Swedish Issaquah Campus — Local services in Issaquah

I gave birth to my first child here. If I could do it over I would have my child in the bathroom or in the car on the way, which almost happened because they sent me home 40 minutes away during active labor.

It started at my 40 week check up with my OB checking my cervix for dilation and without warning or consent, performed a membrane sweep. She did this knowing my baby wasn't in the correct position for labor yet, which gave me 19 hours of back labor and unnecessary tearing.

Once my contractions were non stop without giving me a break I decided to go in. Their monitors failed to pick up my contractions all the way up until birth, probably contributing to their wrong decision to send me home. It wasn't even like it was a busy time of year to have a baby, it was a Saturday evening at the end of February

I came back and the nurse had the audacity to say that they were going to just send me home again while I was screaming in pain hunched over the wheel chair. They admitted me into triage where their monitors still weren't picking up contractions. They were broken if you ask me.

I got into my room and told them I wanted a natural labor. I didn't know until I saw the video footage but they had hooked up Pitocin to my IV. As a result of them sending me home during active labor I didn't get the antibiotics for my group strep B in time before my baby was born putting him at risk for contracting it himself. The unnecessary danger they put my newborn is probably the worst part . Knowing I wanted a natural labor they pushed me to get an epidural which I had to repeatedly tell them no to. Eventually they said, without checking how dilated I was, that it would take 4 more hours to which I finally caved and said they could do the epidural. The anesthetist came in and tried 4 times to get the needle in not saying that it wasn't working. If I had known all the stabs I was feeling were for nothing I would have said to stop the first time. It took my husband saying something for me to even know it wasn't working. Each time they try is more risk of paralysis or other complications considering I was jumping off the table screaming with each one, they hurt way worse than the contractions.

I pushed my son out an hour later in under 15 minutes of pushing. The doctor hadn't gotten there in time and the nurse said 'they don't pay me enough to catch this baby' telling me to breathe through the contractions despite my baby coming out. If they had succeeded with the epidural I was already so far along I probably would have needed a c section.

I was horrified that they had confined me to the hospital bed to give birth laying on my back, I would rather have given birth in the bathroom by myself. I even tried to get off the table to use the squat rack in the room so it wasn't for lack of effort on my part. I didn't get to use any of the fancy labor tools they showed off in the tour. The only decent thing about the room was that I didn't have to share with anyone else

The doctor then stitched my left labia to my right resulting in 2 holes, which I later needed surgery to fix at this same hospital. They also gave me 2 (??) catheters without letting me go potty on my own, which I was perfectly capable of doing. This resulted in a UTI of course.

As I was checking in for my surgery when I asked what I was scheduled for knowing how much this hospital had gotten wrong (I must be a sucker for punishment) they told me I was scheduled for a hysterectomy. I was terrified my minor repair for stitches gone wrong was going to result in me being unable to carry anymore children. Not to mention all the billing has been a nightmare.

When they said my cervix looked abnormal during pregnancy and to get a biopsy after I had my baby just to have it come back normal and the doctor even said nothing looked wrong but they were going to do the biopsy anyway I was starting to feel like they were purposely doing unnecessary procedures to get as much money as possible. I would avoid this hospital at all costs. I feel like I probably could have a...

If I could rate this gorgeous, state of the art facility any more poorly I would love to do so.

Visited for primary care twice, and the ER once for a kidney stone, will never patronize this hospital again.

For starters, their primary care desk staff are unhelpful at best and flat out rude and uncaring at worst. I was told things would appear in my online chart that were not there, and if I had a problem with it, that it was none of her business (as a supervisor no less) to help me resolve it, nor was she willing to help me figure out what I needed to do. I have always been polite and exceedingly friendly with staff, and have had nothing but problems with all but a single one of the CNA's there who actually seemed to give a crap. The first GP I saw there was a Dr. Gardener, who was excellent, but only there temporarily, and the second, whose name I do not remember, and will never see again.

Secondly, I was came to the ER with a kidney stone, assuming my insurance was accepted (they never told me it wasn't, and my prior visit under primary care was accepted by insurance) but while the hospital's services were covered, the doctor's charge was not, as they contract out the ER physicians. This doc charged me a thousand dollars to see me for quite literally five minutes while he ineptly asked me irrelevant questions whilst I was flopping around the bed in blinding agony and vomiting from the pain (easy way to tell if someone is in extreme pain, they can't stop moving and they're spontaneously vomiting). I ask better, more focused questions to patients as an EMT. After finally taking care of the pain with a double dose of dilaudid and an MRI, a nurse came in and CHASTISED me for "not breathing enough" because the painkiller was suppressing my respiratory drive. So I had to sit there, manually breathing for several hours, and was charged an inordinate amount of money to be talked down to by a nurse that wasn't even busy (I was probably the only patient in the ER that evening) and have a doctor telling me what a monkey with a stethoscope could have figured out, and indeed, I already knew was the problem.

Follow ups on the stone with an X ray (not covered) and a nephrologist (covered) were entirely useless and a waste of time and money, as I have no dietary, lifestyle, or family history, so this is easily labeled a one time occurrence, and several years later, it has remained as such.

Swedish is a stunningly gorgeous hospital, run by arrogant and incompetent people and has no desire to help patients. As an EMT, I will be very honest with my future patients about Swedish's services and will NEVER patronize this hospital again.

edit; a few years in, I'm seeing this place occasionally with my ambulance. my girlfriend had a laparoscopic (non emergency) surgery here for a large ovarian cyst, and my overall opinion is still squarely two stars. they are better, but still just don't have their chops yet when it comes to patient care. lots of little mistakes everywhere, from ultrasound techs not properly sanitizing hands, to wrong patient info, to minor post surgical infections and badly done stitches, and unprofessional/malpractice things heard in front of patients. they just aren't a good hospital yet, though they are the only Swedish hospital with a bariatric CT scanner, so if you're over 300lbs, this is where you'll be going, either on your own or in one of our...

I rarely write reviews in public forums but decided to voice the experience I had while my family member was admitted as a patient to be treated for her broken back at the end of year 2016.

My family was happy to be greeted by friendly staffs at the beautiful facility in the midst of unexpected distress and shock caused by the accident, when we were initially directed to this location from ER. And I have immense gratitude for those who worked and helped us during the holiday season.

However there are a number of things that were alarming during our stay here with the patient. Understand that this was end of the year... however, what’s extremely concerning was many of the staffs’ level of professionalism and lack of communication among the NP, nurses, and their AC’s. The messages not getting relayed /dropped, mistakes on administrating meds (wrong time, wrong dosage, and missing critical specifics we requested), assists coming in without any knowledge on patient’s condition before giving hands and exacerbate the condition – oversights that could be potentially life-threatening.

The patient had specific requirements for her meds, and had to use something that was brought from home. Because the hospital would only allow the meds administered by them, anything brought in from outside had to be checked by the pharmacy and labeled/stored under their watch, which we did when we first got here. The issue is that the nurses don’t read the medical notes carefully and order new meds and/or bring it at the wrong time and/or with wrong doses. Since we had different nurses every day on shifts, we had to educate/tell them why and how she is taking home-brought meds almost every time there was a shift change.

Luckily both my sister and I were taking turns to be there and were able to avoid major disaster. Raising concern to the head nurse wasn’t taken seriously initially – escalating it to NP finally got some attention later during the stay. It is beyond the amount of training of lack thereof… they are seemingly lacking sense of responsibility / accountability in their care for the most part except for the dedicated few, so much so that we stayed with the patient all day just to make sure they don’t miss anything critical and get the proper care.

Moreover, the constant pressure on the time of discharge (as early as possible) was extremely stressful to say the least. The hospital kept pushing the subject only after a day, stating there is nothing they could do for the patient any further, when she was in excruciating pain with extremely limited mobility. As soon as they see any potential insurance hiccups miles away - not that the patient didn’t have any coverage - their smile and attitude quickly turns into that of medusa… it just made me sad. I truly feel bad for someone who doesn’t have family support but needs to be here at this facility. AVOID THIS PLACE AT ALL COST if you have a choice - go to Overlake if you can.

What seems to be going on here is classic evil corporation in action; limited number of staffs for economy, lack of empathy, sloppy handing-offs, narrow sense of responsibility so they avoid any liability – long story short, Swedish Issaquah is not in it for...