St Charles Medical Center – Bend

5 stars for ER. We are here out of town and our child hot her head having fun. We got lucky to hit the ER at dinner time so no one was waiting. This was one of the fastest ER visits in my lifetime. We never saw a doctor but all of the nurses and NP were extremely nice and very warm and friendly to our daughter. It was just like being home with our regular GP. I know some people have commented on nurse attitudes but please keep in mind these hard working individuals work very long shifts and long weeks. So be patient as a patient. Your emergency is not their only one of the floor.

The nurses are extremely rude and look like they’re on drugs. Nurse Rebecca ripped the IV out the opposite way it was put in and it started gushing blood. Her response «you’ll be okay». Went through my father in laws stuff without asking and just kept making rude comments. Would keep pushing his pain mess later and later. HE JUST HAD NECK SURGERY!

We have been to this ER many times in the past 22 years. Today’s visit was outstanding! The staff was all very attentive and fast to get pain under control. The ER was full but they where fast and well staffed very impressive we where seen in less then 10minutes. Dr. Vraniak was informative of the steps that would be taken for treatment and answered questions we had. The nurses where compassionate to the pain my husband was in and kept checking to get pain under control. All the staff was friendly from the the blood work to the CT technician to the staff that transports .
Well done St Charles ! This ER visit was a good experience under the circumstances I’m hoping the staff keep up with this quality of care.

I would have given more stars, but, as a rule they treat chronic pain patients as if they are drug-​seekers. Last night I had extreme pain, and was treated kindly. I understand that there ARE those who are abusing pain meds and go to ER for a ‘fix’. I have well documented reasons for sudden and extreme pain, but still get treated like a junkie.

I would like to thank the care team in the IMCU. (especially RN Susan) for the thorough, gentle and loving care given to my mother-​in-​law over the past weekend. Your attentiveness to Charlene’s comfort made all the difference during this difficult time. Thank you.

I am currently admitted into the hospital with below 85% oxygen and I’m even hooked up to oxygen. I keep complaining of Nausea and the nurse «Carmela, and Carie» keep trying to give me a medication that I’m allergic to. I threw up my pain pill and they refused to give me pain meds through the iv. I’m beyond pissed. I keep asking to speak with a doctor and yet no one is listening to me and my body. What a sad excuse for a hospital. I would rather be at home dying then here.

Please consider expanding, hiring more staffing or something. The wait times are so long its honestly really scary. I know the staff there are doing the best they can considering our population growth and insurance changes and everything but for the size city that Bend is becoming, St. Charles just isn’t large enough to accommodate everyone.

My wife and I had to go to the ER after a horseback riding accident while on vacation near Bend. We went to Saint Charles as it was the closest human hospital. We found the hospital staff very caring and happy to be doing their jobs. I have been to other hospitals in the Eastern US where hospital staff are not happy. This transformed a scary difficult time into a safe reassuring experience.

Any industry usually involves a mix of good and not-​so-​good characters. In truth, medical providers in central OR, e.g., physicians, nurses, techs., etc., and ER’s are, on average, neither significantly better or worse than anywhere else. Yet, statewide, a stigma has attached itself to St. Charles having to do with a reputation for back-​water, «US vs. THEM», horse-​and-​buggy politics. However, during a decades-​long career transversing several states, I have managed despite occasional dysfunctional organizational politics. So, when I reluctantly agreed to transfer to this area, I kept an open mind. It didn’t take long before the cracks began to show. Petty, over-​reactive, ego-​driven behavior is to be expected when players in closed system, accustomed to a high level of local control, are confronted with change from the outside (e.g., like a small-​town police dept. that devolves into a predictable & convenient good-​old-​gals/​boys system). While some dysfunction can occur in anywhere, in the unfortunate case of St. Charles, a set of maladaptive personalities converged in a specific department of the hospital. As a result, wherein this group is involved, even the most innocuous, everyday communication runs the risk of becoming the target of massive negative distortion. A simple, routine business transaction calmly conducted in a non-​problematic manner with any other provider, is converted to cannon fodder in the minds of these cronies. Insipid complaints, underhanded comments, finger-​pointing, openly accusatory behavior during business meetings and absurd retaliatory attacks are commonplace events. Somewhere along the line, breach of contract, slander and defamation of character have been normalized. Such an uncommonly high level of instrumental aggression as modus operandi signals the extent to which the system has outstripped the adaptive capacity of small-​town management style. The time for bringing in better-​trained, well-​grounded leadership, savvy in healthy group dynamics and capable of navigating change in larger-​scale operations, is clearly past due. It may be possible to gradually reverse the damage, but first, the Board of Directors needs to take control and kick the fox out of the henhouse. Routing out entrenched reactionary politics and correcting the course of interagency relationships will require dedicated energy, intelligence and vision. Meanwhile, weak attempts to restructure the positions of those individuals in hopes of a more positive result is something like expecting burnt-​out cathode ray tubes to function better than the motherboard of a new laptop. Good luck with that.

Dr. Reed, Nurse Jackie at check in, Bentley, and support staff were awesome. Their bedside manner was awesome, they were caring and supportive and helpful. Jackie is very professional even when she was dealing with difficult patients who were rude to her. It’s important to recognize people who are often not appreciated, getting yelled at by unhappy ER patients. They don’t have to be nice, but they are.

This place is the worst. I’m currently sitting in the ER and have been for hours. I’m vomiting blood. Pooing blood. Feel dizzy as all get out and I’m just sitting here. The nurse in the admission area is bad as well. Tom. Mr know it all. Careless and he decides weather or not your serious. The guy doesn’t even know how to use a computer. I found him ignorant and in helpful. All he said is that I’m a triage nurse and I have seen this that and the other thing and basically wrote me off.
I came here a week ago to get treated and left because I i sat for hours. As I sit here now a guy left because he was in the airing room for 3 hours. Seriously?
I left last time because they put me in bed and did nothing. Never saw a doc and the nurses were useless. They just are useless. I feel like I’m dying and there talking about funny things and how there life is this and that. While they were planning for there weekend patients were just miserable.
I hate this operation and management needs to get off there ass and do something about it.

I cut my thumb severely on Xmas morning and came in for medical care. I received 7 stitches, and was in and out in a couple hours. Due to the simplicity of the procedure, imagine my surprise at receiving an $ 800 bill in the mail AFTER my insurance paid its share.
Apparently being sick or injured in America is just an «opportunity» to the medical field.

I recently had an experience with a Hospital that clearly shows they are playing the system.
In Short, I asked for estimates prior to the surgery. Here is a Summary…
There were 3 service providers. Each provides an estimate a day or 2 before the surgery:
Bend Memorial Clinic (The Surgeon)
Estimate $ 2,100.00 Billed $ 1,352.67 (Good)
Bend Anest Group
Estimate $ 1,200.00 Billed $ 1,023.00 (Good)
St. Charles Medical Center
Estimate $ 3,000.00 Billed $ 15,702.76 (Not Good)
Regardless of who pays for it (Insurance or me) I felt the cost of this 90 minute or less outpatient procedure was justified at the estimate of $ 6,300.00. All the estimates were asked for and received 1 to 2 days prior to the surgery.
The problem here is just St Charles Medical Center, The other 2 were on their estimate. The question I asked St. Charles when I made the call (Using a number given to me by the surgeon’s staff) was «How much would I have to pay you if I had no insurance?» I wanted to know the full cost of the procedure. At that point had they said $ 15,700.00 I would have killed the entire procedure there and gone with one of the cheaper alternatives I found on the internet. But I was not given that opportunity.
One of either 2 scenarios happened. Either St Charles lied to me to get my business OR they intentionally overcharge the insurance companies, i.e. patient has no insurance it is $ 3,000 (the actual estimate was «Somewhere between $ 2,000 and $ 3,000) if the patient does have insurance milk the insurance company for as much as you can, in this case $ 15,700).

It was just after 6:30 a.m. when the pre-​op nurse checked in with me again to ask «How are you feeling?» as I waited on the surgeon and anesthesiologist to come by before being wheeled to the operating room.
Given I was laying nude under a heated blanket, even sans makeup per pre-​op instructions, and had never had surgery before I told her, «I’m feeling a little vulnerable since this is my first time in surgery.»
Just at this point, the surgeon popped in and said, «How about that! Me too!»
Ta dum. Pitch perfect to make me laugh.
I had enough time to plan for this non elective procedure to check out the doctors I wanted on board and also where I wanted the surgery done. The right doctors make all the difference, and these were excellent physicians. We are fortunate to have that kind of specialty medical talent in Bend. And warts and all for our current health care system, as a patient I am grateful to be able to choose the medical professionals I want involved.
This time, just as had been my husband’s experience with surgery last year at the St. Charles’ Medical Center (hospital), the patient intake and ER nursing staff in the surgical unit were top notch.
From pre-​op phone calls, to patient prep after check in, to surgical assistance to post op patient care and instructions, all was handled so well to keep the patient informed every step of the way and as comfortable as possible. Also for anxious family members waiting for information on their loved ones in surgery, the hospital provides comfortable places to wait and friendly volunteers to help with this or that.
If you must have surgery, St. Charles is a great place to have it done in Bend. Politics of managment issues aside, and there have been plenty of those issues in the last five years, and labor union ups and downs aside, and there have been plenty of those too, the staff facing the patients does a great job.
The only really painful part of this was getting the big bill in the mail this week.