Chicago Lakeshore Hospital

I’m writing this review hoping that it will help someone who is going through a very scary time and wants reassurance that what they are doing is the right thing.
I took my mom to Chicago Lakeshore at 1am on a Saturday. It took about three hours for all of her paperwork to get processed and get admitted. For those three hours I searched the Internet looking for anything I could find about the hospital. To be honest, most information I found was negative and I was scared I was sending my mom to something you would see in horror movies. Several times I wanted to leave. The staff at the front desk looked at me and told me it would be ok and promised he would look out for my mom.
I finally got home around 5am fell asleep for an hour and woke up crying, scared I made the worst decision for my mom. With visiting hours in the evening, I had to wait all day to make sure she was ok.
Mid morning my mom called me, I was so relieved to hear that she was doing just fine. I went to see her that evening. The place isn’t a Hilton but they have everything you need. It’s clean, the staff are friendly, and my mom was well taken care of. When I left after my first visit, the gentlemen who helped me the night before was working the front desk again. I thanked him for everything and he responded «now what are you going to do to take care of yourself.» This is just one example of the care that I felt during the entire period of time.
My mom was at Lakeshore for eight days. I got to know the staff very well during that time. They were always responsive when I called and helped my mom as she was struggling both physically and mentally to get back on track while sober.
The social worker, Todd, was fantastic. My mom lives in Michigan so insurance and discharge planning was a nightmare. Todd was able to find my mom a scholarship to a facility in the suburbs and (fingers crossed) my mom is on the path to rehabilitation.
Everyone will have their own unique experience and struggles when someone they love suffers from addiction. I just hope that if you are like me and are frantically searching everything on the Internet and second guessing your decision that this will help you.

AWFUL. Do not go. Extremely understaffed and rude employees. DIRTY. I cannot express how bad it is. We spotted HUGE «ROACHES» in multiple parts of hospital. Every nurse is rude and treats people like prisoners. Every single employee seemed very disorganized and angry. I would not take children or anyone there ever for any reason. Disgusting food and cold rooms everywhere you go… roaches in cafeteria…
The facility should be SHUT DOWN or managed by new qualified staff. Stunned by how they treated my family member. DO NOT GO. Complaints are flowing in…

They should really look into the way this place operates. I had a personal experience with Chicago Lakeshore Medical Center and came out worse than when I went in. It was 5 days of hell. They are so short staffed that I didn’t see my doctor for the first 3 days. Patients received their meds as much as an hour late every day. I did not receive my recommended meds for the first 3 days at all. When I finally did start receiving my meds, they were the wrong dosage. Many of the nurses seemed agitated which made it stressful to ask them anything. On two occasions I had staff come into my room to spend less than 5 minutes talking to me for no apparent reason. When it finally came time for me to be discharged on the 5^th day, it was 5 hours later than the time they told me I would be discharged which meant I had a relative from out of town waiting in her car to pick me up. They finally allowed her to come in and wait for the last two hours. My biggest complaint is in regards to the counselling. I went in due to depression and anxiety. I was the only person in my group that was not there due to substance abuse. During the group sessions, anything I shared was often dismissed and treated almost as if my problem wasn’t real since it didn’t involve alcohol or drugs. In the end, I came out worse than I went in and would never send another family member here. I would give them less than one star if I could.

The hospital really has something for everybody and a real understanding of mental health. The program’s serve children & adults. The counselors and staff are experts in their concentration children or adults or older patients in need. It is a collaborative work and passion and this hospital (inpatient and outpatient) are sensational.

As someone whom has had a family member voluntarily commit themselves twice, Chicago Lakeshore Hospital is leaps and bounds better than walking into the ER and waiting for a bed to open up at an area hospital.
The first time I needed to seek mental health assistance for my loved one, I wasn’t sure what to do. I knew I needed help immediately, so I thought my only choice was to head to the ER. I took my loved one to Weiss Hospital ER. There, they asked a few questions, took the vitals, and we waited eight hours. We were told that was a quick wait considering we had good insurance. They said some people with mental health issues could wait for days at the ER! It doesn’t seem right to me that someone who is thinking of hurting themselves would have to wait that long to receive help, only to be transferred to a psychiatric wing of a hospital that did little other than babysit and medicate for five days. While the people were kind at Weiss, and subsequently MacNeal Hospital in Berwyn (where we finally found the open bed and had to take an ambulance transport to. Also difficult for me being a city dweller with no car to get out to for visiting hours), there was no assistance to educate on coping skills, no time was taken to understand the person’s illness and medications, and there was no identification of the root of the issues. The social worker was overburdened, the psychiatrist around for five minutes a day, and the solution was simply, more pills.
It wasn’t suprising that did not work for my loved one. So when the erratic thoughts and anxiety returned, I was desperate for other options than heading back to the ER. Enter Chicago Lakeshore Hospital. I found that they were close to my house and are covered by my insurance. I read the reviews and was scared, but we needed immediate help and I was not willing to take my loved one back to a place that would not help him learn coping skills or treat his core problems. Though the reviews were scary, I took them with a grain of salt and I decided to take the risk and try something new. It couldn’t be any worse than my first experience and it was definitely better than the alternative.
Chicago Lakeshore Hospital was amazing. I cant even begin to describe how much better the process and facility were. It was clean, the people friendly and kind, and they had an open walk-​in policy to deal with any issue you may be seeking their help for.
There were plenty of beds open when we got there, which was a different story than what we received at the ER on our first go around. The admissions process at Chicago Lakeshore was so quick compared to what we went through before. They asked thoughtful questions to determine what kind of help we needed, and were able to admit my loved one quickly and painlessly.
Though still a behavioral health facility, the floor my loved one was on was much cleaner and nicer than the previous hospital. Shoes were allowed, normal clothes were okay, and the food, snacks, and meal choices were great in comparision. They very much treat the floor as a community, rather than just a place to detox or monitor suicide risks. People are encouraged to attend hourly sessions ranging from psychotherapy to mental illness education. If a patient chooses not to participate, they lose privileges such as going to the cafeteria to select their meals. This not only encourages full participation for the benefit of everyone, but makes sure that people are responsible for their own recovery and wellness. At the previous facility, there were little planned activities, and no therapy. At Chicago lakeshore, there were counselors available 24/​7, a psychiatrist that spent quality time with each patient, and a social worker that did individual and family therapy sessions to help everyone on the road to recovery. Though we didnt need substance abuse treatment, they offer detox and treatment for substance as well. They also offer an intensive out patient course to those who may need help returning back to their normal lives.
It’s very difficult and personal to discuss these matters, but as a family member going through this with a loved one, I know it was hard to have no resources or information on what to do or how to proceed to get help. I wish someone had told me about this place before my first trip to the ER. Trust me, as someone who has witnessed both ends of the spectrum, Chicago Lakeshore Hospital is a caring and safe place to take your loved one in their time of need. It’s a hidden gem, and I can’t thank them enough for all of the help and support that they have given my family.
*also, I read the previous reviews, and some of these claims cannot be more false. There is a huge printed pamphlet that you get with a printed schedule of activities, and also, if you say you are going to hurt yourself, you legally can not be released for a period of 3 – 5 days. It’s not a policy of the facility, it’s the law at every facility.

My best friend just got out today. He is sitting here telling me about his five days in HELL! This place should be shut down immediately. You cannot leave until they say you are ready. Of course you are never ready. The staff treated you like an animal, sub human and the place was freezing. Don’t believe there website, it is exactly the opposite. You are treated like a prisoner with no rights whatsoever! Animals in Chicago have more rights than the patients in this ‘Mad Hospital’. Mom and Dad do not send your children here!

This is even more unbelievable… To add to the previous post, and add insult to injury, my daughter came back to the hospital emergency room one day later after checking herself out, to check herself back in. My insurance company had approved her stay through the following Monday until a discharge plan could be put in place. The triage nurse, did not feel that my daughter met criteria because she did not say she was suicidal. The test for entering an emergency room voluntarily for treatment is not that the person has to be suicidal, that only relates to holding a person in the hospital involuntarily. In any event I called the head nurse and she told me that they would not allow her into the emergency department. I told my daughter to tell them she was suicidal. The triage nurse gave my daughter a bus token and had security escort her out of the emergency room. The treatment at this hospital for those with mental illness is an embarrassment to the health care system. I volunteer in an emergency room on Sunday’s and see many people with mental illness come into the hospital for treatment. No one is ever turned away. We let people come in that are just looking to get rest and some food. Those with mental illness that we know are coming in just for food, we give them a bag of food to take with them. The doctors and nurses at this hospital should find another profession, one that they are more suited for and does not require, love, empathy and compassion.