Bayonne Medical Center

At the end of July I had a kitchen accident with a knife that gave me a nasty finger laceration with ample bleeding. Additionally, I went into shock and at one point passed out. I was rushed by well-intentioned friends to Bayonne Medical Center which operates under the auspices of [redacted] Health. Given the experience that I had there I would rather have waited the extra driving time to get to a hospital in Jersey City -- I will never go back to Bayonne Med, not if my life depended on it (in no small part because my treatment there makes me question whether anyone there is qualified to have my life in their hands).
Although I was informed upon arrival that the ER was busy, what I experienced spoke more to a lack of concern for my well being and a general disregard for medical decency than anything else. For over thirty minutes the only care I received was a thin blanket and an empty bucket (I was on-and-off nauseous at this point as well), and I had to ask to get any of those. My breathing was erratic and my discomfort clear enough that the patient next to me, who couldn't even see me due to privacy curtains, felt it important enough to ask if I was all right... yet the hospital's own staff were evidently unconcerned. At around thirty minutes after arrival I approached the ER desk and requested transfer to another hospital -- a posting in their waiting room state that they will accommodate that, and I had serious concerns about being overbilled due to stories from my coworkers about this hospital. I was told to go sit down and informed that even if they made the arrangement I would be billed regardless, so I might as well stay. Given that I was in shock and not thinking clearly at the time I didn't push the issue, however the response I got was still equivalent to 'no'. Shortly thereafter I flagged down someone who seemed to be an administrator and made an official complaint, however I never heard anything back from this man other than vague reassurances as he took down my details on a clipboard. I believe it was the combination of the two complaints that finally, after over thirty minutes, got the hospital staff to get around to washing my wound.
Yes: it took them over 30 minutes to get around to just simply spraying my injury with saline solution (or something very much like it). If I'd had a life threatening injury instead of one that just bled very badly I would likely have been dead by that point. There were moments where only sheer willpower kept me from passing out a second time, and if I had I'm not sure they would have noticed (the first time was at home).
It was an additional thirty minutes before I received anything for pain, four shots of some undisclosed drug injected rather painfully around the site of my injury. I cannot honestly tell if the injections provided any numbing effect whatsoever, as I was still acutely aware of every sensation when the nurse began putting in the sutures.
During this visit I had been asked three times when my last tetanus shot was -- this was the only point the ER staff seemed thorough on and that seemed more due to an inability to communicate than anything else. Throughout my wait for care the hospital staff somehow found time to attend to the constant repeated demands of an older patient whose chief concern was wanting to have the position of her bed changed for her own comfort, yet my most basic care was largely disregarded. I also inquired several times whether everything would be covered by my insurance and was assured that I was, in fact, covered; however, on a subsequent visit I was told I could not get written confirmation of this due to the billing department being closed. It took significant hassling to get [redacted] to send me a copy of my billing information, much of which is illogical and unreasonable in the extreme ($121 for the use of a finger pulse monitor that I wore for all of three minutes during intake, and an unexplained $3838 labeled only as 'ER Limited - II'). After insurance, it currently looks like I am being made to owe $232 and change, with a possible doubling of that or more once my insurance determines whether or not to cover the suture removal bill which contains many of the same charges. I would put the total value of the care I received at around $200 *before* insurance coverage, $300 at the absolute most, and that is without even bringing into consideration the inordinate, inexplicable wait, the effective refusal of transfer to another hospital, and the lack of any substantive outcome from my officially logged complaint.
I have every intent to file a full complaint against Bayonne Medical Center with the state of New Jersey for their abysmal performance in my care and price gauging.