Seattle Children's Hospital — Attraction in Seattle

My child spent about 543 days at SCH and I would not recommend them to anyone for any inpatient stay or any services that may lead to them being admitted. The NICU was absolutely horrible. They treated parents very poorly. Refused to call me for rounds and I found out multiple diagnoses weeks or months after they had been found because no one bothered to call and tell us. (A hernia, volume loss in the brain, GERD, etc.) We were at a smaller NICU before SCH that was absolutely wonderful and had great communication, and to switch to SCH who clearly did not care if we were involved in our child's care and decision making, or even kept educated on it, was absolutely traumatic. This was not one Resident or Attending, this was months of this treatment from multiple Residents, Attendings, and nurses. We requested primary nurses but that didn't happen, my child had a different nurse every 4 - 8 hours for 3 months in the NICU. Physical Therapist Angela Fritz, and one traveling nurse were the only staff members that brightened our NICU stay and that I can say we enjoyed working with. Angela is incredibly positive, confident, and does a wonderful job including parents and communicating effectively.

The PICU was better as far as communication goes, however staff seemed afraid of our child. He had a tracheostomy at that point and we were allowed to pick him up, bathe him, etc without help, but it was clear the nurses were afraid and uncomfortable with us doing so. Because of their fear he was left in bed alone watching movies for at leat 20 hours a day for his entire 11.5 month stay in the PICU, minus the days we were present to get him out of bed and into his swing or activity chair. He also did not have a primary nurse for any of his approximately 11.5 months in the PICU. We got a Continuity Attending in the PICU who followed his care more closely, went to BPD Rounds (we were not allowed to attend, we tried,) and advocated for us. Dr. Emily Berkman was our Continuity Attending and she was great to work with. In the PICU and on the "Floor" nurses were extremely loud at 3am shift change and would often wake me up in the room with the door shut at this time. They also choose to schedule things (in the PICU and on the Floor) in a way where they are bothering your child all night long, every hour or so, even with tasks that could easily be grouped and done earlier or later.

The "Pulmonary Floor" nurses are MUCH more experienced and confident. They trusted our training and abilities and the 3.5 or so months we spent there were the first time we were truly allowed to care for our child without someone hovering over us or interrupting constantly. It was also the first time the Pulmonologists came to speak with us semi-regularly, even though he had been closely followed by the Pulmonology team for about 14.5 months there. (I had seen a Pulmonologist less than 5 times during that time.) Dr. Amanda Striegl is a wonderful Pulmonologist. She was much more confident than any doctor, resident or Attending, that we met during our stay. Dr. Laurie Eldrege was also very understanding and great to work with. We had a few long talks about communication and continuity of care and both of these Pulmonologists were very receptive to my criticism and understanding of my frustration.

During our time at SCH I requested a second opinion from another hospital twice. The first time they tried to tell me they don't do second opinions, then they offered to present his case at a conference that was then postponed due to covid, then 3 months after I initially asked with no progress, I had to contact a Social Worker to advocate for me and get a second opinion. The 2nd opinion gave them critical info that moved my child's progress forward immensely. The 2nd time I wanted a second opinion SCH had been telling me my child would be inpatient at least 6 more months. I made them get a 2nd opinion and he was safely discharged about a month later. Horrible experience, would not recommend for anything inpatient or that could get...

ive been here multiple times for many different issues and not a single time has my experience been positive. in the ER nurses frequently forgot to bring me food, which isn't too bad. It's an ER and obviously extremely busy. staff do not respect trans people's pronouns at all here, especially in the PBMU (the inpatient psychiatric unit). they constantly misgenderd me as well as the other trans people around me (Even somone who had been there for many months) the PBMU was extremely understaffed and we were not let out of the commons room more then once the day even though we were meant to be going to group therapy, individual therapy, and much more. nurses were rude and made inappropriate comments about peoples bodies. one very young girl (around 7) was forced to shower with the bathroom door wide open while a nurse watched her while talking to another member of staff who was male, he absolutely did not need to be there and was clearly watching the girl. not to mention this young girl was forced to shower with the door wide open while over patients were near by. doctors and nurses often spoke about private information about other patients in front of other patients but yelled (yes yelled) at us for even so much as mentioning our diagnoses or experiences. absolutely disgusting. i can not express how much the truma i have from being there. maybe one day the psychological abuse of children (or anyone!) will not be seen as a norm within psychiatry. the UN has said non-consensual psychiatric "treatment" "could well amount to psychological torture" and i could not agree more as a survivor. when i got an echocardiogram (a heart ultrasound) a student did almost the entire thing without a fully qualified doctor present. we were not told this would be happening ahead of time or asked if it was ok. i understand doctors need training but a heads up would have been greatly appreciated especially since i was half naked during the procedure. the student was very kind but the doctor would push extremely hard on me, pinch me, ignore me when i was clearly in pain, as well as touch me without any warning, she even touched me without gloves on multiple times as well as wearing her mask half way down her face! have these people never heard of cleanliness? many staff wear no mask at all even though it is hospital policy when i had a sleep study done neither me, my family or PCP were told about the fact they had dignosied me with something and the sleep clinic is just... god so awful. the staff are rude and treat you like an idiot. they do not listen to you or even pretend they care. not to mention the fact that they will cancel your appointments with no explanation, warning, or notice. and don't expect them to keep promises, no matter how many times the nurse we worked with said she would refer us to a sleep medicine doctor, she did not. it got so bad we decided to switch to a different hospital. Doctors do not take medical emergencies seriously. i have had many catatonic episodes Infront of doctors who entirely ignored me as well as a doctor loudly shuffling cards on a cement floor while i had an SPD meltdown. i begged her to stop being so loud but she just said "im not saying anything" over and over. i have nightmares about this hospital and they have given me an extreme phobia of doctors. do not go to this hospital you will face abuse, malpractice, discrimination, and receive little to no care. absolutely awful hospital, wish i never had to go here but unfortunately for me I've got many...

I was so impressed with the care provided to my son for his recent surgery. Before during and “almost” after. I’ll explain…Everyone from the security to the surgeon to the nurses or even non medical staff was top notch. Our favorite outside of our surgeon of course was our night nurse Clairese she was just wonderful and quite compassionate. The therapy staff was very helpful and provided additional stretches for aftercare. The ortho staff checked on us daily including our doctor and always provided great advice in a language that both my son and I could understand. Everyone just seemed very genuine and it made me feel extremely comfortable. Upon discharge we were told there was no rush to leave as the room would be empty for the remainder of the day. Since we had already placed his lunch order prior to knowing exactly when we would be up for discharge I asked if my son wanted to stay until after it arrived. We also completed a form a couple days prior for some additional resources and were waiting for them to come in between 12 and 2 per the time listed on the application. I informed the staff we were just waiting for those two things and would head out directly after. Once everything was all done I informed my 16 yr old I was going to take our belongings to the car and pick up his meds. Our nurse Hui was sweet enough to allow me to use a cart so I could take everything at once. I informed her I was going to stop at the pharmacy on the way. I dropped off our bags and popped back up to the pharmacy. Unfortunately they had trouble locating one of his medications so I text my son so he would understand why it was taking so long. After locating the medication and receiving counsel from the pharmacist, I headed back up to our floor. As I was approaching the room I saw an older blond nurse storming out of it. I had never seen her before so I wondered why she would be going in my sons room. When she came out she immediately walked up to the nurse station and said what is he doing in there so long to another nurse. The other nurse started saying well that’s because the mother…and stopped speaking when she saw me. I wondered if they were speaking of my son and I but acted as if I didn’t hear and quickly entered the room to see my son sitting waiting. I asked what the nurse wanted since we had never seen her before and he stated he would tell me later. After carefully getting him to the car and loading him in, he said he was ready to tell me what she said…apparently her tone was quite rude saying what are you doing in here? He said oh my mother is at the pharmacy she should be up soon. She then asks well what’s this wheelchair for? He said it’s for me I just had surgery, she then responded with well she’s been gone a really long time and just left the room. What her issue was I have no clue but she left a sour taste in my mouth after such a previously pleasant experience. I know he waited to tell me about it in the car because he knows I would have called her out on her bedside manner. I personally have been at the front desk for many years and speaking about patients and their parents all loud is for sure a no no. I wish I was able to get her name but if this is her typical personality I’m sure management will know exactly who she is when they read this. Forrest B floor 8. Please retrain...