Kelly S.
Yelp
As a provider myself I felt the need to write an accurate review of my personal experience as a patient at Arrowhead Abrazo Hospital. The ER portion was absolutely horrendous. Saturday at 245 am. I'm the only person in the lobby, was the only one being triaged and there was one other patient actually being treated in the ER. Front desk was good, the triage was good, and the ER physician was inexperienced. She told me I had a virus and migraine after her eval and wanted to send me home. I advised her I was a PA and told her my thoughts and why it's important I have labs and cultures drawn. She didn't like that and said she needed clearance from her supervising physician. The SP came in, did his eval and instantly ordered labs, cultures, lumbar puncture, CT of head, and started IV antibiotics.
Next, everyone is training and brand new. I understand we all need to learn, but I was a person's first IV, had a nurse who received her license 3 months ago (and was training a student), then the lumbar puncture was an even newer resident under my original ER physician. She had never done one, not sure she had seen one because she didn't know basics, even position of the bevel or how to inform me of risks of the procedure. I was so uneasy about this I contemplated being treated elsewhere. During it there were hiccups, extra csf was leaked. No one bandaged it, I sat in bed upright and developed a severe headache where I was dry heaving and sweating from pain. Used my call light without response, so I started yelling for help. A Dr came in and helped me lay the bed flat as I knew this was a post LP complication headache. This lasted for days and I couldn't sit up or walk due to the intensity of the pain when elevated. I would have been treated with IV antibiotics and discharged if it weren't for this complication. Due to the post-puncture headache from the LP, I had to be an inpatient for 5 days.
Once admitted onto the floor, the experience drastically improved. Staff knew what they were doing, yes still training, but that's expected. Thankful I knew enough from my medical background to argue with the original physician to even get a workup in the ER. She would've sent me home and I would have continued to worsen and become septic without IV antibiotics and possibly be critically ill or even die.
Overall, awful ER where I'd never go back to as I don't believe they have competent physicians. Maybe this was only because it was an overnight shift at 3am on a weekend, but I'd never risk it again. In my opinion, the hospital needs more trained and experienced physicians and limits how many staff are training at a time.
Yet, the actual inpatient portion of the hospital was great with knowledgeable physicians and staff.
