Paul R

Review of Mercy Gilbert Medical Center

My wife has been here a few times because it's the...

My wife has been here a few times because it's the closest hospital and there has been good (4 star) and bad care but I'm giving one stars because the bad care scenario really was that bad.

First the not so bad saga:
This past weekend my wife went to the er for severe cough and dizziness. We discussed with the er staff that she had been to the er and admitted 3 times in the past month for the same thing.

The first time the Dr treated her for pneumonia in the lower right lung and discharged her after two days. My wife felt good when discharged and the quality of care this stay was great.

She went back in the next week after getting food poisening that aggravated her cough and the er Dr admitted her for aspirated pneumonia. After the first night of treatment at the hospital they realized there was no pneumonia but kept her another night anyways. Being treated and kept another night for nothing was a waste of time and a waste for the insurance company.

The third time she went to the er after waking up to her shoulder/chest popping which again caused the cough to come back with a vengence. She was once again admitted and given a cough syrup and breathing treatments (which worked wonderfully) but when they discharged her they gave her a different cough syrup that didn't work. Quality of care was great but not giving her the correct cough syrup prescription upon discharge was not so great.

Once again we run into another issue where the hospital just wants to charge the insurance. My wife was admitted over night because the ER was unable to perform a spinal tap to check for meningitis and needed an ultrasound machine to do it properly but apparently they don't have one in the ER. After staying over night the Dr tells my wife they are not going to do the spinal tap because the blood work doesn't show an infection but they want to do an x-ray before discharging to check for "something", there were not clear on why. Then all of a sudden my wife is told she's staying another night for observation which was unnecessary and simply a money grab. And now, an hour after the Dr comes in and says they are going to discharge her we are told it's going to another 2 - 3 hours before the paperwork is done, this is gigantic b.s!!!! During this time period they brought food which is another charge to the insurance, this is one of the biggest insurance scamming hospitals I've ever been to.

Now the bad:
My wife came in for bleeding and since she has had a full a hysterectomy she shouldn't have been. The PA that saw her in the er was unable to see where it was coming from and then proceeded to tell my wife there was no internal bleeding even though it was dripping out of her. She used the restroom in the er and while sitting filled the toilet with blood so she called the nurse in to see it and then asked to see an actual Dr to see if the Dr could find the source of the bleeding since the PA could not. 5 minutes later the PA walked in discharging wife and telling her to go home and rest. My wife went from the Gilbert Mercy straight to Banner Gateway where not only did they find the source (internal cut) but they also considered a blood transfusion due to the amount of blood my wife had lost while Gilbert Mercy proved scarily ineffective because they could see the severe bleeding but didn't care to find out why. Bottom line, if you think you need a second opinion after treatment at this er go seek it out.

Also, since this hospital doesn't have any real employers and they are all contact (including labs) they all get to charge the insurance as out of network so you'll have to argue and fight with your insurance to get any stay or treatment covered.

The quality of care is really hit or miss here with some being very caring not only with health but home life and others seem only to care about what they can charge the insurance company.