepared or without having gone through the case history. Almost after 10 days of admission, one particular doctor waltzes into the room and asks about medication the patient was having before being admitted. Seriously?

 

2.     Severe Shortage of Staff and Supplies

a.     Nurses speak Tamil (and some broken English) – Which is ok if your patients understand Tamil or English, THERE ARE ABSOLUTELY NO PLAN IN PLACE IF THE PATIENT OR THE ATTENDANT DON’T UNDERSTAND TAMIL/ ENGLISH.

b.     Severe Staff Shortage - Both Nursing and housekeeping staff are in severe shortage. If you call for assistance – to replace wet diapers, the patient has to wait in the wet diapers for at least 30 mins before someone comes to change the adult diapers.

c.     Theft of Supplies – If someone takes away diapers and hand sanitizers in the middle of the night without informing, it is called theft. And that is what happens at Kauvery hospital. When we raised this issue, they replaced 2 diapers, we have no idea how many they have stolen. We had to hide the diapers and hand sanitizers at night as a precaution.

3.     Unnecessary billing without any conscience – Every time they changed the Ryle’s tube they bought a full tube of lignocaine gel. So, at patient discharge time, I had 4 sparingly used tube. We were billed 29 packets for Wipax (10’s Packet) / 73 Undersheets / 142 Adult Diapers, 130 disposable gloves for 33 days stay at Kauvery hospital. There is absolutely no control over how these were billed and they were not able to provide any proof supporting this claim. Please note that these are all NON-MEDICAL EXPENSES.

4.     Dietician and Canteen Services -  

a.     Dieticians and Patient Food – Easy way out is to give food in a paste form rather than giving soft diet to patient who is having trouble swallowing. And that’s what they will do, because nurses have to spend more time feeding the patient if they give soft diet. And then they will douse the patient with food supplement to meet the nutrition requirement, price of which is Rs. 1500 per box, and is finished in 1 ½ days. PLEASE NOTE – THIS IS ALSO COUNTED AS NON-MEDICAL EXPENSES.

b.     Attendant Food is not a priority - There is a fixed menu for attendants which is never served on time. In fact, it’s always late. You have to order every time and you have to always pay cash. No possibility of adding to the bill even after the relatives / guardians have requested it.

I personally WOULD NOT RECEOMMEND Kauvery Hospital to anyone other than those who have no other options. But if you are OMR or Pallavaram you always have Apollo Specialty / Chettinad Heath City etc.