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Response From Pellas Hospital

In October I wrote a short article about my bad experience at the Pellas Hospital and my disappointment in the rendered services.

https://expatguidenicaragua.com/may-return-pellas-hospital/

I have the highest regard for the hospital and their staff and continue to recommend them to expats. But I did not have a good experience in that encounter and felt it should be brought to their attention to help their future efforts. Surprisingly, they also read the Nica Nuggets and responded immediately in a professional manner. They did not refund any of my money but we did agree to let them write an article on their behalf.

I should apologize for inferring the morphine was watered down but was based on my prior experiences with morphine.

The article follows:

Dear Darrell,

On behalf of Hospital Metropolitano Vivian Pellas, we want to apologize for the difficult time you experienced during your hospitalization. I really appreciate you giving us the opportunity to write an answer to your article to explain our side.

First of all, I am so sorry I could not help you during your stay (national holidays and I was on vacation that week). We take every feedback, recommendation or complaint from our patients very seriously which is why when we found out about your article we asked the medical staff involved in your case to be part of a meeting with the Medical and Quality Directors of the hospital, in order to understand what needs to be improved in cases like yours and what was well handled. You can visit us any time to meet the Medical and Urologist Directors of the hospital and receive this information in a formal way. There are many points that were done correctly and on time, but of course you pointed some of them out in your article. The results of your case investigation were:

PAIN: Having two different and painful diagnoses (diverticulitis and ureterolithiasis) can make any patient go through a horrible time. This is what you experienced. According to your file, the medical approach for pain management was correct but your pain was so intense that even morphine could not help. Morphine is the last resort to control pain so the protocol was followed. It’s very important for me to clarify that your comment about the morphine getting watered down is very serious and under no circumstance do we allow that. Morphine is a controlled medication by the National Health Minister and besides the JCI accreditation regulations; we never water down medication such as morphine. We understand that you were in pain and the pain management was not effective. Further medical information can be privately explained.

COMPLICATION: Sometimes after a laser stone removal it is necessary to insert a catheter. It is not catalogued as a complication and is relatively common in a procedure like this. It was the right thing to do and it was removed only because of your pain. All the medication prescribed was also correct. Also, this can be explained with more detail if you decide to visit us.

ADMINISTRATIVE PAYMENT REQUEST: We are a private hospital and request our patients to have the bills with positive balance. I understand that you were in pain and you feel it was not the proper time, but we had a small deposit of U$ 800 for a surgery and stay that is usually over U$ 5000 , that is why the administrative staff contacted you. We have the policy to send the current bill to every patient that is
over the deposit. In the past, some patients were complaining about not receiving feedback about their bills until they leave so to improve our service since October we opened a new cashier office in the 3rd floor right next to the rooms. We do need to improve on the timing and approach to our patients when payment issues appear. About the Medical Fees we encourage the communication between the private Physician and patient to understand the reason of the amounts charged.

Thank you for your article and for letting us apologize in a proper manner. We try every day to make our patients feel better.

You have my email and my cellphone. Hope to see you at one of the Granada Meet and Greet gatherings.

Arlen Perez

Firma para correo

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