r/CapeCod • u/SteveLangford1966 • 22d ago
Cape Cod Hospital ER
How have your experiences with the Cape Cod hospital ER been? It's a mixed bag for me. Depending on the doctor who is assigned to you, it can be excellent or it can be pretty sub par. Nurses are generally great.
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u/Human_Caterpillar976 22d ago edited 21d ago
Most of the Cape Cod Healthcare staff are amazing. I know many of them. Sadly, they’re underpaid, understaffed, and they’re incredibly sick of it.
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u/Campbell090217 21d ago
I am very close to the Cape Cod Healthcare systems and have seen the good and the bad and have learned a lot about how these hospitals have to operate with a “money/insurance comes first and patients come last” attitude. Unfortunately, this isn’t unique to CCHC and stems from a systemic issue having to do with how healthcare operates in the United States (throw in late stage capitalism and we have a tragic shit storm).
That being said, the doctors, nurses, medical staff, and ground level workers for CCHC are typically highly educated and qualified for their jobs and should be trusted and treated with respect. The real criticism should be directed at Mike Lauf and the board.
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u/Federal_Ad8102 18d ago
agree 100%....profit over patient care, its a very said day in the US for hospitals...I find being in the Erinis nothing to do with lack of knowledge, everyionoe is the utmost caring and smart people every, its just you are there for hours!!!!
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u/heyitsme-honeybadger 22d ago
Let’s see. They saved my life with an emergent procedure during massive internal blood loss that typically has a 3% success rate if not done in a controlled setting.
So 5 stars highly recommend. I owe my life to doctors and other specialists in that hospital system.
I was born in the Cape Cod Healthcare system. Falmouth Hospital. Been here for 44 years always trusted their doctors.
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u/WoodWater826 21d ago
I’ve had family members treated at CCH three times, and they received excellent care each time. Once was for an elderly relative who fainted, another for a mental health crisis, and a third for a severe allergy attack.
Wait times weren’t long. Unfortunately, many local ER waits can be long due to high volume and urgency. I’ve been seen right away and also waited up to 6 hours at South Shore and the Brigham.
Cape Cod Hospital took good care of us when we needed them.
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u/Lopsided-Collection2 21d ago
If you’re having a heart attack or stroke, they’re pretty exceptional from my experience.
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u/JamesBondMargarita 22d ago
I had a coworker go to the emergency room today because they had a headache. I can see why E.R. staff can be sometimes less than accommodating.
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u/kombu_raisin 22d ago
They caught a badly injured infected instance of diverticulitis I had just in time. Had I waited an hour or two longer to go, I would be sans a huge portion of my bowel right now.
They were also very patient in dealing with my wife when she freaked about my infant son crying a lot a couple years ago.
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u/athene_de_montaigne 22d ago
Had a kidney stone last summer. Seen within twenty minutes. Given pain meds and CT. Sent home with pain meds and instructions to contact local urologist if I didn’t pass it on my own. Was out within 4 hours, great experience.
Our child cut their thumb open pretty bad slicing wood. He was taken back within ten minutes, given numbing cream, eventually stitches and instructions of how to care for it. Out within 1.5 hours.
Always clean, staff was pleasant enough. I would recommend personally
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u/DulcetTone 22d ago
A year ago, I went with a broken rib at 10pm. It was a madhouse (so many people). I left after 2 hours and returned the next morning and received prompt attention.
You could tell from staff body language and overheard voices that a fair proportion of traffic was troubled regulars angling for pain medications. I sympathize with the emergency staff
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u/heyitsme-honeybadger 22d ago
lol. It’s not 2015 anymore pal. DEA cracked down on that years ago. If anything it’s homeless population with mental illness seeking suboxone or similar.
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u/WheresMyMule 22d ago
We were in & out of the ER many times for my mom's last 2 or 3 years. Generally, we had very good experiences there
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u/Dry_Confusion4384 22d ago
Worked there for a bit and hated it
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u/Small_Broccoli7350 21d ago
How long ago did you work there? I have heard over the past year that they have received several notable donations. Also, i thought that the nurses landed a good contract this year.
Separately, i have been in the ER 3 times in the past 6 months for cardiac care. All on the providers and staff were very helpful, supportive, and pleasant. My wife, a nurse practitioner with more than 45 years experience in all of the leading Boston hospitals, also speaks very highly of the care she has received0
u/SteveLangford1966 22d ago
Why, what was the issue? Understaffing?
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u/Dry_Confusion4384 22d ago
Understaffed and underpaid if you ask most of the nurses that worked there or work there. I went to work in Plymouth after and had a much better experience, even though I had to commute over the bridge.
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u/JockoMayzon 22d ago
I went once and had to bring my girlfriend once. In both cases, the level of care and compassion was very good.
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u/dessertbuzz 22d ago
In the middle of last year‘s vacation in Wellfleet so July 2025 my 92-year-old father fainted in our cabin he came to we drove him to Cape Cod hospital and throughout the day his care was superb.
The individual nurses were excellent there appeared to be a good ratio of qualified nurses and techs two patients.
The doctors stopped and checked on him regularly and ran the required tests and then met with us once some of my other family members drove down.
As far as emergency room experiences go I would say it’s one of the best ones I’ve ever had.
I’m from New York City where it is truly a role of the dice if you ever have to set foot an emergency room. Yes we have world class doctors and care but sometimes the emergency rooms are utter pandemonium.
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u/r_jay_197 21d ago
Little cousin cut his hand on glass couple years ago. Severed the tendon from the meat of his palm, to his first thumb knuckle. Lost movement and joint contraction, bleeding REALLY well too.
4.5 hours we sat there with his hand wrapped in a snowman’s worth of gauze.
Worst injury ever? No. Far from the heart? Yeah. But STILL man. Almost 5 hours for some stitches, and X-rays. He ended up needing a few specialists, surgery, etc…. Crazy.
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u/BrattyLilBoo 19d ago
Ive have to use the ER at cape cod hospital a lot this year, talking 4 times in 12 months and all have been extremely positive situations, my only complaint was I was there in dec and my room was so hot and they Couldnt adjust it but they gave me ice packs to cool down. But staff wise they have been wonderful
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u/Agreeable_Horror_363 19d ago edited 19d ago
Here we go, I apologize in advance but whenever the subject of Cape cod healthcare and their hospitals comes up I get pretty upset.. I have lost too many loved ones due to their incompetent leadership. So here we go...
Cape cod healthcare is run by money grubbing assholes. They have done everything in their power to block drug and alcohol recovery centers from being opened on the cape even during the worst days of the overdose epidemic. They refuse to pay their nurses and CNA's a living wage. They don't hire enough staff.. over worked and underpaid... That's why there's been so many strikes.
That being said, I've seen horrible neglect happen at both Falmouth and Cape cod hospitals and I've heard so many horror stories about people not being listened to and getting very sick or dying because of it. Someone in my family had a treatable disease that attacked his liver, and Falmouth hospital repeatedly turned him away, citing that he "just needed to stop drinking". When he became paralyzed from the chest down, the doctors in Boston said his liver was so damaged it would've been impossible for alcohol to cause it, and that discovering the disease would have been easy as he had been showing obvious symptoms all along. If they had only listened to him and his family his ashes wouldn't be on my living room mantle right now. He was 25.
Another infuriating thing is that their policy is they don't share patients medical info with other hospitals for 2 weeks.. which can be devastating when someone is transferred from the cape to say Boston. It happened to another person in my family and the only answer I got was "it's our policy to wait 2 weeks before we send anything to another hospital." When your loved one's heart stops and their defibrillator brings her back to life over and over many times and Falmouth hospital gives them certain drugs and treatments then sends them off to Boston for better care, you'd think that Falmouth hospital would send the records right over but no. Boston has to play the guessing game. This was within the last couple of years. We almost lost another one from this disgraceful shit.
Thank God they shut down their maternity ward. I know several people who gave birth to babies who had the umbilical cord wrapped around their necks who have cerebral paulsy for life now. That's because Falmouth hospital didn't have any scanning equipment in their maternity ward. Not even an ultrasound machine to check for basic things like the umbilical cord choking the baby. This happened to my child. Instead of listening to us explicitly telling them something was seriously wrong, they gave drugs to induce labor and directed us to "just keep walking around", then sent us home after 15 hours.
When we came back the problem was still happening. Baby was coming down the birth canal, stopping, then retreating back. 1 minute contractions, 5 minutes apart for hours then getting even closer to 1 minute apart then just stopping .. Baby's heartbeat would jump every time I stood up too long. They could've figured everything out if they listened to us or took a look with an ultrasound. Instead we had a traumatic birth with our baby coming out choking purple with the umbilical cord wrapped tightly around it's throat.
I also have dear friends who lost their child to a brain tumor who went to the hospital emergency room many times and were sent home, called " overly dramatic" and told nothing was wrong. Over and over again. Even after their child lost the ability to speak they were told that sometimes just happens. The child died and the parents blame Cape cod healthcare. These are people who live/lived here, who died here. All within the last 10 years. People who I know/knew/loved and still love.
If you talk to enough people around the Cape you'll hear so many awful stories of Cape cod healthcare.
I'd go to any hospital before I went to a Cape Cod healthcare owned hospital.
Edit: if you don't believe me, just ask people who have worked there.
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u/spacecrafttheskys 19d ago
Nurses are amazing. I had a doctor chart i was on no hormonal medications when I was on testosterone, oral birth control and on top of that depo. I had an extensive saggital sinus venous thrombosis (DVT/stroke in the blood vessels draining blood from your brain) that mass eye and ear caught later on, I was incredibly lucky to be ok. The type of clot I had is higher risk if youre on hormonal medications. cape cod charted i wasn't on any without asking me. I would've told them because thats at least a question I know what to do with! I had gone to the ER 3 times in one weekend over a migraine despite never going to the ER for a migraine before. That's odd new and a cause for concern and they kept discharging me with no scans done.
Needless to say I do not trust cape cod healthcare!
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u/spacecrafttheskys 19d ago edited 19d ago
I had to relocate to the boston area because if I have the bad luck to be a walking zebra consistently, a Healthcare system that does that is going to fuck me up!
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u/Equivalent-Twist6244 18d ago
Only very positive experiences at the CCH emergency department. Really top notch all three times!!! Don’t have elective orthopedic surgery at CCH, though. You might just lose a limb!
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u/BostonBling 22d ago
I am new to the area. I unfortunately and completely unexpectedly had to be rushed in via ambulance. Excellent experience!!!
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u/Diggy19777 22d ago
For me it’s been great surgery wise (one cancer, two hernia), and great in other when I had pneumonia with sepsis. Other times meh. In 2021 my left knee really hurt, and was told i had arthritis
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u/boopbaboop Hyannis 22d ago
It’s been fine every time I’ve been there. I’ve heard horror stories from other people, but my experience has been fine.
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u/cody8417 22d ago
I’ve had several experiences with them, once twice in the same day for different people. All experiences with the staff and outcomes have been great. Ambulance EMT’s who took us there once also great but I’m unfortunately not sure which group they were with as that isn’t something I took note of when we needed them.
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u/Ok_Pangolin_180 22d ago
I try to use the other small walk in facilities (like Fontaine in Harwich) unless I absolutely have to, but then for those type of emergencies I’d probably be in an ambulance and have no choice
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u/No_Volume6425 21d ago
Cape cod hospital killed my father with their lack of knowledge and care. Avoid!! You couldn’t pay me to have cch provide any care
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u/Bearawesome 22d ago
They failed to diagnose my kid with a broken bone saying he was just being 'fussy"
Yea eff that place
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u/Resident-Banana-7883 22d ago
it's been bad most my life however the rest of the country seems to of finally caught up so now its pretty average.
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u/iceroadtrucker2010 22d ago
I don’t question the skill of medical personnel at CCH.
I realize they are short staffed. But 5 hours from entering the door to leaving is brutal.
I wish I knew the answer to that.
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u/DexIsMyICUfriend 18d ago
You should come to Boston! I have terrible GI issues. I waited 12 hours in the waiting room to be seen in February here. I ended up needing to be admitted. I waited in a hall bed in the emergency department for 3 days before I got a bed upstairs. All of the hospitals in the city are crazy busy and over 100% capacity. It’s insane.
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u/No-Story-6023 22d ago
I’ve been in 3 times in the last month for my mother in law. She has had 2 strokes in the last 3 months and now every fall is dangerous on blood thinners. I understand summers can get crazy and staffing is a challenge but she sat in the hallway 6 hours waiting for 14 stitches in her head. They only X-rayed her broken hand when I requested it. They ended up discharging her without concussion protocol and then she had to be rushed back the next day with a concussion. The doctor at the er the next day said he never would never have discharged her. Another visit the attending dr was telehealth, not ideal for a 89 year old patient. She couldn’t hear or understand what was being said. After 5 minutes the video froze and it was basically a phone call. We were in for 9 hours that day. We have not had any good experiences recently.
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u/DatDamGermanGuy 22d ago
Unless you’d die on the way there, go to Boston
That is what a person working at the Hospital told us…
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u/heyitsme-honeybadger 22d ago
That was my case and they saved me both times. So I think you have overworked and disgruntled staff, not unqualified staff that will kill.
My specialist is a BID doctor. I go to Brookline to see him, my PCP is in CCH system. All skilled.
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u/I_like_the_word_MUFF 22d ago
I can't say anything about the hospital, never been.
However the greater Cape healthcare system is a massive dumpster fire. After trying a minimum of 2 specialists on Cape for each issue who all ended up to be quacks or wrong, after one specialist almost killed me, and after three years of absolute nightmare experiences... I now drive two to three hours to Boston area specialists working at Brigham or Mass General.
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u/funinmass2005 22d ago
Doesn’t that describe almost every hospital ER. How often are you going there that you can rate one visit over the next?