Oregon Health & Science University — Attraction in Portland

I've been with this teaching institution for 22 years and most of my doctors are located here. Individually, some departments are better than others in terms of customer service. They tend to be a lot less selective about the people they're hiring now due to the fact that so many people are resistant to returning to the workforce in person and demanding to work from home with higher pay. They've hired a lot of really young schedulers who lack customer service skill, or compassion and patience for older or unwell patients. This can make it difficult or frustrating to even get scheduled and I have often experienced hang ups or disconnects in the process. In my experience it can take weeks to get a return call from some departments such as the sleep clinic. As a result of lowered customer care standards, you may get some arrogance or rudeness when trying to schedule with certain departments. In addition, the level of care has gone down and it takes months to be seen by departments such as Cardiology and the Sleep Disorders clinic. Another change is the fact that if you need to see a specialist such as an actual Cardiologist, you will see a physicians assistant first followed up with an extremely short 3 to 5 minutes maximum with the actual Cardiologist.. which will take you 3 to 6 months to get into, depending on who you see. Staffing is an issue here and has been steadily declining for quite some time even though we have been on the tail end of COVID now for quite a while. It seems that covid has become a convenient excuse for continuing to remain short staffed and it doesn't appear to be improving. The ER is frequently diverting patients to other area hospitals so if all your physicians are at OHSU and you need emergency care, good luck. You have a good chance of being diverted to Good Samaritan, Providence or Legacy Emmanuel in NE Portland, among others, due to continued short staffing in the Emergency Department...and most other departments as well. The last few times I've had to be in for cardiac issues, patients on gurneys often line the hallway with little to no privacy while waiting for a room to open up. Consequently, the level of customer service and care has really gone down and it doesn't look like it will be improving anytime soon. Having said all that, their OHSU Richmond clinic out on SE 39th and Division does a fine job serving clinic patients. So if you are looking for a general physician you can try that OHSU affiliated clinic and you should receive quality customer care and service with a plethora of physicians to choose from and they also have an internal pharmacy at...

WARNING- MENTION A PROMPT PAY DISCOUNT WHEN YOU PAY. DO NOT PAY ONLINE!

My wife cut her finger cooking and needed stitches. We went to OHSU because they were the closest hospital. We had to wait over 2 hours to be seen. She was in pain but the nurses wouldn't give us an estimate of when the doctor would be there or do anything to comfort her. When we eventually did see a doctor they didn't stitch her hand correctly and it had to be redone. We ended up being at OHSU for close to 4 hours for a procedure that should have taken 20 minutes. We have health insurance through my work, but we got her bills in the mail and they were much more than we were expecting and our insurance was useless. When I called to explain how unreasonable the charges were, they said there was nothing they could do. She then went to see her new family doctor to establish a baseline of care at their family clinic, and they charged us another $200 for a visit which should have been covered under preventative care. When I called in to pay for that bill and explain my frustration with their system, I was told that I should have just asked for a prompt pay discount. If you pay your balance in full, you get 15% off but only if you call in and specifically request it. If you are having an emergency and need a hospital to go to that will give you prompt attention at a reasonable rate, keep looking. If you are stuck with an outrageous bill from OHSU despite having insurance, DO NOT pay on their website and don't pay the person who first picks up the phone. Ask to be transferred to the billing department and request the prompt pay discount. They won't tell you about it otherwise. I got 15% off for my smaller bill (that should have been covered by preventative care) but nothing for my large emergency room bill because they are much more concerned with profits than they are...

The care I had by DR. Hills was great and he always responded to my messages I emailed him which was very helpful. What was not helpful was the staff who ran the front office. I have IIH that cause severe headaches and blindness if not treated. I started heavy doses of medication and had a lumbar puncture last year, I moved states and needed to get on OHP which was taking months! I am now 17 weeks pregnant and heard of the side effects of the medication for my baby so I haven't been taking any medication for over 4 months. I had to cancel one appointment and missed the next one because I could get approved on OHP and I couldn't afford to pay up front, I finally got approved today but when I called, they said I could not longer schedule any appoints because of the ones I had missed. Finding a Neuro-ophthalmologist isn't easy and it will take them months to get me in. Meanwhile my headaches are awful, my vision is getting worse every day and I am worried about the effects that is having on my baby. Its frustrating that they are not understanding of the OHP situation and the countless hours I spent on hold trying to get through to someone. To deny care to someone who has been trying and desperately needs some help is very heartbreaking, even when I was crying to them asking them if there was any way I could still come since my insurance would be backdated the first time I had to cancel and they offered no support or compassion. Of all the great things I thought of OHSU, this has changed my mind on so many. Its not like I didn't care and just didn't come, I was trying everything I could to get there and make it happen and it just...