Swedish Hospital & Medical Center

Beware!!! Don’t entrust this incompetent facility with your life! Intake form — misspelling of name and incorrect recording of birth date so records could not be found until 4phone calls later. Discharged with life threatening recommendation to continue medication that caused the severe side effects that brought my unfortunate being to this potential death house in the first place. Instructed to call or make appointment for follow-​up. No appointments available for 3 to 4 weeks — refused to take verbal report by phone. This place is a catastrophe waiting to happen!!!

My husband recently had surgery at Swedish. They did an awsome job! The team of doctors that worked on him went above and beyond to make the surgery a success! Good people.

Dr Charles Lee is a excellent doctor, he treated me with the utmost respect. Always called me back with my needs. Swedish is a very good hospital and the nurse’s like Jennifer, Suki, there are to many to mention everyone of them were great. Anthony Matos. Ps DR Lee came every day same time. Now that’s rare. The nurse’s we’re right on the money with my pain meds unless they were busy with another patient which they would call me.

Came in here to the ED with S/​O. S/​O had broken rib and kidney stones. Both related to a genetic condition, so, chill — it’s not normal to get both at the same time and in most cases you’ll never be in the same situation. We have also come here previously with a broken femur.
Our two experiences were very different.
On broken femur day we were seen immediately, J rcvd pain medication immediately and was generally taken very good care of.
The other night ¹²⁄₂₁ we waited two hours to be SEEN. No meds for another hour. And were in the ED for a total of 6 hours. Including bloods being drawn TWICE because the first nurse messed up the draw. First nurse also incorrectly reported the side the pain was on to the next nurse. W/​e everyone makes mistakes but, at the same time J was already in a lot of pain. This wait time was significantly worse than the CDC reported national avg.
Due to having a lot of friends and family with chronic illness/​complicated medical conditions plus my own background, I’ve seen a lot of ER’s and ED’s — this one isn’t the worst by any means but, like most places, it could be better.
Positives: J didn’t die and we got home eventually.

Came in here tp the ED with S/​O. S/​O had broken rib and kidney stones. Both related to a genetic condition, so, chill — it’s not normal to get both at the same time and in most cases you’ll never be in the same situation. We have also come here previously with a broken femur.
Our two experiences were very different.
On broken femur day we were seen immediately, J rcvd pain medication immediately and was generally taken very good care of.
The other night ¹²⁄₂₁ we waited two hours to be SEEN. No meds for another hour. And were in the ED for a total of 6 hours. Including bloods being drawn TWICE because the first nurse messed up the draw. First nurse also incorrectly reported the side the pain was on to the next nurse. W/​e everyone makes mistakes but, at the same time J was already in a lot of pain. This wait time was significantly worse than the CDC reported national avg.
Due to having a lot of friends and family with chronic illness/​complicated medical conditions plus my own background, I’ve seen a lot of ER’s and ED’s — this one isn’t the worst by any means but, like most places, it could be better.
Positives: J didn’t die and we got home eventually.

Swedish system in general is a very good place. I go to Swedish first hill very often and I’m always greeted with a hello and a smile. The attendants are always helpful and willing to go out of their way. The concierge in the front is always knowledgeable and helpful to anyone and everyone. I personally have never had an issue at Swedish first hill. You walk into the lobby it is huge.
They have a Starbucks inside the lobby. The workers at the Starbucks are always friendly and fast. I’ve gone to many of the floors to get patients and they always tell me they love the nurses and the doctors. I personally have had good experiences with the nurses. Very friendly and sometimes even super funny. Swedish first hill is usually always clean. The men’s bathroom on the very first floor could use some work. They need to fix the doors and even clean it a little bit better. Other than that I personally think they do a phenomenal job.

My wonderful doc recently relocated to practice at Swedish, so this was my first Swedish experience. The care I received on my recent visit was great and deserving of five stars. However, I was SHOCKED when I opened my first bill from Swedish to find that they charged me an extra $ 132 for ear wax removal, only partially covered by insurance. I am on a fixed income and I had to pay for something as frivolous as ear wax removal? I’m really, really upset about being nickeled and dimed, and basically taken advantage of, by Swedish. Jerks.
To update: After moving through three layers of contact people in the billing department, Swedish issued a partial refund. The lady I spoke with explained that, in the future, I should ask each time the doc performs a service to determine if I want to pay extra for it or not. My take away is that apparently Swedish is more profit than patient oriented, and they are interested in squeezing every last drop of $$$ out of the unfortunates who enter their door in search of healing. This is what medical care has come to in the U.S. Very sad.

Check in is seamless. Nursing staff attentive. Rooms are spacious and bedding is typical hospital comfort. The endoscopy center is a professional center with state of the art equipment. I am here about every 4 weeks and my expectations are always met. Warm blankets or a bear hugger always available. The doctors always available to answer questions before your procedure and the anesthesia doctor makes an appearance as well. Easy in and easy out. Profesional.
The most frustrating part is NO ONE ever comes in to tell you when the provider is running behind. You can sit in a room for hours and no nursing staff comes in to communicate with you about the delays. Aggrivating!

A couple of weeks ago I was assaulted and there were a few marks on me. I was told to go to Swedish and get it looked at and photographed so I can keep it in my file. They put me in a room, a doctor looked at them and told me that the bruises would heal. Then I got a bill for $ 2000… for what? A couple of pictures? And they even broke their contract with Premera and now I have to pay that out of pocket even when I have insurance.
I’m so glad I didn’t ask for a bandaid or I would’ve had to sell my kidneys for them.
Even Wall Street is looking at this and thinking, «damn! We should get into the medical business.»

My review is about the Birthing Center only, as that’s the only experience I’ve had with Swedish at this point.
I just got home from spending a couple of nights at the hospital because of some severe stomach pain that turned out to be something a bit more complicated. Throughout the ordeal, the nurses were attentive and helpful, and kept in communication with me about labs and test results as they came in. They were always asking how I was feeling re: pain, and while I know that they were required to do so, I also felt that they actually cared for my well-​being. I’ve been to other hospitals and experienced the opposite, so this was a refreshing experience for me.
I have the good fortune of being a patient at Polyclinic OB/​GYN, and so I also got to speak to three on-​call OBs during my 2-​night stay (one of which is my own OB). All of them were fantastic, had great bedside manner, communicated well, and made sure to keep me as comfortable as possible.
Given that I will be delivering here later this year, I feel pretty good about my experience and feel I’ll be in good hands.

Issaquah location. In 2014 I was in and out of ER. I got to know some of the staff. I was there 3−5x a week and was ⁹⁄₁₀ times in within 0 – 10 minutes. My longest wait was maybe 20 – 30 minutes. Majority of my doctors are at Swedish. I have issues with scheduling and getting my referrals with primary care. They’re constantly not being received so who knows what is going on…
Gastric Pacemaker done in Seattle. No complications.

Went to their sleep medicine center on Capitol Hill.
1. Their customer service is horrible — called three times and spoke to the doctor’s «assistants» who never took notes on our conversations and so subsequently I always had to call back and explain the problem to the next person
2. You simply can’t reach a sleep doctor and their «assistants» are never available unless you leave a message.
3. They say they will call you back and do not.
4. They don’t seem to have much interest in you if you have a problem and seem pretty unconcerned after you go through the initial sleep study.
Kudos for the sleep test and documentation — which seemed excellent .
It’s basically another Business that will drive you so crazy with their lack of service and follow-​up that you will wish you went elsewhere.

This is nothing but a big impersonal business. Our doctor ordered an unnecessary CT scan for our daughter. Records show that my daughter’s medical records were altered by our doctor to «prove» that we gave our consent to the test. In fact: our consent was never asked for and we were made to feel that we had to go along with the CT scan. We have found out later that the pediatric protocol instructed the doctor to observe and not to CT, but this protocol was blatanly ignored. Our doctor was: Sarah Grace Sliva. Avoid her by all means. I have begged the hospital to make sure that they offer something in writing to parents in the future, so parents can be informed about the risk of CT to their children. Leukemia and brain cancer are some of the future risks for kids who receive a CT. Radiation dose is incredibly high: 100‑1000 chest x-​ray per scan. Of course this information was kept away from us, so we didn’t refuse the scan.
The hospital flatly refused to change their practice and inform patients about the risks. The reasons for this outragous practice: they have charged $ 3600 for the CT. If parents knew the risks: they would be much more cautious about agreeing to CT. This of course would be bad for business. Never, ever go to Swedish.
The Office of the Inspector General audited this hospital and found them guilty of overcharging (fraud) Medicare in 2012.

I visited the emergency room of Swedish Hospital on February 18. I presented with a serious sinus infection, dehydration, excessive vomiting and heart palpitations. I waited for 45 minutes in an exam room. I vomited twice more. I actually spent more time with the person in charge of billing than an actual Doctor. The Doctor spent less than 10 minutes with me. He told me to leave and gave me a ‘form’ letter as to what I should do, including returning to the hospital. It was 5 am. I was the only patient and deserved better. These people are assholes who ignored any ‘oath’ they took to help people. My options for getting justice are limited That is why I’m reaching out on Unilocal.DANGER. DANGER. Do not allow Swedish Medical to provide you with any type of health care. I’m happy to share my experience. Michael Davis. 425 207 8986

I take my son to three different Therapists here every week (Physical, speech, and occupational). I have never had an issue and they have always been very very nice and accommodating.

I don’t know how their ER rates but if it’s really that bad and you want to live go to Harborview Neff said.
Kathryn L. Is an amazing physical therapist and your child would be lucky to have her, Cameron R. The Occupational therapist is very sweet and knows just how to work with my son to help him get up to speed. Now he (my son) just started his speech therapy but it’s been going very well. Eric is amazing with kids and knows just the right technics to work with difficult children. I love my son very much and I try to give him what I can, but then there are the days were he is no angel and I want to rip my hair out. Eric is a perfect male roll model, and knows how to be stern and hold his ground but still show compassion.
All in all I have no problem seeing these 3 amazing human beings 3 tines and week and with their help I know my sin will be just fine and is always in great hands. They offer parents to sit in on lessons or allow you to hang out in the waiting OR you can even go get a coffee from the Starbucks down stairs. With having to be here 3 times a week at different hours it has made finding work a little difficult, but this is something my son needs and with the level of service we receive I have no complaints.

My friend has been at Swedish for week. She was transferred from St joes in tacoma. The care she is receiving at Swedish far surpasses that of St joes.
She has been in the ICU and the care is exceptional.
I would recommend Swedish to anyone.

I have been a Swedish patient for 18 years. The ONLY reason is I found a stellar Internist who was acquired by Swedish, so I’m stuck in the system. I have too many stories to share, but a recent trip to the emergency room is telling – I came in with a broken shoulder and never saw a licensed physician nor had X-​Rays taken by a Radiologist. All pseudo nurse practitioners or technicians out of community college. I’ve seen no less than six specialists for various reasons, and all were arrogant, short tempered and seemed to hate their jobs. I am eager to switch over to UW Medicine and go with the pros. Oh, and my emergency room bill, after insurance (Blue Cross) and co-​pay: $ 1,000 which included an $ 800 fee for use of the facility – all out of pocket! Swedish buries you in fees to all their specialists, and you get the bills months later.
Medicine is getting ugly, and Swedish is the face of it.

This was the worst experience of my life and I will never go back here. I went to the Swedish ER on 1^st in Seattle for extreme abdominal pain. I have never in my life been to the ER before this (I am 28 years old) so I was in more pain than I had ever experienced in my life. They had me waiting, crying, and hyperventilating in the lobby for THREE HOURS before they admitted me back. The nurse asked me some dumb «does it hurt here» questions and I gave a urine sample. I then waited an additional hour for the ER doctor to show up. She had me jump on my left leg to make sure it wasn’t appendicitis and then sent me home. After waiting for four hour, my episode had almost passed and I was in a lot less pain at this point so I didn’t ask for any pain meds (they weren’t going to help now, I needed then three hours ago). The ER doctor did, however, write me up for an anti-​nausea medication and Bentyl which is an anti-​spasmodic. I was not nauseous and I did not have cramps. Both medications were inappropriate for my symptoms.
So after 5 hours with no help they sent me a bill for $ 2,000. Actually it was $ 1,990 or something but we can round up. The only thing they did for me medically was a urine sample (which turns out cost about $ 100) so they wanted me to pay $ 1,800 for the most painful, worst experience of my life, which they did exactly nothing to help with.
My advice: Go to Virginia Mason across the street. They not only admitted me within 5 minutes the next time I had an endometreosis episode, but they gave me pain medications, and a CAT scan which led to actually figuring out what the problem was. Oh, and my bill from them was almost exactly the same amount.
Swedish = wait 4 hours in agony, urine sample = $ 2,000
Virginia Mason = wait 5 minutes, pain meds, CAT scan, find a solution = $ 2,000

I delivered my baby at this hospital a year ago, and still regret not choosing a different hospital.
Despite assurances on the birth tour that they open the overflow wing for women in labor if they run out of beds in delivery rooms, they refused to open the overflow unit. I was forced to pace around the hospital and hang out in the noisy triage for 9 hours before I received a bed. My water broke before I arrived at the hospital at 5 AM, and until they gave me a bed later in the afternoon, they did little to alleviate any anxiety about my escalating health issues while I was in labor.
My delivering OB-​GYN laughed when I said they’d told me they wouldn’t run out of beds on the birth tour. I’ve since had friends take the tour where they told them they don’t run out of beds, so I know they continue to lie to prospective patients. It was a horribly uncomfortable experience.
I was later told by administration I should’ve asked for a supervisor, but this is not something I thought I would need to do in the midst of labor.
They also made terrible mistakes on my outtake paperwork that could affect one’s insurance for life, that luckily our pediatrician from Virginia Mason got fixed for us.
Choose elsewhere.

In the event of an emergency, you don’t always have the luxury to choose where you are able to seek treatment, but please — if you do have the chance, do NOT come here. I came here for an emergency situation after being sent by their SLU location and wish I had either gone anywhere else, or nowhere at all.
I’m also dreading the bill I’ll receive, as there was very little/​poor communication around it and now reading other reviews along with my own visit’s experience, I’m not expecting a great experience with billing either.

Swedish is and always has been a stellar medical facility. The care providers (particularly the nurses, Nurse Assistants, and support staff) are reliably knowledgable, kind, supportive and prompt.
As a patient I have experienced excellent care both as an outpatient and an inpatient. The main hospital on Broadway is rather large, and can be confusing to navigate, but I always find that employees are keen to help when a person looks lost or confused.

I now rate this a FIVE STAR Business! I pray to GOD that I never have to use this business personally, because I am scared to DEATH of HOSPITALS! I don’t want to ever have to be in one for ANY THING. In fact at work I have a sign on my locker and it says, «The best day at the HOSPITAL, is worse that the worst day at WORK».
The reason for the upgrade is that I feel that the hospital is top notch, the service is pretty good, the nurses care and so do the doctors. I’ve been there so many times because my wife has had her cancer treatments there, and for fighting cancer, I would not hesitate to get my treatment there.
But even that thought scares the hell out of me, so I wont even say anymore about that, but if you need cancer treatment, you would be wise to consider them for getting well.

I was referred here by my midwife for a cesarean delivery due to breech presentation. My surgeon had terrible bedside manner, informing me (incorrectly) that doctors won’t do VBACs (vaginal birth after cesarean) any more, knowing full well that I was a home birth transfer.
When we got to the hospital we had been told that there would be two people allowed in the OR, and even heard a couple in the waiting room mention the policy as there were two people in with the mother they were waiting for, but when they heard the word «doula» they decided that hospital policy was for only one person to be in the OR.
I requested immediate skin to skin, even if it was with my husband, which was ignored.
While I was lying on the operating table being stitched up, no one would tell me what was going on or why my son was screaming bloody murder across the room, nor would they even show my son to me. Two hours later he was handed to me, wrapped up tight despite my request for skin to skin, and I was told to stop rubbing my son’s back while I breastfed him.
And this is just the start. I would NEVER recommend that anyone go to this hospital to deliver a baby, especially if they are even remotely informed.

I am in the hospital right now because I had surgery this morning. I have buzzed and asked for pain med twice all day and had to wait 30+ minutes for someone to bring it. Right now I have been waiting for 25 minutes for someone to fix my iv as the unit is beeping extremely loudly.
The staff is fine, but this is ridiculous. The cleanliness could be improved — concerning for a hospital!

Quelle petite phrase bouleversante au coeur d’un être?