Olympic Medical Center — Attraction in Port Angeles

Thankfully the nurses were very kind so nothing against them, and I did feel bad for them, but absolutely no one knows what’s going on here. They throw you through circles like crazy. Horrible treatment of patients, extreme wait times, etc. I waited for 12 hours in the ER yesterday for a kidney infection. She ordered an ultrasound because she wanted to look for kidney stones, then after running it and making me wait another 1.5 hours AFTER my lab results had already came back on my chart, she told me “it’s rare that kidney stones show on ultrasounds so maybe we should do a CT.” Why the hell did we run an ultrasound if it isn’t going to show what you’re looking for?! After I had already told her I didn’t have great insurance and couldn’t afford a lot of these tests. They had this poor man suffering from what seemed to be sepsis in the lobby, in excruciating pain, took just as long of a wait for him to get his own room too, 10-12 hours for his wait. Another lady had waited 9 hours, and same with another couple. Absolutely insane. They will prioritize a broken wrist from the ambulance bay over people with sepsis, chest pain, kidney infection, etc. not even kidding, wish I was! A lady wheeled her husband in on a wheel chair for a possible heart attack and one of the ladies at the desk (who wasn’t even a nurse, she even declined grabbing a urine sample from another patient because I quote “it’s above my pay grade” her words!) and the lady told her “well someone will be with you after the next patient” Hello?!? Someone check this mans vitals!!! She was SCREAMING for help and BEGGING someone to check on his vitals, and they called security!! Another man ran in and said someone is flatlining outside and that same lady said “do you need a nurse?!” he JUST said they are DYING outside! Yes!!! What kind of question even is that?! You HAVE to advocate for yourself SO hard here to receive proper treatment! The nurses are kind but the doctors have no idea what’s going on. The doctor didn’t even know how to turn a light switch on in the room next to me! No joke. I thought the reviews on here were intense and maybe wrong, boy was I wrong. The reviews about the poor treatment and er wait times is DEFINITELY correct. You could probably drive to Seattle and be seen and drive home faster than you would here. This place needs help, and they need better and more doctors. Lastly, she gave me an RX for my prescription that I told her I needed covered by insurance. She told me no worries go on ahead to a pharmacy and I can get it filled. Called the pharmacy, go figure, after 8 hours of being out of the ER the doctor STILL had not called to “pre authorize” the medication under insurance. And, when I called the er desk they said she had left work already and went home for the night. Go figure. Ended up paying out of pocket for my antibiotics. Do yourself a favor and go to port Townsend or Seattle for quicker and better care.. UPDATE: it’s absolutely INSANE to try to charge someone $4k in medical bills when i saw a doctor for a total of maybe 30 minutes the entire 12+ hours I sat there. I didn’t even get admitted into an actual er ROOM and they want to bill me $4k In medical, also after telling me I was covered by my insurance! Clearly, they didn’t care to let me know they couldn’t figure out my insurance and now I have a 4k medical bill to push onto my...

If I could give zero stars I would. Anyone I know who has had to go there in the last four years has had terrible experiences. From surgeries that didn't work to forcing people who are dizzy, to stand up and consequently falling over, hitting their head and going into a coma.

Unfortunately, I've been in there twice in the last month. Both times I've went to the walk in clinic, and both times I waited well over an hour just to be told they could do nothing and I had to go to the emergency room. The first time, I had multiple ultrasounds done because they didn't get good enough images the first time. Because there is lack of communication among staff, I sat in the waiting room for three more hours just to be told I could go home. Today was the second visit. I had a wound on my lip that needed stitches. At the walk in the clinic I was told it would need stitches but no one there could perform them so I was sent to ER to wait for another 4-5 hours. I was told by two additional nurses I would need stitches so they sent in a doctor. This doctor said "we typically don't stitch this kind of wound due to infection" and he recommended to leave it open. He proceeded to explain that is was odd the other staff would say it needed stitches because it's not protocol. After further discussion he said he would numb it, clean it and do one stitch. At this point it still hadn't been cleaned and we were waiting for another person to come in the room to clean the wound prior to the suture. This process alone took the doctor checking in to see if it had been cleaned yet, to which I replied "no one has come yet to clean it." Finally, when stitching my wound, the first suture fell out immediately. Going in for his second attempt, he accidentally clamped onto my lip with his pliers and pulled so hard on the string abruptly yanking on the string causing further bleeding. It felt rushed and inconsiderate.

I understand from talking with the staff that they are understaffed, which I understand can be a problem with getting care in a timely manner. However, in my experience there, the care I received was unorganized, rushed and sloppy. It is not the fault of one individual person but the place as a whole. It is poorly managed and every issue has an excuse rather than a solution and nothing gets accomplished in due time "we are understaffed" is a overused term. The cherry on top was the fact that I could hear the triage laughing and having friendly banter. While it is good to have good staff rapport, it was difficult to hear when feeling neglected. The place has been operated poorly for years and I often wonder how they get away with it. Never in my life did I think a simple stitch would be a seven...

DO NOT GO HERE, GO TO JEFFERSON PLEASE READ: This week, I went in for some severe abdominal pain. First thing they did was offer me fentanyl which I declined because I prefer to use non-narcotic pain meds. (And I was quite surprised they jumped to fentanyl as a first medication) they gave me a CTscan and then two hours later a nurse came in and said we are just getting ready to take you to CT. I had to inform them that we had it done two hours ago. five hours later the doctor came in and talked with me about four different things it could be, prescribed me antacids, told me it was probably indigestion and to go home because he has other patients. He was in our room for less than five minutes after we had waited over 5 hours. He was cold and did not seem to care at all.

I’ve been dealing with this growing pain in my abdomen for two months, and it was getting more and more severe, being unable to do any light exercise for more than 15 min without my abdomen throbbing.

I decided to go to Jefferson last night and here’s what happened: I sat in the waiting room for 15 minutes, got called back, before my blood pressure thing was even done a wheelchair arrived taking me for an ultra sound, 10 min after that the doctor came in, discussed all my symptoms and took blood work. They had me drink something to numb my stomach and it worked. Boom, I have an ulcer. He thinks my ulcer is pretty decent/severe and is recommending my doctor have me do an endoscopy. I was in there less than three hours total and left with answers. Now we can focus on trying to heal this ulcer and if I have h pylori get on antibiotics for that immediately he said. The staff their were incredibly kind, took time to talk with each patient and the doctor answered any and all questions. It was the best hospital experience I’ve ever had.

All our hospital had to do was take time to listen, maybe then they could have given me that drink which numbed my stomach and actually given me some answers to the intense burning in my stomach.

Anyways, our hospital is going down hill, badly. Our community deserves better than some cold, uncaring,...