Bad medical care onboard

[sjde]

There has been some really bad publicity lately on cruise ships' medical services--not just Royal Caribbean. (Good Housekeeping, January, '07) Has anyone a comment after having used this service?

 

Sue

[Lifes_A_Cruze]

There has been some really bad publicity lately on cruise ships' medical services--not just Royal Caribbean. (Good Housekeeping, January, '07) Has anyone a comment after having used this service?

 

Sue

 

Preface: My Brother-in-law happens to be a licensed MRI Tech, from a 4 year school, who now oversees operations for 8 centers and lectures for universities. So he is well trained in the technology/business aspect.

 

He, his wife, and two other couples were on the Mariner in November '06. In Cozumel his wife (my SIL) badly twisted her ankle playing beach volleyball. It was the latter part of the day and all had been drinking.

 

They carried her back to the ship where crew lead them to the onboard medical facility. My BIL sat down fully expecting the nurse and Doctor to operate the x-ray machine (which was very outdated technology). He was wrong. He claims for 10-15 minutes they fumbled around with the positioning of the leg. Despite his insobriety, he spoke up about his background and was actually asked to not only position the leg, but then take pictures as well. He even helped the poor doctor interprete the x-ray.

 

I would also like to know where the medical professionals come from, where they have studied medicine, and the requirements for working on a cruise?

 

P.S. I work in the radiology field as well (business side) and can't tell you how important it is for you to find a good radiology center. You wouldn't believe just how terrible some centers can be. There are some radiologists who should not be allowed to practice medicine. Sadly enough, many physicians choose/dischoose centers-for patients-because of politics, kickbacks, or other self-interests.

[celle]

There has been some really bad publicity lately on cruise ships' medical services--not just Royal Caribbean. (Good Housekeeping, January, '07) Has anyone a comment after having used this service?

 

Sue

 

this topic was discussed at length quite recently. See this thread:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=455770&highlight=ship%27s+doctors

 

On the whole, the general opinion of on-board medical care seemd to be positive.

[cb at sea]

If you have complicated medical issues, then it's probably best NOT to cruise until those issues have been resolved at home. The doctors on board are trained to take care of seasickness, sprains, colds, etc... They really aren't equipped to handle severe or life-threatening things like post-op infections, heart problems, or other internal complications. People have actually DIED because the medical staff onboard didn't recognize the severity of a problem in time to medivac someone to real medical care.

If you're not healthy, you should stay home.

[boingy300]

We had a wonderful experience on Mariner. My father had an asthma attack and they did a great job of stabilizing him. I am an ER nurse, and found their care to be comprable to the care we would give in an ER. I guess each experience is different. I guess my question is regardless of the ankle xray, would the treatment on a ship be that different, sprain or break? Wouldn't it be stabilization of the injury until an ortho eval? And wouldn't ortho redo anyone's xrays? That's our experience. I can't paint with a broad brush, so I will focus on what I do and know. We take travel insurance in case Dad needs to be airlifted, as a former critical care transport nurse that is always an option!

Does anyone remember when Regis had a heart attack on a Carnival line? I thought he got great care as well. Thank God he wasn't drunk and it wasn't his ankle<smile>....

Karen

[threeofus]

Not being able to read an xray properly has been a problem for years. In fact it's a problem in the ER on land as well. They always tell you that a radiologist will re-read the xrays and they'll let you know if you need additional treatment.

 

They should do these xrays digitally and have a radiologist read them via email. It would cost you more - another plug for insurance..but you'd get a more reliable diagnosis.

 

There's a reason radiology is a specialty.

[madgolfer3]

The Ship's Doctors and nurses are supposed to be ER experienced. However, as mentioned a lot is dependent on specific experience, how long ago they actually did ER medicine, etc.. My wife is a CCU nurse and we often get to talk with some of the ship's nurses. We have seen the complete spectrum from those who currently work in the ER to those who did this 10 years ago. I assume this applies to the Doc's also. Keep in mind that the medical staff is usually hired through a contractor for short stints (two weeks or so). Some ships actually have a staff doctor for the crew (HAL for one). In this case, might get someone more up to date.

[alliesma]

When we were on the Grandeur last year we spoke to the ship's doc. He was a urologist from a Scandanavian country. He was on a 2 week stint while on vacation from his practice back home. He told us that RCC generally doesn't hire US physicians because of malpractice issues. We did not need his services but I know that here in the US a urologist would not be the best physician to handle emergent problems like heart attacks. Perhaps the training is different where he was from.

[MsWitty1]

Horror story coming - this was on HAL and not RCI, but on a New Years cruise two years ago, there was really high winds and bad weather. The cruise line normal puts up signs of something. They didn't this night! My uncle stepped outside to grab a smoke and the heavy door slammed on his hand. It severed two fingers almost completely. The medical staff was sweet but did nothing. They basically wrapped it in gauze and told him to check with his DR. We were sailing for 2 more days so he was in horrible pain. Not one single person from HAL called their cabin or stopped by to check on him.

 

When we got home he was very lucky to get a good DR. After many surgeries he has partial use of these fingers. Unfortuantely since his job was on computers, he can't really go back to work.

 

The injury was bad enough that I feel they should have airlifted him. We are taking about the lose of your hand!

 

I love to cruise, but know that even with insurance, etc. the cruiselines are going to do their best to keep costs down. This is especially true in medical situations.

[trishalee]

Once my sister visited the medical facility to get an antibiotic for bronchitis that had developed midway through the cruise. I was with her, so heard her tell the doc that she is an alcolic and cannot have cough medicine containing alcohol. He assured her that the med he dispensed to her had no alcohol in it. A day later she was feeling pretty good and read the fine print on the bottle. You guessed it - FULL of alcohol. (No wonder she was feeling pretty good!):eek:

[lakemom]

I heard the same things! thank goodness when I fell and broke my leg we were very close to port so I waited. the nurse came after a long wait with a wheel chair and said it would be close to 200$ to see the DR. however in Fla. when I saw a DR. he didn't do x-rays :eek: and I had to wait until I got home to make an appointment with ortho. I will go for Insurance next time.

[Lifes_A_Cruze]

Not being able to read an xray properly has been a problem for years. In fact it's a problem in the ER on land as well. They always tell you that a radiologist will re-read the xrays and they'll let you know if you need additional treatment.

 

They should do these xrays digitally and have a radiologist read them via email. It would cost you more - another plug for insurance..but you'd get a more reliable diagnosis.

 

There's a reason radiology is a specialty.

 

Ditto.

 

The Ship's Doctors and nurses are supposed to be ER experienced. However, as mentioned a lot is dependent on specific experience, how long ago they actually did ER medicine, etc.. My wife is a CCU nurse and we often get to talk with some of the ship's nurses. We have seen the complete spectrum from those who currently work in the ER to those who did this 10 years ago. I assume this applies to the Doc's also. Keep in mind that the medical staff is usually hired through a contractor for short stints (two weeks or so). Some ships actually have a staff doctor for the crew (HAL for one). In this case, might get someone more up to date.

 

When we were on the Grandeur last year we spoke to the ship's doc. He was a urologist from a Scandanavian country. He was on a 2 week stint while on vacation from his practice back home. He told us that RCC generally doesn't hire US physicians because of malpractice issues. We did not need his services but I know that here in the US a urologist would not be the best physician to handle emergent problems like heart attacks. Perhaps the training is different where he was from.

 

Thanks for confirming what I had thought.

[cruisinfanatic]

We had a wonderful experience on Mariner. My father had an asthma attack and they did a great job of stabilizing him. I am an ER nurse, and found their care to be comprable to the care we would give in an ER. I guess each experience is different. I guess my question is regardless of the ankle xray, would the treatment on a ship be that different, sprain or break? Wouldn't it be stabilization of the injury until an ortho eval? And wouldn't ortho redo anyone's xrays? That's our experience. I can't paint with a broad brush, so I will focus on what I do and know. We take travel insurance in case Dad needs to be airlifted, as a former critical care transport nurse that is always an option!

Does anyone remember when Regis had a heart attack on a Carnival line? I thought he got great care as well. Thank God he wasn't drunk and it wasn't his ankle<smile>....

Karen

we had the opposite on our Radiance cruise a couple yrs ago. this is the post I made at that time.

http://cruisereview.homestead.com/Tom.html

[boingy300]

Just to clarify- I am not defending the medical care on board any ship. I am merely stating that FOR MY Family, we had very good care. I just thought I would share our experience for balance. I can tell you there are horror stories everywhere ships, ERs, highways......McDonalds...nuff said.

Oh And, at least in our ER, we DO send our films to a radiologist to be read electronically. Maybe that's a regional thing. Given the speed of the internet on a ship I don't know how well other data, like xrays would transfer.

I wish you guys all the best of health and luck. I am going on vacation and cannot wait!

Karen

[threeofus]

Karen: I'll bet it's the luck of the draw...since the docs have short stay contracts sometimes you get a urologist...sometimes you get an ER doc...thing is they all have MD so that's all the ship has to provide.

 

By the way....it's the same thing for sleep-away camps that have a doctor on staff. They're not always pediatricians as you would expect. Same thing here...they have short stay contracts and some weeks you get the pediatrician and some weeks you get the ENT etc.

[crisndeefromde]

I had an experience in Dec with one tonsil swelling due to air irritants such as cigar and cigarette smoke...no not me...and I started having difficulties in swallowing. Stopped in at the medical unit and was given some lozenges to use during the day to see if they helped and also if to come back and see the doc if they didn't help and I wasn't any better. Well after our excursion I didn't feel any better but not worse however it was early in the cruise so better see the doc. The triage nurse took excellent care of me and I saw the doctor first thing. I had a slight fever and he ordered a strep test but no strep. Obviously had something going on with the throat as everything else checked out and he gave me an antibiotic which helped. He told me to see my doc when I got home which I did as I needed additional antibiotic for it. I am prone to bronchitis from this and thanks to this doc seeing this, I was ok. He was from Sweden and is on so many weeks at a time and then off in his pratice and back again. They can treat anything in this place. It looks like a mini hospital and excellent staff. They airlift heart cases we know for sure as this was a big discussion one evening at dinner after talking about my visit.

[lizaj1]

On the Millennium last April I became very ill. The medical staff was very efficient and helpful. I believe the doctors were from Columbia and the nursing staff was from Romania. I was nervous to say the least, but the doctors got me to a surgeon in St. John Antigua (a Columbia U grad) when we got to port. I was cleared as a surgical patient and taken back to the ship where they kept me for observation for several hours. They kept track of all my blood work and I received excellent care. I was followed up when I returned home and all my doctors said that the care I received was appropriate. While I was a guest of the medical facility, the staff made sure that I had all the comforts. My doctor said that I was not having the cruise I expected, but they would atempt to make it as pleasant as possible. My duvet and pillows from my cabin were brought to me, my dinner served by my cabin steward and they brought in a TV and VCR so I wouldn't be bored. When I was released another cabin steward escorted me to my cabin in a wheelchair. The doctors called me daily after that.

 

When we sailed on the Grand Princess they had state of the art medical facilities which tied in directly to Cedars Sinai in LA.

 

Bottomline, if you have a chronic condition see your doctor prior to sailing. Make sure you have plenty of your prescriptions and take an emergency pharmacy of your own. Your doctor will know what you might need. Buy the travel insurance because if you don't have a lot of cash or a large line of credit on your credit card you might not get the treatment you need. Often your health insurance will not be accepted in the islands, but it will pay your claims when you return.

[sea-cruise]

I'll offer our experience with ship's doctors...DH had symptoms of a heart attack on a Princess ship once, and the doctor and his nurse gave him the tests and thank God it wasn't a heart attack, but I thought that they were very professional.....but then again what do I know...I'm not in the medical field. ;)

[billylen]

My most recent experience with the medical staff on the Monarch was fantastic. They were professional. While I am certain they are limited in the scope of what they can offer, my experience was very positive

[PhoenixCruiser]

Just an FYI:

 

Court rules cruise line not responsible for misdiagnosis by ship's doctor

 

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/local/sfl-zcarlisle16feb16,0,6419371.story?coll=sfla-business-front

 

Sad and scary!

 

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