Happy Ash

Review of Exempla St. Josephs

I had my second daughter here and it was a pretty ...

I had my second daughter here and it was a pretty bad experience. I would give them fewer stars, but I was reasonably impressed with how they handled things afterward. Two things that were the worst (although many others were not great): First, the doctor broke my water without asking me first which really ticked me off. Then later the nurses wouldn't believe me when I said I was ready to push. They kept telling me the baby would be born after their shift change. Excuse me? Babies don't care about your shift change.

Then they have a policy of waking you every 1 to 2 hours all night long. Apparently the doctor came to check on my during one of the only 15 minute stretches of sleep I got and they didn't wake me up. So I had no follow up until 6 weeks after the baby was born (a Kaiser policy). Since they don't provide birth notes or records to your provider, I had a time trying to figure out why things went so wrong.

I filed a complaint against the doctor who broke my water and received follow-up that she had been spoken to. I was pleasantly surprised by that although I don't know if it will make a difference. Then after literally hours on the phone, I was able to talk to the patient manager or something like that who was able to get the medical notes and go over them with me to try to understand why some issues and the baby's status at birth. That was very helpful, but it seems like that should be routine not something you have to work so hard for.