Emergency Room | Kaiser Permanente Sunnyside Medical Center — Local services in Happy Valley

My daughter went to the Kaiser Sunnyside Emergency Room with an intractable migraine on Monday. She and her husband arrived at 4:00 p.m. At 7:30, he called to ask me to come stay with her so he could go get something to eat. My daughter was in agony in the brightly lit, noisy, crowded room. Finally at about 8:50, they called her into a room. We walked into the room, and the woman who identified herself as a nurse walked ahead of us, without turning around, and as she walked through to the door on the other side of the room, she said "If you want to lie down, you can get on the bed - the doctor will be in shortly." There was a placard there describing what you can expect as a patient in the ER, and the first thing listed was that a nurse would assess you. Not only did she not assess my daughter, she didn't really even look at us. The room was dirty. There was a used Kleenex on the floor by the bed. The floor was dirty, with spots of dirt that looked like the floor had drips on it, which collected dirt as they dried. In front of the chairs where I was sitting were spots of what looked like drool, or some other bodily fluid. The walls were dirty, and the corners didn't look like they had been cleaned for a long, long time. At about 9:45, a nurse came in and told us that we would probably have to go back out into the waiting room, because the doctor was busy with a procedure, and they couldn't keep the room tied up when there were other patients waiting. I said "you......are......kidding.....me". She was apologetic and said she would see if the doctor would order a protocol first round of meds, so we wouldn't have to leave. She was back in about 15 minutes with intramuscular doses of Benadryl, Reglan and Toradol. At about 10:40, the doctor came in, also apologetic for the wait. He did a very thorough neurological exam, and explained that there are several steps to protocol medication with observation periods in between, and that maybe a bed would open in the regular part of the emergency room for my daughter to be treated in. By this time, she just wanted to go home to her own bed, and expressed that to the doctor. He said he would look at the protocols and give her something and send her home. After another 20 minutes, a different nurse came in with oral tylenol, and Zofran, and injections of Sumatriptan, Zyprexa, and Decadron. I questioned the Zyprexa, as it's an anti-psychotic, and the nurse said (after some verbal stumbling, which made me think she didn't know) that it was probably being used as a muscle relaxer. I really don't think that's the case - probably more for nausea, but I didn't question her further. We finally left at 11:45, with only very minimal relief for my daughter's headache. While I can understand being short staffed, and overburdened, I really cannot understand that they would ask us to go back to the waiting room. I especially can't understand the dirt in the room. As a medical professional, I've never been impressed with Kaiser, and this experience only served to reinforce that opinion. The one star isn't...

Okay, after a few different events where I had to use the emergency room, it has been a roller-coaster that has planted a bit of distrust.

The first time I went in, they didn't seem to be concerned about my BP being at dangerous levels, they didn't even bring it up. I happen to have a friend who's a nurse who pointed out to me exactly how critical it was. The nurses were helpful and checked on me when I struggled to get a sample. It made me feel less invisible, a breath of fresh air. The infection didn't return like it did with the prior wrong treatment at a different hospital. Despite being in severe pain due to passing damaged tissues, pain management was not taken into consideration. It was extremely painful. It felt like a new and very sharp kidney stone every few minutes.

The second time I went in, I had a herniated spine, and this is when it begins to really shatter my trust. They did NOT perform an immediate scan, this is infuriating as it could determine what exactly is wrong and being able to hand over very current information, so what ended up happening is that I only got to have this done for my doctor 2 months later, where it had shifted and settled in ways it shouldn't have, giving an improper image of the initial breakdown of my spine. There were also too few wheelchairs, a man much much larger than I am, took the very last regular sized wheelchair right in front of me despite me being in dire need, and left me with the double-wide, this caused nurses to accidentally catch furniture and doorways, jarring my spine and making me cry, nobody apologized. I feel like they should've put me in a gurney, I don't understand what made them feel like I'd be fine waiting in the hallway in a chair that I could barely sit in because of the pain. I got exactly 3 days' worth of very mild pain meds and steroids that did exactly nothing for the pain, the steroids were not helpful and made me even more miserable with severe side effects. It made me feel invalidated, downplayed, and invisible. How was I going to stretch 3 days' worth of ineffective meds, all the way to my next available appointment where they'd do what I expected to get done here?

I am now in a wheelchair most of my life, and I feel like it may have been different if I had actually received immediate imaging of my spine during such a crucial time, so that doctors could have at the very least been able to trace the movements and get a better understanding for what is going on and what to do next.

The second time my spine re-herniated, I just dealt with it at home, because quite frankly I feel that, asides from getting it in my records that it happened, it was against my best interest to go due to the quality of care I received.

Asides from that, I've witnessed nurses striking, and Kaiser then instead increasing their insurance prices to the point businesses have had to change to another provider, it became twice as expensive, something that seems very dishonest and it's making me feel even less safe...

My name is Sergey Mazur. I wish I could give Kaiser Emergency in Clackamas, Oregon less than one star. In August 2024, my mother brought my father Viktor Mazur to the ER because he was feeling unwell and had low blood pressure. He tested positive for Covid and was sent home just a few hours later. But once he returned home, everything changed — he was confused, disoriented, couldn’t complete sentences, and struggled to express his thoughts. It was terrifying, and to me, it clearly looked like he had suffered a stroke.

I took him back to the ER for the second time and made my concerns very clear. They admitted him and said they would run tests, including an MRI. That night, the hospitalist called me and said my dad’s confusion was from Covid, not a stroke, and recommended discharging him again — claiming he’d be more comfortable at home and citing a “language barrier” as a reason. I strongly voiced my fear that my father had suffered a stroke. The doctor reassured me that everything was fine.

The next morning — less than 24 hours later — I had to rush him back to the ER for the third time. This time, he was admitted and hospitalized for nearly a month. For the first two weeks, the staff told us he had suffered multiple strokes. But when we requested a transfer to Providence’s stroke unit for more specialized care, Kaiser suddenly reversed the diagnosis. They called us saying they had “good news” — that he hadn’t had any strokes after all, and it was all due to Covid. It felt like a blatant attempt to prevent the transfer and cover their own failure.

During a routine brain scan related to my father’s cancer treatment/hospital visits at a Kaiser center, the truth finally came out: the scan showed clear evidence of past strokes.

Not only did Kaiser misdiagnose and discharge my father multiple times, they deleted key hospital notes and doctor documentation — including the recommendation to send him home due to “language barriers.” These records were gone after we began raising serious concerns about his treatment. They tried to erase the very decisions that caused him harm.

This entire experience has left my family traumatized. We trusted Kaiser at the most critical time, and they let us down — not just with medical mistakes, but with lies, negligence, and a complete lack of accountability. I believe the doctor who sent my father home while he was actively suffering strokes should lose his license. No family should have to live through the fear, helplessness, and damage this caused us.

Kaiser caused my dad lasting harm and left our family with emotional scars we’ll carry forever. We deserved the truth, and so does...