Duke Regional Hospital — Local services in Durham

Not a critique of the staff—they were all friendly and qualified. There is also tons of parking and it is free. The problems are the ER waiting room setup, lax intake process, and general system of prioritizing and efficiently getting patients treatment. Make sure to wear a heavy duty face mask!

The waiting room for the ER is tiny. It was jam packed with a mere dozen patients. At intake patients are given masks but many do not wear masks properly or at all (which is a serious, completely avoidable problem if staff were more wary). There are screens between chairs, purportedly to prevent contagions from spreading (i.e COVID) but the room layout effectively undoes these precautions.

With a mere dozen people in the waiting room it is claustrophobic and ripe for spread of airborne virus. The staff were friendly, but frankly they were understaffed, or else did not have a strong intake process in place. Patients walk in coughing, sneezing (actually someone was throwing up into a bin in the chair directly across from me)— and there were 10 minute periods where the intake space was unstaffed. This is a problem generally, but particularly given a pandemic.

I came to get stitches for a busted chin, which was an 8 hour process from start to finish. Arrived at 2 PM on a weekday after the nearby urgent care suggested I go to Duke regional to avoid a long wait. Although I was immediately taken back for vitals and to get an IV put in, I was back in the waiting room for 5 hours before getting called back to an open room. The staff were friendly, but Again, it moved so slowly and there seemed to be plenty of staff on duty. I sat in the room for 2 hours, got a quick consult with a doctor who ended up saying I didn’t need stitches and referred me to a specialist.

I spent 8 hours at the ER Just to be told that I should see a specialist and discharged. I left without treatment, a sizable bill, and unnecessarily heightened risk of exposure to COVID. I know ER visits are rarely short, but there were so many breakdowns in the process at a Duke hospital — what is touted as a “top tier” healthcare.

I recommend bringing a blanket, sweatshirt, a heavy duty face mask and snacks—it is cold in the waiting room, tightly packed, and you may end up being there for the entire workday (or for the...

DO NOT GO HERE, YOU WILL DIE. If I could give minus 10,000 stars, I would. Duke almost killed my sister twice. Their doctors and nursing staff are incompetent and uneducated about even basic medical knowledge, treatment and prevention of post surgical infections.

They REFUSED TO TREAT AN INFECTION UNTIL THE WHITE BLOOD CELL COUNTS WERE OVER 37,600,000,000!!! (NORMAL IS LESS THAN 9,000,000,000).

AND EVEN WHEN THEY STARTED AN ANTIBIOTIC, THE WBC KEPT GOING UP, PEAKING AT 42.6!

HER OSTOMY BAG BROKE, AND THE CONTENTS OF HER BOWELS SPILLED INTO HER OPEN ABDOMINAL WOUND. A NURSES AIDE REPEATEDLY WIPED THE EXCREMENT INTO HER OPEN WOUND WITH THE SAME CLOTH, WIPING IT OFF THEN WIPING BACK INTO THE WOUND.

NO WONDER SHE BECAME INFECTED.

DUKE DOES NOT FOLLOW THE INDUSTRY STANDARD OF CARE FOR POST OPERATIVE INFECTION MANAGEMENT.

THEIR STAFF ARE ARROGANT AND RIGID AND THINK THEY KNOW IT ALL AND TO PROVE IT, THEY WOULD RATHER LET A PATIENT DIE JUST TO SHOW THEY ARE RIGHT.

UNFORTUNATELY THEY ARE WRONG AND LIVES ARE LOST, LIVES ARE DISRUPTED.

THEY TREAT PATIENTS WITH DISDAIN. THEIR SUPPORTIVE STAFF WHO ARE SUPPOSED TO HELP, LIE AND DISSEMBLE AND REFUSE TO HELP, WHICH IS THEIR JOB.

STAY AWAY FROM DUKE, STAY FAR FAR AWAY IF YOU WANT TO LIVE AND BE HEALTHY.

MY SISTER ALMOST DIED. SHE HAS TWO BAGS HANGING OFF HER, ONE FOR THE OSTOMY, AND ONE FOR THE INFECTION.

SHE STILL HAS ELEVATED WHITE BLOOD CELLS. SHE STILL HAS AN INFECTION. THEY STOPPED THE ANTIBIOTICS AND TOLD MEDICARE SHE NO LONGER NEEDS HOSPITAL CARE.

THEY ARE KICKING HER TO THE CURB AND THEY...

I recently had a bad experience with Dr. Joshua Puryear Boyd in the ER at Duke Regional Hospital on September 1st, 2025.

After Dr. Boyd came in and introduced himself, he made it immediately clear that he did not welcome questions and that he would prefer for everyone to sit quietly, listen to him give only basic and common sense information, and then leave quickly without having any sort of conversation about the medical concerns at hand.

He would not only get visibly annoyed when he would be asked relevant questions (like further clarification on the location of a discovered osteocyte), but when I voiced my concern on my lack of ability to properly discuss our medical concerns with him, he got angry and ultimately left the room without explaining all the tests and findings during our 7-hour ER stay.

His absence required the head nurse to come in and try to explain the findings as best she could, since he refused to return.

I have a hard time seeing this other than patient neglect, since his patient was in a large amount of pain and needing assistance with finding solutions to her unknown ailment. Ultimately, she is continuing to struggle with unmanageable pain and we have little to no guidance on how to proceed.

Lastly, I logged in and read his provider notes and found them both misleading and inaccurate. These blatant inaccuracies seem like a clear attempt to cover his tracks for his unprofessional behavior and portray me in a negative and inaccurate manner.

Duke patients deserve better...