Huntington Hospital — Attraction in Pasadena

If we have another child we will be making sure to go somewhere else for labor and delivery.

On the outside, Huntington Hospital looks like some sort of fancy resort. Inside, beyond the large entrance way, the actual hospital space is largely old-looking and even a bit run down in places. The only exception was the actual delivery rooms which looked new. Or at least refreshed.

Expect to wait 20 minutes to get a nurse to pick up the phone and show up to the front window for check-in. Then wait another 30 to 45 minutes to just get checked into the L&D ward. Then you'll be escorted to triage where you will be laid up for another 6 hours or so while in ACTIVE LABOR before they can finally find an available delivery room for you to go in to.

Once in the delivery room, things will start to look better. The labor and delivery staff were excellent. Excellent nurses and doctors along the way. Great team and we trusted them fully. Best part of the process. The delivery suite is large and private and gives hope that things will be looking up from that point forward. Unfortunately, they don't.

The administration on this hospital is a joke. The hospital registration will literally call you less than 15 minutes after you've given birth to ask you a bunch of administrative questions to registration forms you already filled out and submitted to them weeks before. Forms they never responded to you on confirming receipt even after you sent follow ups. Put that in your mind. You're exhausted and delirious from a lengthy labor, quite literally holding your newborn in your arms and trying to bond when the phone for the room rings and on the other end is some administration person pestering you for how you spell your name, address, and other details. Ridiculous.

When the golden hour finally ends and you're carted off to your recovery room, you'll be glad for the break to bond with your little one and try to catch up on sleep. The rooms are tiny, less than a third the size of their delivery rooms. And with COVID, that space is your world for the next 2 days or so. The room had a couch/futon, a bed, and a rollable table. It was such a tight fit, that you had to roll the nursery bassinet to the front of the room just to be able to stand up from the couch and pass by the bed. A small chair or stool would have been helpful to allow both mom and dad the ability to eat at the rollable table at same time, but the room was so small I don't know where it would have fit.

You can expect another call shortly after arriving to your room too. This time from the administration office, pestering you about paying your deductible and hospital registration fee. When you tell them to formally bill you it, they tell you they can do that for the registration, but can't for the deductible. It needs to be paid now, over the phone. No exceptions. And so you have to dig out your credit card, still quite exhausted from the labor just hours earlier, and give your information to a complete stranger over the phone, hoping it isn't some elaborate scam.

The nursing staff for the recovery ward are a mixed bag. There are some great nurses and a handful of good nurses, but far too many bad nurses too. The best ones seem to be the nurses who have been there 20 to 30+ years. They have a rapport and a wealth of knowledge that makes you grateful for them to be there. They keep you encourage and feeling sane while you stumble through learning how to care for your newborn. The bad nurses all seem to be young and generally uncaring. They help when needed, but are otherwise in and out as quickly as they can be, on to the next patient.

The other major annoyance was the constant interruptions by people with little heads up on scheduling. The first 12 hours were largely quiet, but after that it's a flood of random people coming in at all times. Nurses doing tests, pediatricians checking in, BP checks, temp checks, etc. None of them really announced ahead of time. It would have been very nice to at least been given a general daily schedule of "this is what to...

I was recently at Huntington's emergency room and I had the worst experience there with the staff. To start off, the first person to take care of me was an intern with the last name Mendoza who completely missed my vein for my IV and spent a near 3 minutes wiggling around in my arm until he finally gave up and left, in which now I have a decent sized bruise covering that area. My next nurse Jamie, who came to do the IV, could not even tell my left hand from my right and even paused what she was doing in order to ask me because she did not know which hand she was putting my IV into. I also asked her kindly to bring me a heated blanket as I was violently shaking in front of her. She promised me 4 times over the course of 20 minutes that she would bring me a blanket. In the end, I watched this nurse gather her stuff from her desk, go home, and I was left with no blanket, and no other staff seemed to pay mind to me. The PA, Anne Marie, was also way too nonchalant and only appeared two times during my 10 hour stay to do next to nothing and answered very few questions. I told the PA of my symptoms and requested to be tested for norovirus as my condition was exactly like the virus. To this, she assured my parents and I that I was being tested for norovirus through the nasal swab they gave me. We were not aware that norovirus in fact cannot be detected that way, as through my research it seems to be caught by vomit and stool samples. For additional context, I would have more than easily provided said stool and vomit sample as I threw up twice at the ER and went to the bathroom 4 times for diarrhea. In fact, those symptoms were the exact reason that I was at the hospital in the first place, yet no one cared to test it. Still, the PA reassured us multiple times that my nasal swab will detect it. Furthermore, through my nasal swab, I tested positive for COVID. In result of this, a male nurse burst through my room yelling at me and my parents that I was positive, alerting the entire building's floor, and demanded in our faces to wear masks. Of course my family and I have no problems wearing the masks, but we do not deserve to be treated like animals with rabies. I have never in my life seen something done so unprofessionally and would have never thought a staff member would announce news like that with such disrespect and aggression. I still wanted to know my status on norovirus as I was almost sure that I also had that since all my symptoms were gastrointestinal. Instead, staff blamed all of my gastro problems on my pre-existing medical condition and continued to say that if I had noro, it would have appeared in the swab test. We were also forced into doing a CT scan that we refused multiple times because the hospital said they could not discharge us without it. The male staff member who took me to the room told me that if I felt claustrophobic in the machine, it was a "personal problem." Lastly, I was experiencing severe abdominal pain that caused me to be screaming and wailing in pain. I was sat in a room directly next to the main desk, as close as any individual can get, where at least 5 staff members were sat at a given time and not one single person looked towards my direction and neither did my main nurse come to check up on me. General patients walking through the hall would turn to look at me as everyone could hear my cries but not one nurse or doctor or anyone even cared enough to look. Every single member sat at those desks were too busy laughing with each other, staring at the ceiling, or playing around on their phones the entire 10 hours I was there. The only time anyone on staff wanted anything to do with me was to pump more medication into me or take me for a test to collect a bigger check in the end. Overall, the absolute worst experience I could have had at a hospital. The only normal people was the elder man working in the CT room on Friday night and a younger man with blonde hair named Tyler who I believe was an RN. Everybody else seemed like they would rather be anywhere else...

Hospital resort. Surgeries at East Tower 2nd floor. Park at North Lot. $22 for 7day in/out. Private rooms, semi-folds out chair for those sleeping over. Service here is incredible. Wifi: Guest.

After 4days of sleeping over, highly recommend the rock star surgeon/doctor Walter Burnham for any back surgery, super duper attentive and compassionate staff RN Rowena, PCA Christian and PCA Ed at East Tower, 6th floor.

Day of surgery: Park north lot. $6 for 24 hours of when start, valet is $7 per day before 12am, $22 for 7 days can come in and out. 7 day pass must be purchased before they close it at 10pm? Visitor entrance after 8PM is thru ER way and parking. Lot is sectioned by physicans, carpool, employee, patient/visitor with a elevator and stairway area. For those trying to avoid the parking lot, there is street parking and a Vons plaza (2hr max, customers only) across the entrance of hospital. Careful for overnight.

Main entrance - get visitor badge sticker to place on yourself.

2nd floor check in. 12PM checkin time. Patient will get a urine and blood test done and just wait.

Only 1 visitor can go into check in. 2nd and other visitors can wait at waiting room for an hour until see the patient before the surgery starts. Waiting room 5A-8P has free water, tea, coffee. Plenty of seats and outlets around. Friendly staff in the front and will answer questions. TV screen with surgery info. Another TV for visitor entertainment. USA! USA! Olympics! Patient gets a layered gown that has it's own heater with customized settings!!! Inside waiting room is a private room with own toilet, sink and tv. Staff and nurses are ridiculously nice and compassionate. 4PM surgery time (not usually suppose to be spread this far part. Suppose to be a 2pm check in time instead. We were giving credit vouchers toward parking or cafeteria because of the inconvenience. Incredible service, unexpected.)

After see your patient, wait in waiting room again. 7PM was original surgery time (lower back spine surgery). We were told it got pushed to be complete at 9PM, but actually was 1130PM.

Waiting room area - The surgeon will find you here to tell you about the surgery. If you already had an assigned room, the waiting room area is still the same place to wait for him. The nurse will come get you to bring you to the patients assigned room, or you can ask the front desk staff.

Private room Our RN Cristina and PCA Ed were awesome help. Marie was super knowledgable and helpful the next day. Patient will be thirsty. Staff will give small ice cube in a cup. Either cold or hot water (half half to make warm) can be given by the staff. And if sensitive to the medication pumped into them, then the patient will be nauseous and might puke. The private room is spacious with 3 chairs (1 rolls and semi-folds out to sleep on), your own private restroom, movable commade and shower, tv and a window view. staff were nice to give me blankets for staying over.

Food is ordered via phone huge variety that include liquid foods. Cereal, yogurt, eggs, meats, fruits, desserts, juice.

Physical Therapist - Michelle, nicest lady ever, super patient and informative. Back brace was suppose to be ordered ahead, think someone forgot. He was suppose to be standing and doing a CAT scan within 2hours after surgery. It was fine, therapist was able to still help a lot.

Cafeteria/food Huge variety of cold and hot food for a hospital ($3-$4 pizza, $3 cup miso turkey soup/clam chowder/tomato, oatmeal, cereals, different drinks from juice to lactose free milk, hamburgers, customized salads, microwaveable food, $2-$3 small cup of candy m&ms or gummy bears). It's still a hospital and its okay food. But they have their own starbucks!!! Closes at 8PM, reopen 9PM. Vons is a better option in price and quality. It's across the street. This Vons also has a Starbucks. Plenty of seats, utensil and condiment section. There are some nice large outdoor patio...