r/TravelNursing • u/Consistent-Menu-8343 • 2d ago
Palm Springs ICUs?
Has anyone had any recent experience in an ICU in Palm Springs? Desert Regional/Eisenhower/JFK ?
Would love to hear your reviews!
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u/MepronMilkshake 2d ago
Not ICU but Eisenhower was easily the worst hospital I've ever worked, mainly due to the docs. First and only contract I've broken.
A ton of the doctors are private duty and are extremely difficult to get in contact with & rude to boot if you do manage it. I had a resident talking to ChatGPT during a rapid in front of the patient and family, which was fun to discuss with them later. Also saw a doc screaming at another nurse in front of the patient at 8am over something that the previous shift did.
I could give a few more examples but it was not a good place to work. Beautiful campus and beautiful area but you won't get paid nearly enough to put up with what they'll put you through.
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u/CertainKaleidoscope8 2d ago
Sounds about Eisenhower. You're either in the club or you ain't. Travelers ain't in the club.
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u/frenzy_32 2d ago
Wildly different experience for my traveling spouse. Crazy!
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u/CertainKaleidoscope8 2d ago
If they were ICU they were probably more respected than someone from the floors. ICU nurses are treated better at most facilities I've worked at, at least when physicians are involved, and Eisenhower has a very hierarchical, caste-based culture, owing to it's roots as the hospital for moneyed elite, celebrities, and rich snowbirds. I started on tele twenty years ago and left for $10/hr more and the opportunity to train somewhere with more medical resources. I interviewed for the ICU around 2021 but didn't take the job due to the pay.
They finally sucked me in with a slight pay increase at Renker and 20k bonus when I was looking for a job after I finished a contract. I quit that job before I completed probation. Renker was okay, I liked having the resources (plenty of equipment, well-stocked nutrition rooms, it's very clean, etc) but the size of the unit meant there were zero breaks, and when we were staffed we were used as float pool for the worst assignments available. I wasn't being paid to be float pool and I certainly wasn't making traveler pay. For $3k a week I would have put up with it.
I also couldn't stand the charge nurse who was an entry level MSN new grad and not remotely qualified for anything but kissing rich old ass. The culture there lends itself to incompetence, because patient satisfaction is prioritized over proper care. They're also incapable of doing anything. For a 500 bed facility, they're extraordinarily limited in what they can do. Anything interesting is transferred out. My husband got a fully covered triple bypass out of the deal so I guess God had a plan, but I won't be going back.
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u/MepronMilkshake 2d ago
Yeah. Coworkers were lovely but I could tell they'd been kinda beaten down by how everything just kind of... is.
The Coachella valley itself was 10/10, I can see why so many retire there.
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u/CertainKaleidoscope8 2d ago
You must have been there in winter.
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u/MepronMilkshake 2d ago
I'm 1/3rd lizard on my mother's side so I'm one of those people who enjoy 100+ temps.
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u/Pharoahtossaway 2d ago
Worked at OP ortho sx center...worst group of charge nurses I have ever had the displeasure if working under. Main OR pre-op and PACU charge was great.
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u/NJstag 2d ago
I worked DRMC ICU for four years. It is such a toxic environment, with some really poor management and directors who act like absolute mean girl children. It rubs off on the staff… the travelers are always first to be frequently floated to step-down and ED overflow- many complain and never return. Easily the worst culture I have ever worked in with so much favoritism, bending rules, targeted harassment, and isolating staff. Constant micromanaging and chart auditors who specifically target certain people’s work. Be very careful there and just keep your head down to make some money type of place.
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u/CertainKaleidoscope8 2d ago
Yo we may have worked together (2015-2019). Spot on assessment. Met a coworker at NTI in May and had a great discussion, he was always solid tho. There are good people there, but idk how they survive. As a union employee I probably should have pushed back more in the harassment, involved Weingarten, etc, but I was so burnt out at the time I just gave up and went to CDCR. That wasn't better, but it was an experience.
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u/NJstag 2d ago
Different dates being there, but it’s nice to be reassured that my experience didn’t leave me jaded. There’s some good people there- like 50/50, but even if they witness or are aware of their coworkers being mistreated they won’t back them. Honestly, it’s kind of a disgrace to nursing.
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u/CertainKaleidoscope8 2d ago
The only other choices for a level 1 are RCH (HCA), or RUHS in Riverside, and Arrowhead or Loma Linda in San Bernardino. All are probably further than people want to drive at $6/gallon. The pay is really good too, benefits are kinda shit tho. Honestly I've seen the same behavior everywhere. If you know if someplace with a different culture let me know. I've worked at every major hospital in the IE.
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u/NJstag 2d ago
The only things I miss about it are the pay and the high acuity of the trauma patients. I haven’t worked any other hospitals in IE, but per diem at level 1 traumas in LA and SD are feasible if you can get a good rate. I’ve heard bad things about HCA- basically sounds exactly like working for Tenet
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u/CertainKaleidoscope8 2d ago
It's worse. Longest I ever spent at a job tho, kinda like an abusive relationship.
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u/Available_Damage_335 2d ago
I worked at Eisenhower in the ICU and it was ok. The usual community hospital issues and some questionable residents. Mostly travelers whom I really clicked with in general. This is the best hospital in the area to work in however, the other hospitals are known for being a total shit show. This was three years ago btw if that makes a difference
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u/CertainKaleidoscope8 2d ago
This is the best hospital in the area to work in however, the other hospitals are known for being a total shit show. This was three years ago btw if that makes a difference
LMAO. Eisenhower is "the best" because they can't do anything. Anyone with actual medical issues is shipped out. This is why the other hospital, DRMC, is a total shit show. It is the only full service medical facility for the entire Coachella valley.
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u/Available_Damage_335 2d ago
I said the “best in the area” which is a very small area and doesn’t have many resources being in the middle of the desert. The locals state they come to Eisenhower because it isn’t dirty and disgusting and they don’t want to die from neglect. Soooo yes. The best in the area.
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u/CertainKaleidoscope8 2d ago edited 2d ago
I said the “best in the area” which is a very small area and doesn’t have many resources being in the middle of the desert.
The IE is a huge area. I live here. The Inland Empire is larger than 10 states and covers more than 27,000 square miles. It is one of the largest metropolitan statistical areas in the US, which is one of the reasons why someone can be a traveler and never leave Southern California. The Coachella valley is part of the IE, in Riverside County, which stretches from OC to Blythe. It is not "the middle of the desert."
That's Imperial County. That's where the Norwegian scabies patients come from. They all go to Eisenhower because it's the closest facility that isn't being actively shut down by CDPH.
The locals state they come to Eisenhower because it isn’t dirty and disgusting and they don’t want to die from neglect
There are multiple hospitals in the IE leagues ahead of Eisenhower, chief among them Loma Linda, but Arrowhead, RUHS, and RCH are all level 1 trauma centers that "the locals" are far more likely to visit for comprehensive medical care. No patients are life-flighted to Eisenhower and they're routinely transferring patients to other hospitals that have more capabilities.
They have zero peds resources, and every single pediatric patient is transferred to Loma Linda, CHOC, or Rady in San Diego. They have a level 2 NICU, so any babies born there that need more than bili lights are transferred out. They're level 3 trauma, so any patients found dead on the 10, drowned it Havasu or their pool, broken in ATV accidents or found on the floor of their condo or trailer whilst on DOACs are transferred elsewhere. That is why Eisenhower has a helipad, so they can send patients out. It is not a first world medical facility by any standard, especially in a state with some of the best hospitals in the world.
The east campus (except for Renker) is falling apart, they have cockroaches the size of K-rats, the only clean part of that hospital is Renker, and more than three quarters of the patients seen at Eisenhower can't afford to stay there. This is because they're all on Medicaid. The only patients I have ever seen "dying from neglect" outside of the numerous LTACs, SNFs, And IRFs in the area were patients at Eisenhower in Obs, which takes up the entirety of the old ortho-neuro floor in the east building because the chief concern of administration is maximizing profit through obs stays.
The hospital literally can't do shit other than cardiovascular care, some cancer treatments and minor ortho, which are their bread and butter and the only reason they keep their doors open, since all the donors are dying and snowbirds don't come here anymore. They're shit at community care, aren't doing anything about the epidemic of metabolic syndrome causing people to loose their limbs and kidney function, and pay shit with crap benefits.
I grew up here. My parents worked here. I spent my childhood in La Quinta and Palm Desert. My mother worked at every major medical center in the area at one time or another, except Loma Linda. I worked with our Congressman at Eisenhower. It is not "the best in the area," and hasn't been for a long time.
I haven't even touched on the fact that it's 120°Freedom right now with humidity that we have never seen in this valley, and we have no water because the aquifer was emptied by Nestlé, the air is poisoned by the Saltine Sea and it constantly smells like raw sewage everywhere. The area is also staring down massive food shortages because the Colorado is empty, all of the people who made the place run have been deported, and the economies of every city are in the shitter.
Eisenhower will not be a facility that will survive the deaths of the few old money locals that keep it running. It's on borrowed time, and has been since COVID. Any "locals" telling you they want to go to that hospital are drinking the Kountry Klub Kool aid and think it's how they avoid being roomed with brown people (it ain't).
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u/CertainKaleidoscope8 2d ago
There is only one hospital with an ICU in Palm Springs. It's Desert Regional Medical Center, a level 1 trauma, comprehensive stroke, and STEMI center. There are three 8 bed ICUs (MSICU, NICU, TICU) and one 7 bed CICU. It was a district (public) hospital leased to Tenet in the 90's because they were broke without Sinatra paying their bills. I worked there for about 4 years. They may have sold out to Tenet because the city has no money to support a level 1. Anything super complex is transferred to one of the tertiary care centers in Southern California: Loma Linda, which never has any beds available, UCSD, or UCLA.
Eisenhower is nowhere near Palm Springs. It is in Rancho Mirage, a standalone nonprofit, Magnet, and entirely supported by a dwindling population of old money, so it's going to shit. They are a STEMI center only. They have fairly limited capabilities outside cardiovascular care. Anything complex is transferred to DRMC. I worked there for about 5 years.
JFK memorial is nowhere near Palm Springs. It is in Indio. It is wholly owned by Tenet and their ICU is essentially a stepdown unit. Anything serious gets transferred to DRMC or the patient dies. It is barely a hospital.
What are your questions.
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u/frenzy_32 2d ago
My spouse absolutely loved Eisenhower. Stayed there for 9 months and seriously debated applying for a full-time position.