I wanted to take a moment to let you know how impressed our family was with your employees at the main hospital location in Longview. Having grown up in Marshall, TX, I've always known the good reputation of Good Shepherd, but fortunately, haven't had to utilize your facilities in years. Last week, my mother came to visit from Oklahoma and within an hour of arriving, fell in our driveway at Holly Lake Ranch and broke her arm in 4 places. I drove her immediately to Good Shepherd, even though I knew there were closer places. Unfortunately, my mother obviously did a real good job of breaking her arm as it was clearly deformed, thus we got pretty quick attention. We arrived at the ER last Tuesday evening around 8pm. She was seeing a physician within 15 minutes of our arrival. In fact, when we were escorted to the trauma room, a team of 4 was waiting for us. Due to the busy night, etc. we were there for quite some time and she was ultimately admitted.
In those hours, every single interaction we had either with nurses, techs, housekeeping, was truly exceptional. These employees were friendly, caring, expedient and respectful of us, but what I noticed more than this was how respectful they were of each other. I want to be clear that it was everyone we encountered, down to the LVN whom I stopped in the hall to ask how to get to CVS to pick up some items for the night. She looked at her watch, being after midnight and immediately directed me to Walgreens as she knew CVS was then closed at that hour. Once we knew she would be admitted, we both assumed it would be at least an hour for her transport to arrive to move her. The room was assigned in minutes and we were in her room within 30 minutes.
Her nurse was Norma....wow! Norma came across initially as a bit direct, but the more she asked questions, explained her role, etc. It was clear she wanted to ensure we knew every single thing that would be happening during our stay. She is by far one of the most professional nurses I've ever encountered. Everyone who we encountered yet once again was fantastic...friendly, caring and professional. Surgery was scheduled for my mother. Again, phenomenal folks, from our day surgery nurses prepping our mother to the volunteer in the waiting room. The volunteer made a point to find me in the coffee line to let me know he was leaving for the evening, but wanted to explain how medical teams would call the room to report on progress of the surgery, etc. he also pointed out where we could eventually be taken during her recovery. Unfortunately, even though a day surgery, my mother had some complications in recovery and the team wanted to admit her one night to observe her.
We were greeted by Laddie, her nurse for room #2324 who was exceptional. We then met Miriam and the rest of the team for the evening. Again, they were all truly fantastic...had we not been reminded by the beeps, the IV's, etc that we were indeed in a hospital, the service level we received would have made us think we were in a 4 star hotel. The next team was led by a PRN and I cannot recall her name, but by the time we left, were exchanging pictures of our kids. We also thoroughly enjoyed another nurse who's a student graduating this year as a RN.
It was clear by the 50+ employee interactions we had they enjoy what they do, they enjoy the employees, but the "clincher" upon our discharge was the transport "lady" who saw a coworker struggling to push patient in a bed out of the elevator. She immediately jumped over to hold the door open and grab the back of the bed to pull the patient out. They corresponded by doing "high fives" as thank you. I will recommend GSMC to anyone and everyone who needs medical expertise.