Children's National Hospital — Attraction in Washington

My 3 year old had a T&A last week and majority of the experience, particularly the recovery period, was not handled well. First, signage inside and outside the hospital is terrible. I drove around 3 times before calling to have someone guide me to the parking garage (she obviously had done that many times before). Once you get inside, you are told to go to the second floor surgical check in center, no one tells you that you must check in first on the first floor. There are no signs for the surgical center whatsoever. You'll need to flag down a staff member in the hall to lead you there. How can a hospital not have clear signs? All the parents are walking around aimlessly looking for where they need to go.

I was told ahead of time that I'd have to stay overnight for my daughter to be monitored. This was fine. However, it was never explained that this overnight stay was as an outpatient in a recovery center. That is TOTALLY DIFFERENT than being admitted to a hospital room. The recovery center has curtain doors on one side of each room (fine for a staying a few hours). The nurse said she would try to find a room with a door for us, since we would be there overnight. A room with a door meant that one side of the room was a clear sliding glass door with a very thin curtain over it so all the light shines in the room. The bed that my 3 year old had to sleep in constantly vibrated, filled with air and then released the air. She was absolutely terrified of the bed and wouldn't sleep in it. I asked for another and was told I wasn't allowed to have a regular bed that didn't move because this one stimulated the muscles. What does that even mean for my daughter who had tonsil surgery??? So she slept on me the entire night...same thing as sleeping in a regular bed so it made no sense. Not to mention there was a loudspeaker on the wall so any announcement in the recovery center went booming through our room! How do you expect a 3 year old, or anyone, to rest and recover like that? Someone really needs to explain to parents that an overnight stay is not a hospital stay and there is nowhere to sleep, your child's bed will move the whole night, and you'll constantly be awakened to beeping machines and loudspeaker announcements.

The nurse also accused me of removing the wires on her blood pressure cuff, which I did not do! Everytime she moved the wire would snap off the cuff and cause the machine to send a blaring beep throughout the room. Half of the time no one came to check on us, which is the whole point of the loud beeping alert! I would need to put my kid down on the bed she was terrified of to find someone, hoping she didn't freak out while I was gone. The ECT wires also kept falling off when she moved, so we had the same problem with that. After a few times, I watched how the nurses stopped the machine from beeping and started doing that myself.

When they said discharge was 5am, I could not have been happier. I sat in the chair the entire night counting down the minutes and pausing the monitor alerts. There were other small things that I won't get into, but hopefully what I did say will help another parent plan better for their...

My son was transferred to this hospital from another hospital due to head swelling. let me explain what happened before I critique the staff. I put my son to bed at 8 pm (we share a room) and joined back for bed around 12 am. my son woke up at 8 the next morning, when I turned the light on I noticed the side of his head was swelled so I Rushed him to calvert hospital, they did scans and X-rays and blood work when we got there and told us we were being transferred to children's, we were transported through AAA , I wasn't even sure if we were going to make it alive to the hospital because the driving was horrible and was TEXTING AND DRIVING. Finally we got to children's hospital, they rushed us to the trauma center where they took him did an initial check up on him, while I was standing in the corner in shock of what was going on I was crying , while he is still being checked out by several doctors from the trauma team I am approached by Child protective services ... how great, I'm upset about my child being bombarded by several doctors scaring him, and they send cps to talk to me? Not cool. after leaving shock trauma we were moved up to our room where we would be staying, nurses were great! doctors barely came to check on my son for the whole two day stay. they saw him three times, and those three times they came in asked how he was doing , flashed the flashlight from their phone on him from a distance and walked out. The hospital was so convinced that my child was beat that they barely did any medical testing, when I asked for them to check my child's ear they again used the flashlight on their phone and used their eye sight to "check" his ear. My next problem with this hospital came when the lab ladies came to take my child's blood. The lady's asked me what had happened to my son so I told them what happened, they turn to my 14 month old son and ask him " who's beating you " right In front of me, NOT OKAY. When I spoke to the doctor (after having the nurse hunt her down and make her come speak to me) I requested the name of the lady who had done my sons labs and she told me she had no way to get that type of information( yeah right) So I asked the nurse to get me the name and she said she would find it for me but NEVER gave me the name. Before being discharged I had a nurse Come into my sons room to tell us that we were going to be able to leave soon, she told me what some of the follow up instructions would be, I disagreed with one of their recommendations for follow up care , instead of respecting my wishes of what I was Going to do with my child she snapped an attitude with me! One last thing before I end this very long story, I had to hunt down and ask for every result of every test they did! I found results out from a cps worker from the first hospital we were at, how come they can be contacted about the results of my child's test before they tell the patients parent? This was the absolute worst hospital experience I have ever had, I will never take my son back to...

UPDATED REVIEW: 2/20/2025

This review is specially for the billing dept at Children's National Hospital. I am really disappointed in my experience. My daughter has developmental delays and as a result has multiple doctor's and therapy appointments. The out of pocket expenses for these services certainly adds up, so we were so grateful when she was awarded a grant to help off set the co pays for her appointments. I understand that Children's National doesn't accept outside payments for services but reached out to see if an exception could be made. She receives services at Kennedy Krieger in Baltimore, MD and their billing dept has been so accommodating! If fact, my daughter's account has been reconciled today at Kennedy Krieger with a check they received from the grant funders. I sent an email to the Ombudsman general email back in December of 2024 and never received a response. I followed up, via the telephone and was put into contact with Customer Service Supervisor/Business Operations who explained to me, that Children's National does not accept outside payments to reconcile bills (which I already knew). I explained that I'm asking for an exception to be made. She then asked me the name of the grant and then confirmed that the grant in not in their system and proceeded to tell me AGAIN that Children's National does not accept outside payments to reconcile accounts. I explained to her that I understand the billing process per her last 2 email responses, however I'm asking for an exception. She then proceeds to tell me AGAIN that's not the process and she will see if it's possible and will get back to me once she has reached out to the grant funders on January 17, 2025. I have not heard back from her. It's not like I"m trying to avoid paying the bill. Why is Children' National Billing so inflexible? I'm literally trying to pay a bill but am essentially being punished for not being wealthy and having to explore alternative routes to clear debts. I'm not asking to perform anything illegal. I understand that it will take some additional work on their end, but I thought a hospital whose mission is to advocate for children, would be more accommodating to the parents of their patients. I am very very disappointed!!!!

My daughter was discharged from Children's National Hospital exactly 1 week ago after a 4 day hospital stay. It was a stressful experience but the medical professions made it so much easier to navigate. Children's National Hospital is known for its' brilliant staff but their bedside manner is exceptional. We were in the ER for about 12 hrs before my daughter was admitted and assigned a room. The hospital was packed! But the staff made me feel like my daughter was the only patient there. Again, it was a stressful experience but found so much comfort being there because I knew she was in the absolute BEST care. I am forever grateful for the care my...