Sutter Maternity & Surgery Center

Fantastic care. Compassionate and knowledgable staff from admit to discharge. They took such great care of my family member and always kept me in the loop (within HIPPA guidelines, of course) The faculty is clean and elegant, yet provides a functional environment for prompt care. The special procedures team provided excellent care to my family member. Dr. Palacek was very kind and extremely good about providing education with a wonderful bedside manner. Good people, all around

I love love love this place! After having an unplanned and very unpleasant cesarean at Dominican I was determined to have a VBAC at Sutter. The nursing staff was so supportive and amazing (esp Heather, Kim and Margaret) and because of them and the amazing Dr. Cox I had a successful VBAC of a 10lb 5oz baby! They respected my birth plan and I always felt that my needs were heard.

Had my hip replaced last week by Dr Christofferson and his team. Excellent experience from start to finish. Morning of surgery Anne, Marc and a wonderful anesthesiologist Nancy (Chin?) calmed my nerves and reassured me all would be well. 3 hours later being made comfortable in my room after a successful surgery that I have no memory of!
Nurse on all shifts were attentive and caring — always making sure I was comfortable and listening to my concerns. Richard the physio was supportive and reassuring as I took my first tentative steps. Nurses I remember were Emily, Isralyia and Renee. Also. Tim, so caring and concerned, Brian so supportive and encouraging with a wonderful sense of humor and Meadow the sweet, attentive night nurse who made sure I was comfortable throughout the night.
A great 3 night stay that prepared me well for finally going home. My only regret is not taking full advantage of the great food choices that are offered.

I was supervised by dr Moore, dr cox, dr Lawson, and dr salvay. The nurses were very intrusive in doing their job, barging into the bathroom and insisting on taking my vitals while I was defecating, I asked her to wait and she would not. During surgery I made a noise of fear and when the drs were happy it wasn’t from pain they kept going with no comment or comfort for me being all alone. They did not inform me when my baby was born despite her not being in any distress and highest apgar scores. Last I was given daily painful shots of Heparin in my stomach Because «the anesthesiologist orders it for all high BMI patients.» I have a charted clotting disorder which was discussed during surgery. It’s seems negligent and arrogant and dangerous to order an anticoagulant for a person with a platelet and slow coagulation disorder. I never gave birth here again and I wouldn’t let anyone I know give birth here. I tried to get my records in time to make a complaint to the medical board but they stalled me for so long even when I showed up in person that they ran out my statute of limitation. All I can do is warn you not to trust these healthcare z“professionals”

Just got home yesterday after spending three nights and four days in the surgery center, for a very successful total hip replacement performed by Dr Karl Christofferson. I have never experienced or witnessed such a high level of care before by a doctor and nursing staff. The thing that impressed me the most was the follow though and continuity that happened when one nurse went off duty and a new nurse came in. It was as if I had the same nurse during the whole time I was in my room. The physicians on staff were very proactive in monitoring the meds I was being prescribed to make sure my liver and kidney functions were not being compromised. They made all the right calls to make sure everything was being done in a medically correct way and took the time to explain the reason behind every thing that they did. I just can’t say enough about how well I was treated from the moment I walked in the door.

I had a Vnus procedure here last year with Dr. Isaac Chankai, after a week there was a complication. The doctors did not want to see me, they wanted me to go to the other campus, and told me to go in through Urgent Care. Urgent Care refused to admit me because of my insurance. They said I would have to go to Dominican. I told her, this was the result of one of their surgeon’s work, Dominican was not going to see me for it. They threatened to call security if I did not get out of line. I went home, I was in great pain, I called the doctor and they told me to go back, to bypass Urgent Care and go directly to radiology… they had an ultrasound done but I was never examined by a physician. I felt a total lack of professionalism, and lack of concern for the pain I was experiencing. Despite this bad experience, the procedure was successful, so I returned to the same doctor last week for a second procedure, this time he botched it, he was not prepared, he had to abort the procedure, and then failed to properly bandage me, when I asked for someone to call for my ride, they told me to go stand in the reception area and ask someone there, which I did, and while standing I began to bleed out. My leg is now badly bruised and painful and I am working with my primary care physician and insurance to identify another provider to fix this. I know other people who love PAMF… so maybe my poor treatment was because I’m not a member but was referred by Medi-​Cal?
Update on ⁴⁄₁₂
I filed a complaint with this organization, and I received a confirmation email saying that they would look into this. That was over a month ago and I have not heard from them since. They obviously are not concerned about their surgeons incompetence, or my negative outcomes.
Update ⁴⁄₂₇ — it has been almost two months. I had filed a complaint with PAMF. I got an email saying they were opening an investigation. I have not heard anything else from them since. I should have filed a malpractice suit.

My wife gave birth to my beautiful daughter here. I can’t say enough about the facility or the staff that work here. It doesn’t feel like a medical facility at all. The staff were attentive and saw to our every need. Spacious room with balcony and huge tub. A champagne meal for the 2 of us in the evening which was a really nice touch. Thank you to everyone that assisted in the birth of our daughter.

The medical staff here is top notch! We were here for 4 days for a procedure. The nurses were polite and kind to my honey. They didn’t question me when it was obvious I was staying overnight with him as well. In fact, they said. Let me call room service to make up your bed. One night even, I was woken up around 4am. To a CNA putting a warmed blanket on me. They were all encouraging and supportive. Thank you Thank you for the excellent care you gave us.

I have very mixed feelings about this place. Yes, my son was born here and came out healthy and spent the night in my arms. Was the birthing experience according to my wishes? No, not at all. I am thankful I didn’t have to have a C-​section.
I was confident in my decision to have my baby here. I was impressed with the tour and facility. On the day I arrived to have my baby however everything I was told during the tour did not hold water.
I chose this hospital because I wanted to labor in the spa tub! My nurse kept ignoring my requests and told me no. When I asked if it was because of the pitocin drip and the IV she said no it would not be a problem. Looking back I wish I would have ignored her and made my husband fill up that tub. She was incredibly concerned with keeping me attached to the monitor — a very uncomfortably tight spandex band with slippery lubed monitors on it around my midsection attached to a machine. During the tour I could swear they said no IV and no cords — promising free movement.
After an hour or so of jabbing me with a needle to find my vein I had an IV and pitocin. The very first contraction I had felt like I was kicked by a donkey. I was sent reeling onto the floor doubled over in pain. The nurse came in and told me to get back into bed and GO TO SLEEP! She said this was a long process and I needed rest. I had told her that my birthing plan was to try to endure the pain using the spa tub and if I couldn’t deal with it then I wanted to have an epidural. As the night wore on and I was writhing in pain, she said to me «You chose a natural birth, didn’t you know it was going to be painful?» I tried to squat on the floor but she wouldn’t let me because the monitor on my waist would slip. I tried to do different positions on the bed but she wouldn’t let me. She didn’t want the baby to come before the doctor arrived. I couldn’t do anything to alleviate my pain and she made me lie on my back. It was absolutely excruciating. My nurse gave me nothing to vomit in when I asked and told me I wasn’t going to be sick. What?! My hubby held a trash can for me and that’s what I had to use all night. She never changed the bag when I asked. I made my husband do it.
I asked for an epidural but it took over an hour for him to get to my room because he was helping another patient. By the time he entered my room he asked the nurse to check me (she hadn’t checked my cervix yet at all). I had gone into labor at midnight and it was now about 3:30 a.m. With a big smile on her face she said «Do you want to know how dilated you are, guess?» It turned out I was 6 cm and the epidural man said it was TOO LATE and to call my doctor! No epidural! I was devastated. Another painful half an hour on my back and my doctor arrived.
The things I thought weren’t going to happen did. I was threatened with an episiotomy. Shiny horrible sharp instruments were wheeled next to me. I was threatened with a vacuum. I was only 5 hours into labor. I didn’t know I had to rush things. I pushed as hard as I possibly could to avoid being sliced and vacuumed and had my baby naturally. After the baby was out they wanted to stitch me up without giving me any pain meds! I told them over and over that they needed to give me medication. Finally they reinserted my IV and administered a dose of medication that left me pain free for about 15 minutes.
They didn’t have a hot water bottle and wouldn’t allow any heat bags to go in the microwave. I desperately needed a hot bag on my abdomen. Finally a nurse came up with something for me.
I wasn’t routinely given pain meds and had to keep asking for them. They also give you the world’s worst maxi pads — thick and thin with no wings left over from 1970. For the first day or so I had large hospital pads but the nurse on duty said I shouldn’t need anymore and refused to give me one when I was in desperate need! I wish I had brought my own.
When I finally did get in the spa tub a day after giving birth I couldn’t get the jets to work. =(And for that celebratory dinner with champagne, they gave us apple juice — no champagne. They also weren’t friendly to my family who only stayed an hour.
On the day we left the hospital a nurse came in our room to find my baby in the hospital outfit provided. She said «The hospital can’t afford to send babies home in outfits, didn’t you bring something for your baby to wear?» Gulp. My husband thought the outfit was supposed to be worn out. An honest mistake. It was incredibly uncomfortable to be accused of being ill prepared. We did have an outfit on hand thankfully.
They kept insisting I take laxatives. Huge mistake. The day I left the hospital I was incredibly ill and had to go to the emergency room the next day. I think they overdosed me on laxatives. It was awful to have that experience and not be able to care for my newborn because I was so sick.
In conclusion, two stars for the nice room and the good food. Minus 3 for the bait and switch.

Best birthing experience ever! This facility is beautiful and feels like a hotel not a hospital. The rooms are amazing with jacuzzi tubs and balconies. And your whole birthing process is done in the same room. They change the room from delivery to recovery so well.
The staff is what really made my experience so amazing. They were so attentive my entire labor. My nurse Kim coached me thru my entire delivery and I could not have done it with out her. All the other nurses were also great, they were so good with my baby and always there when I needed them. They even went above and beyond to try to make a placenta tree for me.
Overall I could not have asked for a better place to have my baby. I drove over the hill for every appointment just so I could get in and would do it again for my next baby. If you are looking for a more humanized birthing experience with great staff this is the place.

My husband and I were trying to decide between a homebirth and a hospital birth, and ultimately decided to go with hospital birth for the extra safety factor we felt in case of an emergency. Sutter blew us away with their super-​friendly nurses who were very attentive, sensitive to our wishes, and who took our birth plan and special requests very seriously. We felt safe and cared for during our whole stay. The food was really good, and the filet mignon champagne celebration dinner was spectacular and made us feel so special! We wouldn’t give birth anywhere else!

The room we had was great, the food was amazing (really), the nurses and mid wives honored all of our wishes as far as care go, I have all good things to say about this place other than a couple of the nurses were semi combative and aggressive. There are some that are coming from a very ingrained American medical standard and some that were coming from a very natural home birth back round which is where we are coming from. If you don’t play how a few of them want they will let you know via their level of hospitality and cordiality dropping. I will say I didn’t get much sleep so near the end of us leaving I was pretty short on patience. At no point did I ever feel unsafe or not well taken care of. My wife felt the same. I will say, that some of the attitude from a couple of the staff near our departure was snotty and if not for the one combative and heavy handed nurse (which I think I won over near the end of her shift via trying to find common humanity) and the intolerant snotty one at the very end, I would have given five stars. And to her i say «sorry for being impatient, I didn’t get any sleep in there last night». If it wasn’t for those experiences we would have stayed another night. We have several children that were all born at home. This was out one hospital birth and I think it was way better than we both had ever hoped. A really great place that is a good example to the rest of the United States. Hopefully the entitled few will get their act together whence meeting another human that doesn’t fit into their brand of accepted demographic.
this was written some time ago. since then we are receiving bills for an auditory test that we never received because we said we didn’t need it. the four stars stay for now but if this doesn’t get resolved i will be de rating the stars.

Overall the birthing experience here was excellent. It doesn’t have that regular hospital feeling, it feels much more cozy and less sterile (despite being quite clean:). I love that each room has a balcony and a decent view of the outside. The nurses are excellent and the food was good for a hospital (although they still used artificial maple syrup and commercial grade peanut butter which seems pretty sad).
But really, it’s a great place to have a baby. I was pushing for home birth till I saw Sutter and now I’m glad we did it there.

While we decided to go with a midwife at home due to the driving distance to Sutter, our experience with Dr. Lawson for our 20 week ultrasound appointment and all of the staff we were involved with, in person or on the phone throughout our time considering Sutter and visiting, were amazing. Couldn’t ask for more (except that it was closer to us)!

We are very blessed to have such an amazing team of nurses.
The support and caring was priceless.
We most likely will have baby 2 in here.
If you looking for a happy medium between home-​birth or hospital-​birth, this place is the answer.

If you want to have a low-​intervention or non-​medicated childbirth, this is the place. It’s the best of both worlds. Although I had a natural childbirth, I was glad the technology was there when we needed it, because my son had some heart rate issues during delivery.
The nurses and midwife followed our birth plan pretty much to a T. Some rooms have a tub and some dont, and I had a room with a shower, but labored in the «communal’ tub privately with no issues which was excellent. My husband and I had a natural childbirth, although when my son’s heart rate dropped, the staff made every effort to help me have a natural birth and avoid a c-​section. Although once my delivery reached emergency status the on-​call OBGYN had to come in and deliver, but my midwife (Kris Ayer) never left my side for a second. My 10 lb son was delivered naturally with vacuum assist and the staff congratulated me on my non-​medicated-​semi-​complicated-​huge-​baby childbirth! They also respected my wishes to refuse Pitocin afterwards.
I cannot say enough glorious things about the nurses. Those women are SAINTS. Labor and Delivery nurses are a special breed and my husband and I were blown away by how much they went out of their way for us (took care of our crying little guy at the nurses station when we were trying to get some much needed sleep.)
We’re probably moving from the area in the next few years, which is a shame because I would love to deliver my next child here! Would highly recommend this place to anyone.

I have gone here a couple times to the Orthopedic center and let me say, they are amazing. I have had Hip and Knee injuries from various different sports and the staff here has always been very helpful. Dr. Christopherson has been helpful throughout my journey. He has always told me the truth and advised to not have surgery when it could have been a possibility. They have all the diagnostic tools right there and ready to go so once you have an appointment you will be able to receive all the care you need right at the facility.
Make sure too book way in advanced. They are usually 6 weeks out in booking.

I do not care where you live… if you are pregnant… and you want an amazing birth experience… GO TO SUTTER MATERNITY!
Seriously…I could sit here and write out my whole birth story… but that might be a bit strange… if you have specific questions… I am open to answering them via messages but here are some of the reasons I think it is worth it to drive to Sutter (which I did… I live in San Jose)
1: Staff is amazing. I was treated like a rock star the whole time.
2: Facility is beautiful. Labor tub rocked! Could not do water birth (which was fine) but being able to labor in the tub was amazing!
3: Policies… not many hospitals have great policies… but wow… everything they have in place, all that they believe in makes their care well above any other place.
I switched to Sutter at 28 weeks into my pregnancy due to issues I was having with OBs near my home in San Jose and I am beyond thankful that I did.
Please…if you have any questions about birthing there… the staff or my own experience in details… do not hesitate to message me! I am more than willing to share more!

I have nothing but positive things to say about Sutter. My relative recently went here for cancer surgery and treatment and thus far she is doing really well. While we were waiting in the lounge area the security guard handed us a Christmas treat and talked with us for a bit. Nurses came regularly and updated us on my relative’s status as well as the doctor when he got a chance. Their outpatient home care also was super patient and awesome. HUGE THANK YOU!

Sutter Maternity was so great for the delivery of our daughter. The process which we had planned for got turned upside down due to a unforeseen breech presentation. The Doctors and nurses took it in stride and helped us work through the changed plans. The nurses though are the real heroes at Sutter. They are super helpful and kind, my wife and I were so grateful we chose that hospital to deliver in. It made all the difference. The rooms are warm and welcoming, it feels like home. The guest bed/​couch could have been a bit more comfortable but certainly not the worst I have slept on and it worked for a very tired Daddy. As a really nice flourish they bring you a truly delicious celebration dinner on your last night, ours was fantastic complete with Champagne! great place and makes for wonderful memories of our Daughters birth! Thanks Sutter Maternity!
Side note — the Lactation Specialists are amazing, my Wife has been raving about how awesome and supportive they have been. If you are planning to deliver at Sutter be sure to meet with them for some initial help at nursing, you won’t be sorry about that decision!