Saturday, August 20, 2016

Review: Long Wait-Times at EvergreenHealth Public Hospital

REVIEW:  Hospitals love to publish regional PR awards; self-image is priority #1. Here's the latest one from EvergreenHealth, public hospital about their service: Scroll  







"For the fourth consecutive year, U.S. News & World Report recognized EvergreenHealth as one of the top health care organizations in the region for its outstanding clinical care and service."

It's obvious this magazine reporter never visited EvergreenHealth's emergency department or looked at the Yelp reviews.

Four months ago my wife and I waited 5.5 hours to have her headache and an eye twitch evaluated. Well, I guess they didn't consider it an emergency.   We complained to "Patient Relations."  It took them 3 months to acknowledge us as a customer and apologize.  

We were billed at Level 4:  A $1,896.69 charge (not counting doctor and lab fees) AFTER our insurance company paid them $2,242.31.   We didn't hear back on the doctor's diagnosis until 3 months after our visit....after multiple requests.  The following is a YELP review:
"This review is solely for the ER. Horrible! 3 hour wait time on a weekday to be told that they forgot I was still waiting to be seen. Seriously? Incompetent and rude staff. Will not come back to this clinic for any treatments or emergencies."
One of my friends had a similar experience.  She's now goes to Swedish Emergency Department, Urgent Care, and Primary Care Clinic on Union Hill in Redmond and is very happy with them.  As much as I like to call EvergreenHealth my "friendly neighborhood hospital" we'll certainly keep our distance from them at both ER's and the Bella Bottega Urgent Care

8 comments:

  1. We have visited both the Evergreen Hospital ED, as well as the Evergreen Medical Center ED in Redmond. We were seen immediately and received excellent care during each visit.

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  2. You were lucky, Cheryl. We went to the hospital ER in Kirkland, thinking we'd get better service and care. My wife had to wait 30 minutes just to be registered....and then 20 minutes to see the triage nurse. We were then sent back to the waiting room for 3 hours before being called in.
    Waiting for the doctor in the room, getting hooked up to port by a tech, a 15 evaluation from the doctor and then a CT took another 3 hours. We left the ER at 2AM. We went to complain to the receptionist but she was gone. Terrible!

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  3. Another YELP Review of their ER:

    ...the ER is something to be desired. If your insurance is not up to their standards, plan on sitting for 3-4 hours. It is too bad that they treat people based on their insurance instead of taking care of the person. Once again, money prevails the patient.

    Sad, sad, sad

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    Replies
    1. People are not treated according to their insurance plan, people are treated according to severity of the injury. If you have a hang nail and have been waiting 3 hours and someone comes in with a gunshot wound guess who gets in first?

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  4. I took my child to the Evergreen ER at Bella Botega when they broke their arm. The ER doctor set it but when we saw the orthopedist the next day, he had to reset it as it was poorly done. Although the orthopedist didn't say much directly, from what he DID say, I could gather that it was his professional opinion that the ER doctor did a poor job setting the broken bone. We learned the hard way, always, always take your children to Children's in Bellevue.

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    Replies
    1. I completely agree - taking children to Evergreen's ER is horrible. I took my 6 year old daughter to the Bella Botega location last year after she had been having reoccurring migraines. She had one that was so bad she was vomiting and crying for hours. The ER Doctor treated us like we were over-reacting and gave her zofran and sent us home. We followed up with our pediatrician who was horrified the ER didn't conduct any tests or a CT scan.

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  5. No gunshot wounds or emergency vehicles at Evergreen the night we registered and waited (2 hrs.) in the lobby for a doctor.

    My wife was triaged for pain at "5 of 10". The triage nurse never asked if she wanted aspirin, etc.

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  6. Group Health runs a clinic staffed by PAs at the Bartell's Drugs at Crossroads in Bellevue. It is open from 9AM-7PM every day (including Sat/Sun.) No appointment needed and the wait time has been minimal. They accept most insurances. For uninsured - it costs $75.00. Sports physicals are $50.00. It's in an office at the back near the pharmacy. We have gone there a number of times and the service and care has been great.

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