Memorial Hermann Southeast Hospital — Attraction in Houston

Never going back, never recommending to anyone.

3.5 hours in a dirty waiting room (trash, food, stains, etc...). Bathroom stalls broken, trashy, and covered in stains, never ONCE cleaned during that time. People all had their vitals taken in the same chair at check in that was NEVER sanitized between patients.

An old man was wheeled in by a guard and left in a corner for 3 hours before staff noticed him. People doubled over in pain with fever, vomiting, and other bad symptoms were seen hours after people who could walk/talk.

Staff never smiled, barely made eye contact, and had an impatient attitude towards each patient. They said the right words "please, thank you, hope you feel better" but it was never sincere or kind.

Once I was finally brought back, the room was even dirtier than the waiting room. Yellow and brown stains on the walls. Paint peeling off in sheets. Obviously the room had not been cleaned in at least a week.

PA was first person to get my symptoms and ask real questions, but he wrote everything down on a folded over piece of paper on his hand. No computer or clipboard, not even a form. But he was courteous and patient.

A nurse came in with the IV bag for my medication. She was rude from the beginning and said I was receiving the bag for my vomiting. I was confused because I had been clear that I had never vomited, so I thought she had the wrong room. She ignored my response and asked if I was in pain, so I asked if I was supposed to repeat everything I just told the PA to her too. She got angry/rude and just left with my IV bag without a word.

30 minutes pass with no treatment.

A quality assurance nurse comes in to ask how our visit is going. We talk about the 3.5 hour wait and the rude nurse that took my IV bag away. She said they average a 2-3 hour wait, and then patronizes me with an explanation of the concepts of mass casualty events and triage. The ER was at maybe 40-50% patient capacity all day with one single critical patient at around 4pm, so it was a poor explanation/excuse for the wait. She then said the nurse must have misunderstood the instructions on my IV bag and would follow up.

A new nurse comes in with my IV bag, saying she had just been handed my bag and a pill and told to give it to me, so she has no idea of my symptoms or condition. This second nurse was sweet.

The PA follows up with me. 20 more minutes pass, and a nurse comes to take me to an outer room of chairs with curtains around them. That is when I actually get to talk to a doctor (6 hours after arrival), who also seemed impatient with my questions about the diagnosis.

One man in the room had only given a valium and left to sit in an upright chair for hours. He says he just wants to go home because he's in too much pain to keep waiting indefinitely. At first, someone tells him "there's the door" and then as he tries to hobble away, they say "are you a patient? you have to be discharged first!" and makes him sit down again.

Another lady was hit by a car and couldn't move her neck. She asked to see a supervisor because it had been hours and she hadn't even seen a doctor yet, and every staff person she encountered had an attitude.

My IV bag finished, but it was almost an hour before we could get someone to take it out. The nurse that discharged me said that they had a critical patient, so everyone had to leave. Since we had been there for a full work day at that point (7.5 hours) it is shocking that with one single critical care patient at 4pm, the entire department was needed, leaving everyone else without care.

It definitely appears to be a leadership and workplace culture problem. Whoever is in charge of this place is apathetic and impatient, and it has trickled down to become an acceptable form of behavior to most staff. There is no system in place to keep rooms/bathrooms clean and working, and there is no organizational structure to keep things moving efficiently and fairly. This ER is unacceptable on so many levels, do...

How this hospital has managed to stay under performing for over 30 years, I can’t even Comprehend. As soon as I got admitted by ER recently, I sat in the waiting table for a while explained to a relative this was the same place I went to at 17 with a gash on my throat, and got left untreated. I am explaining this to my relative because in the background someone was screaming in excruciating pain for quite a while as if no body is even attending to this person. Now, I a m in my 40’s and this time I got transferred from my CHN through an ambulance, and all of the excellent treatment was done on the ambulance providers. They told me everything they were given to me as they gave it to me. When I got to the ER the girls were very functional and making sure that provided for, setting up with the momentum that the Ambulance had brought in. Then the shift changed right away, and I just got left there. Supposedly the doctor wanted me to stay overnight. By 9 pm, I never got a room, food, and had to beg for pain med. The second shift attendee started debasing my request with sarcastic innuendo blaming my need to simply undo my measuring devices to use the restroom as a reason for his neglect; first you don’t argue with any body in the professional world, and second, these are caretakers who should be more than that. I was peeing in my pants because of the coughing and, and he would yell at me for getting up to go to the restroom to try to not pee in my pants. And I’m being very professional about everything asking to have a different nurse serve me, and right away all the whole staff went into was a defense mode making me the enemy of the whole ER . “ Be quiet we don’t want people to know how bad this facility is..” The rest of the staff on the shift argued the whole time. I’d ask for something and they never bring it to me. Then when I’d ask again that’s when they would find an excuse to bring it up as an argument. This is the most self-centered group of caregivers I have ever seen in my life. They should all have been in a different profession. When somebody just asks you for water and you have to turn it into an argument, there’s something wrong with the maturity level of the people running these emergency rooms. They even went to the extent of calling the security, altering my file saying “I was denying service when I was not they were refusing to give me Service.” The whole time I was there I felt like I was being held against my will and under the contingent that the doctor would show up in the morning with my prescription and a diagnosis. I had seen YouTube videos of hospitals like this in California, and they are the most horrific videos you’ll ever see of a hospital being ran as a pseudo prison facility. Because that’s how they treat the inmates inside the prison - NOT civil society. Southeast Memorial in 30 years hasn’t changed. They have always neglected their service in the emergency room. One would expect to have exceptional service in 2024, it doesn’t exist at that facility.

———- August 14, 2025 update.

A relative spent time at this hospital as a resident On Medicare. The nursing staff and assistant nurses were exceptional. The doctor always seems to be the issue. In this case,he walks in only to tell her that “her numbers have stabilized, but they could be increasing”; Connected to an IV, is essential for her stabilization. The doctor did not take the time to get to evaluate any of her symptoms which include leaking feces, a history of chronic pancreatitis, etc. Instead, this fake admission to comprehending the numerical count on her data was grounds to release her without providing any solution or remedy to her medical condition. She has advanced to a billarial Pancreatitis which means her duct is clogged forcing feces to drain outwards. I even brought this to the nurses attention, the assistant. Yet, they sent her home untreated. Charged $20,000 a day, and then some, for five days. Did...

My husband was in this hospital for three weeks before he passed away at a young age of 50. I am not writing this review because I am bitter that my husband passed away but in hope that it will guide and assist someone who may be put in similar situation as us. My husband went into ER thinking he had a virus of some kind, ended up being admitted that evening. The ER doctor called me next morning to tell me they needed to operate on my husband for him to live by amputating his leg. I panicked not knowing what to do, told my daughter to call the doctor for more detail. The doctor never spoke to us, apparently had called the wrong patient's family member. My husband then was moved to ICU and we were told he had liver cirrhosis. We stayed with him most of the day except at night. The night nurse complained about his behavior while he was under the influence of heavy medication. So they decided to medicated him ever more to shut him up,to the point where he slept all day. I have many regrets during his stay in this hospital and one of them is not staying with my husband 24/7. If you love someone, must stay with them at hospital. Please do not trust strangers to care for them. I observed ICU nurse outside our room, on internet browsing different websites or on the phone, instead of cleaning my husband's mouth which was full of dried out food or providing him with ice since he couldn't drink water. I asked for these things once I realized it was available to him. Doctors have hundred patients to visit a day, and very little time to speak with family member. His condition was improving after two weeks so they decided to move him to a regular floor not sure what happened but next day he was back in ICU. At that time they decided to put him on Dialysis treatment. Two days later he passed away. Thank God I was with him, so I noticed what was happening so I ran out of the room to get someone to help him. Everyone was in shock we couldn't believe what had just happened. On duty physician whom I saw for the first tried to revive him but my husband was not breathing on his own so the doctor asked the family to make a quick decision to take him off the machine. That night there were four code Blue simultaneously and only one physician to deal with them all. Talk about bad bedside manner, his behavior and attitude were extremely rude toward grieving family members. As if my husband and father of my children was a piece of meat or a task that needed to be completed. The room for grieving family was so small some had to sit on the floor. I will say there were two or three nice nurses, and one physician who may have assisted or eased our stay but other then that there were many things that could have been handled differently. A social worker never came to speak to us during our entire stay, if they had, I could have been informed of my options. If we knew for sure my husband wasn't going to survive, we would have asked to have him transferred to down town Memorial Hermann, or selected Hospice care etc. But we were never knew we had other options to consider. Our family lives far, mostly out of state and country. After the funeral service and family's departure, I contacted hospital's public relations department to address some of my concerns and basically were told they will address the concerns. When I didn't receive positive response from public relations dept. I asked to have a meeting with the physicians. I was given five mins. and no more because they had patients to see. Not apologetic at all basically did nothing wrong. Never heard from anyone in authority from the hospital to express their remorse or address my concern/complaint. I will take comfort in knowing that by expressing our pain and suffering helped someone not make the same...