Tripler Army Medical Center

This is THE WORST military medical facility I have ever been to. I am sitting here at 12:40a with my husband and children waiting to be seen in the ER. We are seconds from walking out and going to an actual emergency room to help with his excruciating back pain. The staff are cold, unfriendly and unsympathetic to their patients. Avoid this facility at ALL costs.

I’ll get straight and to the point. Over the years I’ve been to Tripler for a few things. From routine appointments to the rare Emergency Room visit. I recently came down with the Flu and felt the need to be seen after hours. Despite the decrepit state of health I was in I really appreciated the the positive attitude of all the staff I encountered (Check in, Triage, Radiology, and Emergency room physician). They went above and beyond during my visit and with the after care (regarding the number of medications I was prescribed). I’m truly thankful to a top notch facility and staff on my road to recovery.

This could be the worst hospital in the United States (or world… including 3^rd world countries) due to the incompetence of the staff. After making multiple visits I unfortunately was sent into the ER by my command to check out a deformity possibly caused by trauma and the ER completely ignored the deformity, attempted to diagnose me with a completely unrelated disease (of which I did not have nor did they run appropriate tests), and logged in my medical record nothing of the actual reason why I went to see them. My primary care physician had to make additional logs in my medical record to rectify the problem they caused.
Another ER story prior was that I had food poising at my command; vomiting ensued for hours until finally command member took me to tripler for fluids. I stopped vomiting on the ride to tripler and during check in the staff tried to tell me I was faking since I wasn’t vomiting currently. I actually passed out and they said I was faking until finally got an IV over 8 hours later. I almost decked the doctor who tried to argue w me that I needed an IV.
The doctors and staff at this hospital appear to be trained to not actually diagnose real problems or handle legitimate emergencies, but to quickly and cheaply diagnose people to get them back to work (or to down them) without performing legitimate medical testing. I sincerely question the integrity of anyone who runs this place and I question the medical training of anyone who works here. Don’t go to Tripler if you want legitimate medical care, you will be disappointed.

I had to call to get ultra sound results 2 weeks after it was done. The radiology department insisted I sign off and physically walked off with the results (which never happened) and they said i needed to call tri care to get results. staff is rude the only helpful person was the information desk. I wish they would just release us to go get ultra sounds somewhere else. At our previous station we got a call from the hospitals and our primary doctors with the results within the day. I dont like this place at all!

My wife and I have gotten great care here. Only complaint — they really need to do something about the lack of parking!

Literally the worse medical care I’ve ever recieved. Waited in the ER 3 different times for 6 hours or longer. Doctors were no helpful at all. The room were old and gross. I had to share a room which is unheard of now of days. Didn’t help at all. Horrible

I was seen in like 10 min not to bad of a wait for ER the staff here is kind and professional five stars for tripler.

This review is for OB/​GYN only.
Read my other review for a great MRI procedure review.
I had a horrible appointment at Makalapa that left me with general answers. I booked an appointment with Tripler to get some answers. From my doctor referring me, they knew this was a 2^nd appointment, and that I was frustrated with having many tests and getting no solid answers… So they decided to book me with a first year resident.
I didn’t know I had a first year resident when I booked the appointment (I would have shut that down right away), but it became clear shortly after the appointment started that she didn’t know much.
Stay away from «Doctor» Vercesi.
To start, I walked into a room and noticed the gurney was set up as if I were to have a pap. I noticed this immediately and started to feel uncomfortable as I was there strictly for consultation and guidance on what to do next. The nurse (who was very kind, by the way. 5 stars for her) tells me that the «doctor» would like to check down there. I had a pap, MRI, and two ultrasounds for her to reference, not to mention the fact that looking «down there» wouldn’t help her determine anything about the inside of my uterus. I immediately told the nurse it wasn’t happening. She seemed to empathize with me. I almost felt violated.
The «doctor» came in, and it all went south. She was unable to answer any questions that both my husband and I had. It didn’t matter how many times we rephrased our many questions, she still was unable to give an answer. She clearly was not listening to what we were saying, as she basically interrupted and would ramble off something that was relevant at that point in my sentence but wouldn’t have been relevant if she were to let me finish. She did this many times. My MRI had a very vague description and did not report on what the ordering doctor asked for. I asked if there was a possibility my MRI could be re-​read. She said, «No… They won’t want to do that.» And basically told me I would have to get another MRI with contrast injections for another reading, even though they had the pictures they needed.
One minute she would tell me to have a procedure, and the next minute she would tell me not to have it. She wasn’t just weighing the pros and cons, she was literally saying she would recommend it for me and then saying she wouldn’t recommend it for me. She then had to refer to her colleagues because we weren’t getting the questions answered that we needed.
She came back to tell me a whole slew of other procedures I should now have. I said, «the CT IV, what’s that for?» She explained, and when I told her I have no symptoms (and never have) for this problem, she then told me that she doesn’t recommend me to have the CT IV. So at the end of the appointment, where we are basically just fed up with going around in circles, she told me she was going to order all the tests INCLUDING the CT IV. I told her I wasn’t going to get that test done. She then proceeded to tell me that because she recommended it to me and I «refused,» that she has to put that in my charts. SERIOUSLY? Her «colleagues» recommended it, she said she didn’t recommend it, and now she’s recommending it to medically cover her back? Wow.
A few things she told me were medically incorrect. I think she was trying to make me feel better, because that’s exactly what I needed…
Then the appointment was over and she just left us there. We sat there and had no idea if she was coming back or what. We had to find the nurse to ask. So unprofessional.
Also, they billed and put in their system that I saw a male provider.
Trying to get a follow-​up appointment with their lead OB/​GYN for the last few weeks, but that’s been nearly impossible. His schedule isn’t out, he’s on vacation, etc etc. I keep getting voicemail messages from some lady who rambles off at a mile a minute telling me to call her. I called once to speak with her. The conversation was a disaster. I don’t know if she was eating a bag of chips, slamming on the keyboard, walking through the jungle, or all of the above, but she sure made a lot of noise while she ignored what I said. I literally sat there for minutes waiting for her to reply to my reason for calling. I had to ask twice before she would help me. Call and ask for Mark. He speaks clearly, is professional, and is honest.
When you go to check in at your appointment, you’ll literally feel as if you’re at the Secretary of State waiting in line. Take a number, honey, because that’s all you are at Triper OB/​GYN.

In the six years we’ve lived in Hawaii, we’ve been to Tripler at least 100 times! It’s no exaggeration!
Specialists, physical therapy, monthly allergy clinic, X-​rays, MRI, orthopedics, rheumatology, weekly sessions for kiddo, numerous emergency room visits… I’m surprised we don’t have our own personalized parking spot.
No matter how many times we come here, I get lost. Every single time. This place is a maze! They need to make me my own wing… the «cherisse wing» and put all of my family’s doctors and specialists in that one wing… and they should also make sure it’s near the Starbucks.
I’ve noticed that whenever we are there people always ask us if we need help. It must be the perplexed and frazzled looks on our faces. The staff is so kind and helpful and I’ve even had other patients help me find where I need to go. Something about being in Tripler makes all these people so friendly. (Seriously, bc these same military people are all crazy jerks at the commissary.)
As much as I complain about this place (mostly the parking) I must admit that I love it. And I feel lucky to be able to utilize their services. I’ve had so many procedures and therapies and it has never cost me a single penny. Right now I am doing oral sublingual
therapy for my environmental allergies (kind of like allergy shots, but with mouth drops) and it is completely free!
Tripler is a huge and imposing building, even if it is pink. There’s got to be a lot of cool history here. I always say that one day I’m going to learn more about it. But then I get distracted.

DO NOT EAT AT ANY TRIPLER FOOD SOURCES! The bathrooms that the people preparing the food use, dont have hot water because, verbatim, «the budget doesn’t allow money to afford hot water.» How do they PROPERLY wash their hands before returning to work?

I’m going to go ahead and address the notion that the horror stories you hear are bull. Tripler has the nickname of «cripler» for many many reasons. Someone mentioned only hearing these through the grapevine, so I took the time to reactivate my Unilocal account to set that straight. I only came across these reviews out of sheer curiously of the public’s opinion because my husband has been sitting in the Tripler emergency waiting room for over 4 hours today.
Yes, Tripler is that horrendous. This isn’t coming from someone who has visited once or twice. I’ve lived on Oahu for 9 years and have 3 young children; two of which (unfortunately) have been «treated» at this facility.
So I don’t come off as a total ass, I will admit to 1 very professional and honestly amazing experience with the pediatric cardiologist years ago. My daughter’s regular PCM denied her for entry with peewee soccer due to a heart murmur and sent us to Tripler. After many tests, the pediatric cardiologist not only cleared my daughter for sports, but took time out of his day to call and reprimand her PCM for denying her a passing sports physical. He had us in his office while doing so and apologized multiple times to us and our daughter for the crap care her PCM dished out.
Now on to the bad! The emergency room wait time is Beyond appalling. What SHOULD take 2 hours max, takes an easy 6 or 7 hours at Tripler. It has been that way since I moved here in 2006! You’d think SOMETHING would have changed by now. I have personally been affected by their lack of medical knowledge multiple times. I walked in there once bleeding profusely and in tremendous pain and was told «well, it MIGHT have been a miscarriage, but does it really matter if it was? You didn’t even know you were pregnant!» I WAS PREGNANT?!
Another time my (at the time) 4 year old dislocated her shoulder. AFTER REVIEWING X-​RAYS they set her arm in a cast because they read the X-​rays incorrectly. My daughter went THREE DAYS in pain with a dislocated shoulder because of their incompetence. My best friend was wheeled in to a delivery room with blood soaked floors, my niece was mistakenly given ear medication for her eye infection AT 3 WEEKS OLD and my poor husband was put through the ringer for YEARS while they attempted to figure out a chronic and debilitating pain in his testicles. They put him through countless INVASIVE STD checks because «military wives are known for carrying who knows what!». All he ended up needing was a corrective surgery. Thanks to a second opinion at a Florida hospital, he was FINALLY fixed up & back to normal.
Tripler might employ some nice people. Who knows? Maybe they’ve even got a doc or two that cares and knows what they’re doing! But, for the most part patients of the Tripler army medical hospital are treated as nothing more than cattle.
My husband and I decided years ago to pay the extra $$ and switch to tricare standard. The kids & I are now seen at kapiolani women and children’s hospital and the difference in care is night and day. I am grateful that we have such amazing docs on our side now, and that my children were never seriously harmed by anyone at Tripler. They have multiple lawsuits against them in which parents weren’t so fortunate. At the end of the day you have to decide for yourself if this is the place for you, I guess. Personally, my children and I deserve better. I only wish my husband could be seen out in town as well.

The emergency room is unprofessional & incompetent, in my opinion. I don’t trust them for shit. I was seen there for severe anxiety and stress attacks caused by being a victim of domestic abuse. My involuntary displacement was taking its toll so they ran their tests, deemed me a drug addict & sent me away to go sleep in my car!

I think the worst thing about Tripler is the bad things you hear about it before ever stepping foot inside. Things like «Cripler,» and horror stories you hear about happening yet never seem to be able to find verification of can make a first visit a little bit intimidating.
Tripler is the largest most comprehensive medical facility available in the region for all active duty service members and their dependents. You name a specialty, and most likely somewhere in the pink giant maze there’s someone in there who can take care of you or your loved one.
With that being said, big giant pink mazes come with their positives and negatives… Let’s get the negatives out of the way first:
1. The place is humungous and not the easiest to navigate. They use terms like «oceanside» and «mountainside» for locations/​wings of the hospital, but there are many floors where you cannot easily walk between the wings causing one to spend many wasted minutes wandering aimlessly hoping to find either a map or a helpful person who can point you in the right direction.
2. Parking can be a bear. Make sure to arrive at least an hour before your appointment if you plan to self park. Also be mindful that if you have any breathing issues like asthma, etc. or if you’re not in the best of shape physically there are several sets of stairs in the parking areas, so allow for time to take the Tripler Trolley and/​or to use valet (which is $ 5).
3. Depending on what branch of service you are a dependent of there is some delays with referrals to specialists at times.
Now onto the positives:
1. This place is humungous and has pretty much every specialty you could imagine housed under one roof. This allows for lots of folks to receive needed medical attention in one spot without having to drive all over the place.
2. The doctors and staff here really do their best to provide the highest level of care to all patients. At any given time you will see an active duty service member, a retiree, and a dependent in a clinic and all get treated with the same amount of respect and compassion.
3. Access to care is relatively easy. Once you have been referred to a specialist, the continuum of care is relatively cohesive. The providers seem to be willing to spend as much time needed with you and definitely do not rush you out the door. They seem focused on treating the patient and not an «aliment» on paper.
As with any treatment facility, Tripler has its ups and downs, however I have been fortunate to not have encountered any negatives in quality of care. Sure I would love a navigation system to get around the pink maze and easier parking, but that’s something I know they’re working on.
I like knowing that the option of seeking care exists here if I so choose to use it, and that so far everyone I’ve encountered is competent, compassionate and truly seems to care about their patients.

My review is for the Otorhinolaryngology (ENT) Clinic, surgical admission center (SAC), and post-​op care unit. I would really like to give a shoutout to Dr. Tsai and Dr. Tran (they conducted my surgery), the anesthesiologist, medical students, and the various nurses that took care of me. All of them were very professional, kind, informative, and very compassionate. Everyone I encountered was very friendly, and made me feel at ease. I was quite nervous about my tonsillectomy upfront, as I’m a very young, single active duty member and this was my first «true» surgery. The staff was very reassuring and made sure I was comfortable throughout out the entire process. The doctors were realistic with me about the recovery process, which I appreciated. I really can not thank all the staff enough for that. Overall I had a great experience and would recommend the teams listed above.
The only downside to Tripler AMC, is the parking situation. If you can schedule appointments early in the morning, try to do so as there is more parking readily available.

I would rather give birth on the freeway than go to Tripler Army Medical Center’s Labor & Delivery. I gave them the benefit of the doubt and I made a HUGE MISTAKE! I had mixed answers on experiences here and let me say this, when you are pregnant and having problems it contractions this place is not looking at the safety of you or your baby.
I was having terrible pain for 2 weeks and I was 4 cm dilated. They wouldn’t take me because I wasn’t 5−6cm dilated. Every time I went in it was different answer or reason to why they won’t take me in. They made me walk tripler until I dilated more. After two week and having full blown contractions I went back to L&D to be turned away. I wasn’t gonna make it back to Wahiawa so my husband and I drove to QUEENS Medical Center because I wasn’t gonna make it home. I gave birth hours later after finding out I had high blood pressure, borderline preeclampsia, exhausted and just swollen! Never ever going back to CRIPPLER!
It’s sad that their policy isn’t based on individual cases. Not all pregnancies is the same. Not to mention putting lives at risk. Please, mommies look into other options. Because Tripler turned me away and hours later I gave birth, my insurance covered everything!

As with any hospital or medical facility there are fantastic & not so fantastic providers. The majority of my experiences with TAMC have been stellar. If you need an endocrinologist Dr. A Guerrero is spectacular! Dr. Guerrero is knowledgeable, efficient, thorough, & has a great bedside manner. I had to have a total Thyroidectomy in June & Dr. Golden in general surgery did a beautiful job with minimal scarring. I can’t thank their staff enough for all the help they’ve provided. When it comes to parking arrive an hour early if possible or bring $ 5 for valet. Bear in mind it fills up quickly… Tripler is a busy facility!

The OB/​GYN department is awful. I had the displeasure of going to Tripler for the last part of my pregnancy. The doctors are rude and hateful. Getting appointments is a nightmare.
My water broke and I called L&D to let them know I was coming. I got there (after waiting 20 mins for an elevator doubled over in pain) only for them to tell me to have a seat. 45 minutes later they had a room. The resident read one page of my history and told me he wanted to do a csection. I told him I didn’t want one and refused to sign the consent form. He said if I didn’t sign it, my husband would have to or he would call his command and they would draw straws to see who would deliver me naturally if anyone would. My anesthesiologist was however the only amazing part of it.
Fastforward to my nurse after the surgery who was awful. She got angry at me when she got me up and I started bleeding. She handed me paper towels and told me to clean it up. She refused to call my doctor. She never would bring me pain medicine and refused to help me breastfeed. She said it was my second baby and I should have it down by now.
Finally, after 3 miserable days they released me. (No wheelchair just walking) I ended up hemmorhaging after I got home. I was taken by ambulence to a local hospital only to learn the resident left some placenta during my csection. I almost bled to death.
If you are pregnant, run, run fast!

This is an excellent hospital that takes really good care of their patients.
My dad has been going in and out of here for the last 25 years and they have been really good with him. Anything from a sprained ankle to open heart surgery, and now, sadly, brain cancer.
The staff is always pleasant and helpful. Honestly, I haven’t dealt with a single snippy person there, ever.
Regarding the ER — I’ve never gone into an ER what wasn’t via ambulance that actually saw me in any reasonable period of time. ER’s suck, and this one sucks just as bad as all the other ones.
I think the hospital itself is amazing.
Appointments and such, yeah, not so good. Hence the 4 stars. They can take forever to get, so if this is one’s only medical resource, it can be definitely be problem.
All in all though, I have only good things to say about the place.

Pretty good health care by mostly army doctors. This is a great hospital that does pretty much everything. Being retired military, well certainly take advantage of the many services here.
Appointments are pretty easy to get by calling 808−433−2778
Food at the cafeteria is super healthy and yummy!

My background — I worked at Tripler as a construction contractor and was a patient of Tripler as a military wife.
I love their blood donation center. Most (and I emphasize most) of their staff is really friendly. Make an appointment as it can get REALLY busy. They do encourage you to hang out after and snack on their extensive array of goodies. I highly recommend donating here — the blood supply is restricted for military causes and is usually returned full circle to the vet/​soldier who really needs it.
They also have tennis courts with night lighting!
As a patient, my experience has been mediocre.
Been to the ER twice. Wait times are a touch long, plus, the one time they had to do blood work, the nurse trying to take my blood was an a$$. I was crying/​hyperventilating and trying to calm down and he still rudely told me he couldn’t take my blood if I continued to be excited. Terrible beside manners. My other time was an ordinary/​standard visit.
The one time I saw a family doctor for a rash on my face — he didn’t try to refer me to a dermatologist. He wanted to take all the credit and so instead he just prescribed me an over the counter cream. On that note — when I tried to get my cream from the prescription area — the lady at the counter was exasperated when I asked to fill it. Her excuse? You can get this cream anywhere. Lady — if my doc prescribed it to me and its free, I’m not passing up on it!
As a contractor, I believe Tripler Hospital is doing its best it can despite the following:
1. Tripler is the ONLY military hospital on the islands. This means all personnel of all branches of the military congregate here for their medical needs, even from the outer islands. Of course its going to be hard to get great service.
2. Parking is/​has/​will be an issue. From my understanding as of early 2013, they were planning on implementing a parking structure. Construction takes time and money (Watch some HGTV if you don’t believe me, construction always costs more and takes longer than expected).
3. Speaking of money, Tripler’s budget depends on the DoD/​Federal government. Money that is probably highly restricted and poorly streamlined (aka they have a ridiculous budgeting system of «use it or lose it»). Facilities are doing the best they can with the budget they have.
3. From my limited experience, the military hasn’t been able to retain their best soldiers, especially the Army (this is an Army hospital). So you are going to get terrible people servicing you. But there will also be the occasional great staff too.
If you want to make Tripler better — help vote for the people that will make a change. Our government has not provided for our soldiers and vets in the way that they need for a very long time.
Thanks for reading if you got all the way down here.