PeaceHealth St. John Medical Center — Attraction in Longview

If you can go to a different hospital. In summary the doctors will invalidate and gaslight you until the point where you start to question your own health even if you know something is obviously going on. I've been to this hospital frequently as it is one of the only hospitals in the town and I have several complex issues that require treatment if they get serious (Mitral valve regurgitation that requires heart surgery that's getting scheduled, Lupus, history of fluid around heart and lungs, arthritis, nephritis of kidneys, and a history of blood infections surrounding my heart.). I'm only going to share a few of my experiences at this hospitals ER the first involved pulmonary embolisms that laid undetected by them even after 3 or 4 admissions and several other health issues including valve regurgitation, difficulty breathing and I was treated for my pulmonary embolisms and sent home on elquis for a week but within the time frame of about a month I had the same symptoms but were worsening before they detected the lung clots the only reason they admitted me was my mouth and throat swelling and no other reason and it was "to see whats wrong with you". after one doctor came in and said I need to go to OHSU , then the other doctor acted in a big rush to throw me out and send me home despite the records of the doctor being in complete denial of them after I told him to read the records he was going to keep me for a day or two to see how bad it is or if it gets worse. then the third doctor straight up sent me home no ifs ands or buts. the very night I was sent home my throat began swelling again and I was sent to the aforementioned Peacehealth Southwest for care. It turned out I had a blood infection lupus spreading to kidneys my pulmonary embolilsms weren't really gone and I was basically drowning in fluid around my heart and lungs (I had similar symptoms of this thing they diagnosed at st johns and they refused to stop giving me IV fluid). Another experience I had was when I had swelling in my mouth and throat I was still able to breathe but I couldn't swallow fully and my jaw was jerking and spasming and it was painful they said they'd get the doctor (after 2 hours) and I was afraid of dying and said I didn't want to die. The nurses seemed bothered with my fear and instead of reassuring me they said "WHERE ARE You" I responded a hospital and she said "EXACTLY" it eventually went down after I fell asleep on its own without dr intervention as the medications don't really work as its not allergic its angeodemia. the third experience was with the psych ward which I have PTSD of and it triggers me to try to ask for any mental health help because of how I was treated here. The nurses are bothered with your existence the rooms look like jail cells, doctors treat patients like they're hysteric even doing treatment without telling the patient and the locked area Ive seen shaming, verbal insults and psychological abuse in this place it actually made me regret not killing myself and calling for help being in this hospitals area. Additional notes the doctors will seem like they don't care and will be in a rush to discharge you rather than actually help you. Many will refuse patient tests or any patient intervention in care (which is against their patient rights) and if you have medicaid they will turn you away without turning you away by discharging you without treatment and minimizing your symptoms.Another big thing they will do is mask your symptoms with opiates I've had this happen several times during my visit that they would just band aid my pain with opiates then discharge me. ask for painmeds once they will change their attitude towards you and treat you like a junkie. In conclusion do not go to this hospital under almost any circumstance. This hospital made me scared when a doctor says something is "fine" because many times that meant they found something but they don't want to tell me for idk what reason. After giving this review I might actually get discriminated in my care quality based on what I think about...

The out-patient facilities and staff are good. In a separate review, I gave my Peace Health out-patient primary care doctor 5 stars. I think she deserves 5 stars and out-patient facility 4 stars, but since that wasn't an option, I gave my out-patient primary care 5 stars. I give the excellent cafeteria food and staff 5 stars.

However, this review's star rating is about emergency room and in-patient facilities and care, which I have had wildly varying experiences with. I struggled with how many stars to leave in this review. Staff varies wildly from 1 to 5 stars, but 3 stars would be a good average for staff. The beds are torture devices deserving 1 star. Overall, I felt this review of ER and in-patient should be 2.5 stars, but that's not an option. So I was generous and gave 3 stars, but 2.5 stars is how I really feel.

Peace Health ER beds/gurneys are extremely uncomfortable. If I lie on one for an hour, it becomes very painful for my back. Other hospitals' ERs have more comfortable beds/gurneys. The ER staff and doctors are hit and miss. Some good. Some terrible. ER experience will depend on the luck of which staff and doctor you get.

The in-patient experience is similar to ER experience. Very uncomfortable beds that become painful within hours made my back hurt so bad that I couldn't sleep for 2 days I was there. The in-patient staff is some good, some bad). On the bright side, it seemed like more than half the in-patient staff were good.

Overall I give PH 3 stars in this review of their ER and in-patient care. PH outpatient care is good, possibly excellent, but that's another topic for another review.

When my neck was broken in a car accident and I was brought in by ambulance strapped to a hard stretcher board. After checking my vitals and taking X-rays, the ER staff put me in a back room and left me unattended for 3 hours and seemingly forgot me, until I started screaming. When I first started screaming, staff callously ignored me and kept walking by the open door to my room. When a staff member finally checked on me, he looked at my X-rays and discovered my neck was broken. After that they make a serious effort to help me. I was there another 3 hours before being released in a neck collar with no pain meds and a written prescription. All pharmacies in town were closed by that time. So no pain meds until the next day when my family went to pharmacy to get prescription filled. That was worst night of my life.

On another occasion, I had stepped on a nail and got prompt quality care at the ER.

On another occasion, I was having chest pains (I have a history of heart failure) and ER staff gave me prompt quality care.

On another occasion, I was having chest pains and ER staff (different doctor this time) gave me almost no care at all. All staff did was take my BP and heart rate. Nothing else. Seriously?

On another occasion, my dad went to ER with chest pain and he's known to have serious heart failure problems. He was in waiting room for an hour and all they did was take his blood pressure. He never even got into the ER. Just the waiting room. So after an hour in waiting room, my elderly mom helped him back to their car and drove him to Kaiser Hospital in Portland where he received prompt medical care. Peacehealth ER sent my dad a bill for $3500 for taking his blood pressure in the waiting room. Nothing else was done for him. No other exam. No treatment. He never got past the waiting room.

Going to Peach Health ER or in-patient facilities is a roll of the dice regarding which staff you get and the quality of care. The care might be good, or terrible. You never know until you get there. The only consistent thing is the gurneys and beds are terribly uncomfortable, and it get more miserable the longer you're there. Other hospitals have more comfortable gurneys and very comfortable beds. Why can't PH have consistent quality care and comfortable beds like other hospitals? If PH improved the beds that'd be a major improvement worthy of an additional star and would make me willing to be an...

Service and quality of health care through peace health groups (clinic, hospital, and the pain clinic in vancouver) are appalling at best. I have been under the care of Dr.s since 1991, have received care in colorado, california, and in arizona and i can say with without resolve that i have never seen such confusion or disorganization in my life.... the disrespect given to patients is horrendous. take for ex. the following which i have experienced: being denied the right to see an MD, not a PR or PA at the hospital. The PR denied any care except lancing an abcess. I have been on pain meds off and on since 1991, mostly on and have been denied access to pain medicine by all three supposed group holdings. I am a recent btk amputee, lost the leg after 3 years of fighting to keep it and am a type 2 diabetic. the discharge nurse at the hospital wanted me to sign out for denying treatment but i didnt deny it they wouldnt give treatment. i am between primary cares and they are supposed to help me get any prescriptions filled....not here. she rolled her eyes at me not caring or wanting to care, i was treated worse than a drug addict and without respect as a human being. asked my peace health primary care for crutches to get around on as i cant wear my prosthetic due to abscesses and i have no other means of getting around outside of the confines of my home without causing excruciating pain and the abscesses becoming grossly enlarged. i asked for them on september 11th. every primary care i know and ever knew, knows that the request must be made through ones hmo or other insurance coverages to get approval. i call the hmo a month later to find out why no crutches or even a letter explaining why not. they tell me that no request was made. called pc, staff tells me i need to waste time and valuable resources to make an appointment to ask the Dr. i explain to the staff that i already asked my pcp and if they could leave a message for my PcP to please make the request...they denied me this simple cost effective opportunity to place an order for crutches, which i already did, to make an appointment that was 5 weeks out. really are you kidding me

there is so much more wrong with what has happened to me told by stand in pcp that he would only do one thing for me when i had to get in to see PcP (jan of 2014) while she is on maternity leave....one thing for me. yeah i got my diabetic meds, but would not send requests for me to see an opthamologist, the crutches or fill my pain medication. after talking to him, his staff came in and had everything about my medications distorted....had to correct the info she told to me and she even verified it with the Dr., where are his notes and proper protocols to relay info???? are we all watching the bozo the clown show??? long line at clinic? same day of lmy appoint was at 11:00 am and i get there 15 mins early and i am in really bad pain standing on abscesses under my new prosthetic (btk amputee since sept 21st 2012, less than a year and a half). person in front of me, her appt. was at 10:45. 3 people checking people in and they are slow, the new system is slow, on their cell phones or not at their desks or in the same room..25 minutes later, i get to check in, takes them less than 5 minutes to check me in,,, the forth person checking people in was probably one of the worst. she sat behind her computer either clicking her mouse and drinking her drink while the line behind me grew to be out in the foyer almost filling that room leaving only the elements for any others before she actually started to help people get checked in......are you kidding me....... no respect for people in pain or are ill and suffering by all levels of staffing want more i have much more that was done and not done by staffers at all 3 peace health...