Catherine Wendell's Online Review Report Card

i came across catherine's name in florida and it reminded me of a story that i'd like to tell. i was working as an EMT for a private ambulance around 2003 or so, and i was sent to the university of chicago hospital E.R. to take a discharged patient home. i checked his vital signs and found his blood pressure to be extremely high, like, dangerously high, and his heart rate elevated. all i tried to do was ask the discharging nurse if she was aware of his b/p, and if it was something to be concerned about. catherine overheard me beginning that conversation, and she interrupted me and made it clear that those details weren't my job. but my job was to do as told and take the patient home. uncharacteristic of me, i actually kept my cool. i ignored catherine since it was clear that my questions concerning patient advocacy weren't going to be answered. i called up my medical control doctor at st. francis, evanston hospital for some direction. come to find out, while i'm on the phone with them, catherine had called them also; i guess trying to beat me to the punch by telling medical control, doctor to doctor, that a stupid EMT was undermining her authority. medical control also kept their cool, and the doctor there ordered both catherine and i to go into the patient's room together, take a set of vital signs, and if the blood pressure and heart rate were both still elevated, that i would not be assuming care for and transporting the patient home. we followed those orders. the patient's B.P. and heart rate were still sky high, so i grabbed my stretcher and my partner and we left. as we're walking out of the emergency room, catherine comes running out, yelling about how the patient's heart rate is no longer elevated. i told her that i didn't know what she had just done to the patient to drop his heart rate, but that it didn't matter, medical control had spoken. i left and called my dispatcher several hours later to see if any crews had been sent there later to take the patient home. the dispatcher told me that yes, the E.R. called for a crew, but when that ambulance got there for the patient, they were canceled since the patient had been admitted to the ICU for the night. just want you to know that i knew he got admitted, Cathy. -peasant emt from chicago

Ran an ecg & bloodwork, no physical exam at all, never re-appeared, a nurse gave me test results. Guess I wasn't that sick. But billed $1100 for the pop-in.

Emergency Room at St. Anthony's Hospital. I had lower left leg pain and was in the ER for 5 hours during which I had bloodwork and an ultrasound on my left lower leg. After many hours of waiting, she came in the room, stood by the door and said, Your bloodwork is perfect; you do not have a blood clot in your leg, and turned and left the room. I called to her to try to determine why I was having this pain, but she left the room without answering me and never did even look at my leg.

Horrible rude unhelpful. Snotty,her knowledge of very basic kidney problems was outright scary

This is one of the BEST doctors I know and I know alot of them. First of all if you get an ortho referral it's for 24-48 hours not six days. Second if it is not broken you will not be prescribed a narcotic. (that is not the standard of care). That doctor has taken care of both my parents and was thorough realistic and informed, with awesome bedside manner. I wish she had a private practice.

Horrible. Went in with wrist/shoulder injury with greatly increased pain, erefused to write different meds, tol me to "gut it out" till I saw an orthopedic 6 days later. Then looked in my bookbag(!) i guess thinking i was trying to rip off hospital! Probably the worst doc ive ever seen