St. Charles Health System Review

I had a failed back surgery 15 months ago; I have had constant pain, walking, sitting standing ever since; in response to the hysteria about opiates, I've reduced my total consumption from 38 fentanyl and 60 mg oxycodone to only 15 mg oxycodone. (I'm 72 hardly hanging out in a meth house--I'm completely disabled).
Huge reduction considering I have been Able to do anything for 15 months except go to the bathroom and make a pot of coffee due to pain.
Had major 9 hour surgery last Friday; the major goal of the orthopedic neurological nursing team is to reduce my pain medication, instead of pain level.
Wacked.

They are a joke your doctor will write a referral you call a few days later and you get the run around went they just don't look in the right place. Then you call them out on it and they denied it it crap that they have a monopoly on the healthcare over here

Just went to the ER this evening after debating about not going becuz of the issue I would be being seen for. I was sort of embarrassed becuz it wasn t really a live or die cituation, pry could have waited to see a family doctor but the pain was so bad I couldn t wait until Tuesday!
My check in was fine, triage nurse was great. All was good and then the doc came in and let s just say her bedside manner is not the best. But after realizing the pain I was in and the cause of the pain she seemed to turn around and be a little more empathetic. Still a little rough around the edges. But she helped me and gave me some antibiotics and something for pain. Plus I was out the door in good time. The nursing staff was great, very friendly, and made me feel less embarrassed of my issue.

I have read most of the reviews for this hospital and it made me a little upset as someone who was in ICU for over a week had to get multiple dialysis and almost died i can tell you that St. Charles hospital of bend is the best. The nurses were amazing they helped me and my husband with everything. Treated me with respect and cared for my well being like a family member and didn't treat me like just another patient. I wouldn't like to return to the hospital for the fact that i don't wanna be sick but i have worked in a hospital that had nurses that didn't care and treating patients like nothing and i can 100% say that this hospital is absolutely amazing.

Generally unresponsive staff with little to no human respect. Mostly disregards patients.

Saturday, June 22nd, 2013
Myself, having years of experience in the medical profession- the most horrible ER experience of my life. My wife and i brought an elderly woman who is a close friend to get treated for inflammation. She was in excruciating pain, barely mobile. The behavior of the ER aid taking her vitals was rude, abusive and physically harmful. When this employee slipped the BP cuff over our elderly woman friend's right arm, she did it so carelessly that she pinched her loose skin on her underarm, tightened the cuff, and while this happened, our senior friend tried to tell her in tears "your'e hurting me..over and over..but all this girl said in a very raised voice was:"CALM DOWN! CALM DOWN! "DON'T FREAK OUT"! "DON'T FREAK OUT"!...Our friend was NOT frantic, nor was she "freaking out"-( most inappropriate phraseology and lack of professional and courteous language spoken to a patient..")..My wife tried to tell this girl if she could try the cuff any other way, but this girl snapped and told her: "NO! THERE IS NO OTHER WAY"...HOLD STILL"! I was standing out in the ER lobby, and could hear this girl's raised voice very clear and audibly, and i thought with her choice of words and with the tone of her voice, that she must have been talking to a fellow employee - when i discovered that she had been addressing our friend in pain, i was enraged and disgusted in disbelief. When the vitals proceedure was finished..Norma, our friend, was crying and said to this girl: "you hurt me, you hurt me"...Norma also showed me a red welt on her right under arm where the cuff pinched her. The girl neither apologized nor was sensitive to the patient. Her behavior is amply demonstrative of patient abuse, and she deserved termination in my esteem. The Doctor examining our friend, was rude to my wife, He asked our friend, the patient questions, when she could not answer one of these questions, she looked at my wife for help, when my wife spoke, nobody was talking, but the doctor ( whoose name i am withholding for now)..curtly snapped at my wife and told her: " I CANNOT SPEAK TO TWO PEOPLE AT ONCE!..I AM ASKING HER QUESTIONS...NOT YOU! WHEN I AM FINISHED ADDRESSING HER, THEN I WILL TALK WITH YOU"! "WE ARE SHORT-STAFFED, SO YOU MAY BE HERE A LONG TIME!!" In no way during this incident did my wife interrupt anybody..she was polite, courteous, and well composed...she did not deserved to be addressed this way.Already exhausted, my wife got up silently, was in tears, left the examining ward and sat in the lobby crying and upset. I immediately went to the Head Nurse in the ER to ask for the Director, because i had a complaint, but she politely told me he was not present until monday, otherwise, I would have addressed this matter immediately. My wife and i are good, respectable, well mannered and well liked individuals in the community. The woman we cared for is of very sound mind, a knowledgable lady of dignity and character, who herself was once a certified CNA, and at present, is a teacher of Biblical literature.She is appalled at this awful experience, and plans to respond candidly per patient's rights criteria. I don't give a damn how short-staffed they are, that doesn't ever give any professional or layperson the right to mis- treat / abuse a patient and the party caring for them. It is not our fault that the ER was short staffed. We have lived in Central Oregon for over 21 years, and i have always experienced my visits to St Charles in highest esteem and reverence for what i felt was an institution far above the norms of required medical standards. What has happened? These people are all trained per pre-employment standards to meet very specific criteria regarding especially patient sensitivity issues and other human interactions so they are without excuse in failing to perform with this standard. This is not finished until my demands via my responses to the St.Charles ER director are reciprocated with sincere admissions, or i promise this will go even further.

My 96 year old mom was brought into the hospital via ambulance last night and I must say they did a wonderful job with her. We were so impressed with the speed, professionalism and courtesy she received. Dr. Singer was great as her ER Doctor, and cannot speak highly enough about the rest of the staff. Thanks again.

My wife was in the ER last night and the doctor in charge questioned her why she wasn't taking Advil for the pain. This doctor was told my wife was taking methyl prednisolone for the inflammation and to turn off the immune response. He sent her home after giving her 600 mg of Advil. It turns out Advil is contraindicated for the methyl prednisolone and this doctor SHOULD HAVE KNOWN THAT. He put my wife in a precarious situation by mixing drugs like that.

I had surgery at the orthopedic center at St. Charles yesterday. Dr. Christopher Healy was absolutely the best ever. His knowledge, compassion and patience went above and beyond. I never felt so at ease before. He took time to explain all that would be done, and was understanding to my needs. The experience was great and I was so nervous before I met him. I feel so blessed that he was the Doctor performing my surgery

Karen Walker
Sunriver, OR

Dr. Graham and his PA in the ER were great! But the problem is systemic with the St. Charles System. My wife was brought by ambulance to a trauma room of the ER. She had a head injury and possible internal injuries from a mountain biking accident. She arrived before I did and while I was on my way to be with her - BILLING was trying to reach me. They wanted me to pay the insurance deductible and were leaving messages for me to take care of it as soon as I got to the hospital. The insensitive billing person thought that my wife's condition was far less important than getting the financial compensation. We have never owed St Charles, so it was not a matter that she should have distrusted us. But this matter is beyond distasteful - it is repulsively immoral! Let the spouse of a patient first see their loved one and know their condition as the priority. WRONG MESSAGE St CHARLES !!! BAD FORM !!!

Don't get sick when you're visiting bend. Especially if you have Kaiser. They will charge you an arm and a leg.

Took my son in with a broken arm . The staff was very nice and did a great job handing his fear. Awesome care very efficient and caring every step of the way.

My wife and I had our baby there in June 2014. Staff was super friendly, polite, and helpful! Definitely will be back for our second child! Thanks for all the help and professionalism!!!

Just needed some stitches after a biking accident and ended up waiting (and bleeding) for 2 hours in what appeared to be a pretty empty ER. Ended up walking out with my wound still dirty and bleeding and I was stitched up 20 minutes later at an urgent care place.

As today's date MAY 16TH 2015 my wife has been waiting on ER for 3 freaking hours waiting to been seen. She's in pain and bleeding. Talk to them few times about seeing her nobody cares. Worst hospital we ever been into

I was treated bad during my 3 week stay there. Twice an aide left me unattended in the shower . The place is filthy and it stinks. I had back surgery there last year and couldn't believe it was the same hospital!! I would rather die than go back there. I was life flighted there from Lakeview . Hate the place!!!!!

Terrible service, cancer patient with no ride or place to go released late at night after being charged $3000 left to fend for myself. Staff is rude and very Unprofessional never have I been treated so badly admin needs to change!

My experience with the staff was unpleasing. Staff made the patient I brought in and I feel as if they were unconcerned. They continued to seem careless and make smartass remarks as if the patients case wasn't as severe as we felt.

Hats off to Dr. Brett Singer and his late night shift ER team. Everyone including reception, nurses, security and especially the Doctor himself were professional, caring and thorough. I am not an experienced patient, but you all exceeded my expectations. It appears to me to be a tough thankless job you perform daily, please keep up the goodwill and know that it is greatly appreciated. Dr. Singer is a credit to the Hippocratic oath. Thank you. Rick W

why is it that you can never talk to anyone when you call there, you only get transferred to voicemail, and they will get back to you as soon as possible. Awesome clearly you are understaffed since i cant get a callback within 24hours. All because they havent filed any of my medical records in the last 8 months so i cant even request my new medical records..

I'm completely disgusted by the way my mother was treated here. She went in for knee surgery and 2 nurses were absolutely vile to her, they talked to her with total disrespect and made her cry. She vowed never to return, and I vowed to knock a couple nurses the F#!@ out if I ever see them on the street. Horrible.

This review is regarding the patient financial services department and claims submission/denial/reprocessing. I called because I received a statement almost A YEAR AND A HALF after the date of service. When I asked why, I was provided a response that was canned: "it took that long for your insurance to process the claim", and I felt like I was given the bare minimum to get me off the phone, assuming I wouldn't understand. When I insisted on a better description of the problem, the finger was pointed at the doctor's coding ability, he/she had used the wrong procedure code and my insurance didn't recognize it, and I was told "we don't have anything to do with that." So from a consumer's perspective, I was told that St. Charles doesn't have anything to do with St. Charles mistakes, and that my insurance, who has been timely in processing all of my claims, took a year and a half to process this claim...I was also told they issued 4 EOBs, so now I feel lied to. Wow. Thanks. You not only insulted my intelligence, but you also earned a 1 star Google review, which seems to be par for the course after I've read other patients negative interactions with St. Charles. I had a great experience with the staff at St. Charles Women's Health in Redmond with the birth of my son and my pregnancy with my second son, only to have it soured by the poor phone customer service I received in patient financial services, and the rigidity in your financial policy when YOU, not me, not my insurance, dropped the ball. If I took a year and a half to pay my bill, I'd go to collections. Glad I moved to Boise and get to use St. Lukes.

I never leave reviews however...Doctor was fantastic as she always has been, however in recent years I've watched the staff (which you deal with 95% of the time) become very unpleasant. Rude in fact. Almost untouchable. They make you sign a waiver to be kind to the staff? However it allows them to be rude (horribly) to my wife that was in labor. She was in tears...during an event like this?? Thank goodness I don't plan on have any other children I'd have to figure out someplace else to go. Now there are a few jems employeed. Shining stars if you will. Those are the people that accually should be in the care industry. If anyone from the hospital cares to hear more on this... I have more feedback.

Jackie with a Q!;).. is loud and very pushy! Extremely unhealthy human! Horrible experience... and you are definitely not seen in the order you arrive... I guess Jackie decides who needs emergency help...

From the lady that checked me in saying she didn't care cause she was off in 20 min too waiting over 2 hours not being seen I walked out. You would think someone with an infection in their hand that has swollen twice the size would be considered some what serious, it was not.

The Dr. here was an absolute moron. She sent me home telling me everything was fine with my health. The next morning I seizured out. Even after I had explained my health past, she treated me like I was a drug seeker. Little to say, I ended up in here for a four day stay and was told we aren t exactly sure if it was a seizure. Definitely would not trust my life in these overplayed dr s again.

Very nice hospital! Who wants to ever have to be in one :(. It was very clean and staff was nice.

Went multiple times to the ER after a heat exhaustion event happened to me in Portland. Every time I waited around 6-8 hours, even during one time where I was experiencing seizures.

To make it all worse, they were not able to diagnose any medical problem.

They are an incredibly unprofessional health organization.

Had a nice experience my unfortunate visit. Clean, courteous staff, easy parking, and a well run establishment.

Excellent!
I have had four major operations (two back, one knee and one hip replacement) and received excellent care each time. The facilities were pristine, the staff was very responsive and caring and the food was terrific (great salmon).
This was at the main facility in Bend; I have no idea about their other facilities.

the mental health care at this place sucked, it did not help me at all. the lessons about stress management, chemical dependency and all others were great but nothing new if you did your own research to try and keep yourself sane. staff were lousy, nice but lousy. there was no information about what was happening to you, unless you badgered them for several hours or in my case over three days. the whole point was to stabilize you and throw you out barely on your feet. I am no better going in then when i came out. I just do not want to kill myself at the moment as much, but i still do and i still have all my other issues as well, so that is why it sucked

I understand the ER gets busy and that they aren t designed to help with chronic illnesses but the level of respect given to a patient when they are trying to specifically ask for NON-narcotic pain relief is pathetic because they treat you as if your asking for a million dollars. They say there s an opioid addiction problem in today s world and the worst part is that it is caused by the drs that there are now that push narcotic medications on people. I had to raise my voice just to make it clear to them I didn t want them to just give more meds it s truly pathetic and gives very little hope for the medical system.

I have worked with the administration and staffs of various medical facilities and training centers throughout the Pacific NW as well as the Midwest. It is common to manage psychiatric overflow in more populated regions by seeking vacancies in outlying facilities. However, cautionary tales arose insofar as seeking these services from St. Charles in Bend. It was hard to understand why one facility seemed to be singled out for such negative commentary - especially by professionals who had no involvement with day-to-day operations over there. Yet, direct experience confirmed the story. Just one small example? St. Charles abruptly transferred patients to a second facility but failed to check whether or not the receiving facility was equipped to accept the patient's funding. When the patient's insurance could not be billed, the receiving facility went unpaid and the, otherwise insured, patient was sent to collections (suffering overwhelming stress as a result). In keeping with community perception, St. Charles personnel were quick to assign blame elsewhere (in this case, the receiving facility). Meanwhile, St. Charles's self-righteous proclamations of superior patient care begin to fall on deaf ears. Regrettably, common perceptions of a problematic management style in behavioral health have found plentiful support among my colleagues. An insular and self-perpetuating cronyism has been allowed to go unchecked. It is a problem will not and can not correct itself as long as those few employees who created this organizational brokenness are allowed to hold the very positions that maintain it. Yes, fresh new leadership will be needed to replace the outworn and ineffective.

Endoscopic procedure; took really good care of me pre and post procedure.

I was just in a car accident and the paramedics, nurses, and doctors were absolutely amazing, gentle, informative, and caring. I ve never been taken care of so well. HUGE HUGE HUGE THANK YOU TO EVERYONE.

Had one visit there and received a $520 bill. I would recommend talking to the front office before letting them do anything.

My son was injured at work and when I called to check on his condition the nurse was very rude and told me she didn't know anything about my patient.

The emergency room staff and ICU staff have been amazing! They have taken such good care of our daughter and us. I could never thank them enough for their kindness!

These doctors are okay with breaking HIPAA. They tried to strip me of my clothing in front of a complete stranger without permission/consent. Doesn t matter if they are wearing a uniform or not, you can t be doing such things to a patient.

If it wasn t for what happened, I d never would of chosen this place nor will I ever encourage anyone to come here.

ST Charles was no help, my wife was in serious pain and ready to pass out in the waiting room for One and a half hours. After getting plenty of empathy but no help we went across the street to BMC urgent care and in 10 minutes she was in a bed and seeing the doctor. Seams that ST Charles was under staffed, could be a management problem. I will leave another review when I find out if they try to change us for walking out, we are very disappointed. Take an ambulance to the ER if you have to be seen quickly!

I was yelled at in the ER by a doctor and the nurses didnt tell me what they were doing when they administered fluids

Been here since 11 and now it's 3 not herd from anyone

Thanks for letting me NOT see my Mom cause Me and my Dad were to many people tonight! And then letting the next people take 5 kids.. is it cause I'm in a wheelchair I don't get to see her? Please explain?

Came in to the ER on a Saturday evening for my wifes' ankle. The nurse, doctor and staff were great and we managed to get out in record time. Only two hours from start to finish. My wife only sprained the ankle, came prepared with card games and the time flew by. We can't appreciate the St Charles staff enough.

Absolutely the worst and they have a monopoly on Central Oregon. I am praying that another hospital will come to Central Oregon and put St. Charles out of business.

As Jim wrote in his review 2 weeks ago, among several issues regarding an emergency appendectomy, one of the worst situations has been dealing with the BILLING department. The communication between the insurance company and billing has been terrible. To start, records were incorrectly inputted by the hospital, which we are still trying to fix after 1 year. (1 year!). The insurance company has records of everything that has been discussed, paperwork, etc. St Charles Billing Dept doesn't keep any records, and does not remember anything, so we continue to receive bills for items that are incorrect. After 1 year, we are literally still trying to resolve billing issues! There is no other place to go to in Central Oregon. But, it's so bad that I would consider not going to the hospital for a physical issue, to save myself from the mental and potential credit issues cased by St Charles Health System.

After reading reviews below, will see many people have had similar issues. As a business, I would hope they have a consumer feedback loop in place to ensure they evolve their practice.

I have a blood disease and they were so nice and quick to help me, and the food was amazing

Only thing I have to say is that when I 1st got there after my triage when I was in my room it took ab 30 min to get my 1st doses of medicine

I had a 9 hour serious surgery yesterday. Because I'm doing well, was moved to the ortho
Floor an hour ago. At that time I asked for my muscle relaxer which was due 45 minutes ago.
But I'm in I'm in so much pain.
I didn't hear anything for an hour. I'm due for some morphine, and my pain level is too high to control.
I'm so miserable.
Help.

Have been in the ER for five hours now. Hardly any other patients here. Have seen the doctor once about 3 hours ago and her bed side manner stunk. I have been in over 15 hospitals in my life and St Charles is by far the worst. This place is a joke. After almost 7 hours we where finally discharged. The doctor had xrays done on my wife and not an MRI which should have been the first thing she did when someone comes into the ER and can't walk or feel their legs. We went to our private physician yesterday that was able to get us an MRI and my wife has several slipped disc in her back. If you ever have to go to St Charles emergency room and Dr. Jessica Mathieson is on duty, I recommend demanding another doctor or trying to make it to another hospital somewhere besides St Charles.

As far as hospitals go, this is a fantastic provider. Their technology is top notch, their doctors are top notch, their facility is top notch. Their is one snag in their process that has been overwhelmingly frustrating and that has to do with their billing process. For the past 4-5 months they admitting screwed up my bill. Each month this resulted in my accounts being sent to collections - yes, this is a big deal. Each time I call them, they correct the issue and put in place notes so it *won't happen again. Unfortunately it happened again, each and every month. This is getting to the point I may seek a different provider as there is something seriously flawed with their billing techniques. It's really too bad because the facility is fantastic in every way. Maybe they just need to hire a more qualified billing department team as this group seems to not follow through with what has been agreed upon - just an idea.

Two different visits to St. Charles this past month. First daughter in law had serious brain surgery....Everyone involved did excellent work, professional, informed. The post surgery pain was extreme. They could have explained "why" the pain was so great which would have helped but the doctor failed to do that, our only complaint.
My husband and I had our annual lab work done done. I am a hard blood draw and the lady was extremely efficient, friendly, and done in a timely fashion. My husband's blood work is always easy, as was this time.

Excellent staff! Every person I encountered was friendly, kind and professional. So thankful for them. They took amazing care of me on several occasions.