Banner Estrella Medical Center | Phoenix, AZ | Thomas Rd. — Local services in Phoenix

I want to frame this, in the most clear possible manner. If you want yourself, or your family to make it through whatever emergency, go ANYWHERE else. STAY AWAY

Further framing, I am a Director of Operations at a multi-million dollar company.. I am all too familiar with law suits, banter, and other complaint channels such as BBB. I am a business man, through and through that served our country in the US Army. I do not take anything said in the further document lightly, without causation, and further understand that any extenuating dramatizations actually hurt the cause. Everything, can and will be backed up with documentation, corroboration, and witness'.

This is, without a doubt, the WORST experience of medical treatment I have ever witnessed, in my life. (We went in around 0900) Expecting parents, made our way to this ER. And I can confidently say, I ignored the red flags of the TRASH strewn around the lobby, and graffiti on the walls in the bathroom. I had to take my daughter, 5 elsewhere to use the restroom as the door inside of the mens restroom in the main ER lobby didn't lock. Yes. The stall door, had no lock. We were anxious to be seen. As she was roughly 8 weeks pregnant, and experiencing symptoms of potential threat to her well being, or our childs. We stayed. And I would give anything to of left prior to this. We waited, in the lobby, for an hour before we were triaged. The symptoms the mother to my child was experiencing WAS EMERGENT. And we had people with the sniffles come in after us, be triaged first. Laughing, joking, and carrying on just fine. While she rested in pain, and scared. After Triage, an hour and a half went by before we went into the INTAKE room. At this point, 2.5 hours in. TO GET INTO INTAKE. Zero answers to any questions, took an HOUR to see a PA. AN HOUR AFTER INTAKE TO SEE THE PA. She was told that we would be doing an ultrasound, and blood work. Another hour, finally get her to get a ultrasound. Where I, the father, was not allowed to be. Where there was NOTHING conveyed to the viability or stability of our child. NOTHING. Many hours later, they came in and said they were moving us. At first, relief. Because the intake room, has something that is similar to a recliner for my PREGNANT PARTNER WHOM IS EXPERIENCING COMPLICATIONS WITH PREGNANCY HAS BEEN SITTING. I thought, wow. A bed. Wrong. We went into ANOTHER room, with a SMALLER chair, WITH another patient. Still, by this time, hours had passed. No blood work results, no results on the ultra sound. There was NEVER contact with a doctor until later in the evening. About an hour and a half in that "Results" room, we were moved to ANOTHER small room, with TWO sick individuals in it, no privacy, nothing. It is me, my pregnant partner, and my daughter in a 12x12 room with two sick individuals. ZERO privacy when it came to discussing anything medical. ZERO true answers given. It came out, AFTER we were discharged that Estrella didn't even make the medical determination. The ultrasound was sent to another facility, and THEY contacted Estrella after she was discharged and said that there were MISSING photos. And we had to come back ASAP as her life was in danger. Then they transferred us to ANOTHER hospital by phone where we were told everything was fine. We spent over 9 hours there. With zero medical attention, zero answers, all of which also intertwined with lack of privacy in conversations that violate HIPAA. Fast forward a few days, we find out she miscarried. Days went by. Days. Of fear. Suffering. Pain. Confusion. All due to malpractice. Courtney Ophaug, Amy Perry, Marjorie Bessel, Staci Disckerson, and Rhonda Lynch should be deeply concerned about the work being performed in this establishment. And will one hundred percent be mentioned directly in the lawsuit. Rhonda Lynch, the Dir. Of medical staff Services was mentioned and muttered 4 times in our 9 hours there from her staff as being incompetent.

I will not settle, for ANYTHING less than a written, and public apology for our experience. More to follow. Character...

So the one star is only being left for the sake of being able to leave a review . I was seen at banner hospital during the week of January 3rd . I attempted to be seen on January 2nd and after a 8 hour wait in the emergency room ( after being sent there by Davita dialysis center ) I decided to leave and be seen at an urgent care center . I was admitted to that urgent care center and had to wait on an available bed at banner - that was a nightmare to say the least . Also I was informed by dr.smiths office (a banner office) that I needed to ask for a discharge from the urgent care center so that I could come back and sit at the banner emergency room and wait to be seen by a rounding provider . That doesn’t even make sense because your name isn’t even in the system for a provider to see you unless you’re in a room . I relayed the information to the staff at the urgent care center , and their doctor called into the office themselves because I found out what they told me to do was ILLEGAL. When the transfer did happen there were plenty of empty rooms so I’m confused as to what the hold up was. During the course of my 3 day stay at banner , I received no answers for what was actually found. The initial reason for my admission was for a possible infection (abcess to the abdomen) after a pd catheter placement that was also performed at banner on 12/4. As an ESRD patient I was thrown IV antibiotics without them confirming whether or not I had an infection or what type of infection I may have . When my wife brought up her concerns about them wanting to treat me with vancomycin without a culture on hand the doctor looked shocked that she even knew what she was talking about . He then stated that the reason they wanted to treat with that medication was due to most infections being caused by MRSA, however he agreed that since my kidney functions were bad that they would hold off on the vancomycin until they performed labs. They ended up doing the MRSA lab in the wrong tube and it wasn’t until my wife asked for the results , that they admitted the mistake and said another swab would be needed . Funny story is that when I was discharged we never found out what the culture turned out to be . No lab results other then the kidney function tests . Every time a doctor came in the room we would ask , so is this an infection Or is this just scar tissue . NO ONE could provide an answer . How do you perform surgery on a patient to take their peritoneal catheter out and not know what the hell caused the problem in the first place ? The discharge was very impersonal , they send you down stairs from where you have been roomed to a nurse who has never layed eyes on you . They print out some generic discharge forms with no answers to any questions that you may still have . I could go on and on about the care received here but there’s not enough time . The nurses are nice but after that I have nothing to say about the surgeons or doctors on the team . I also have not received not one follow up call from the surgeons office who put the catheter in or took the catheter out . The impersonal feeling of healthcare is getting worse and worse . Just based off of my experience I would not recommend banner to...

This is a little late coming due to I was recovering from a Surgery I had on 3/28/25 & discharged in the afternoon of 3/30/25. I was in room 5026 & I can honestly say the day nursing staff were just horrible. One of the nursing assistants I had on 8/7/24 - 8/9/24 visit as well as my recent visit was Abraham who kept promising a chair so I could set up. Might I add there was a chair already in there. He wasn't much better on my March visit. 2 of the day nurses on my recent visit RN's name was either Jean or Jane & the LPN's name was Liz. Never once was my room cleaned until the day of discharge on both visits. Just like my August visit where I was in room 5027 my basin that you get to sponge bathe in was thrown on my bedside table with toothbrush and toothpaste. On my August visit I kept asking to get up & walk to no avail. After many attempts of just trying to sit up in my bed the buzzer kept going off stating do NOT get up. After awhile, I got up on my own & was told by a nurse to NOT get up, but I had to move to have a successful recovery and walked around the nurses station. A Physical therapist came to my room after I was awaiting my discharge papers to walk with me & I declined because they should have came sooner. She indicated that I had to walk. I find that to be, because I told the Dr. when asked if I had walked & my answer was NO. She only came up to walk me so my insurance could be billed an astronomical fee for less than 5 minutes. Also on my August visit I rang for a nurse asking for an Icepack, only to have her come in & literally throw it at me instead of asking where would I like it placed. Back to the March visit on 3/28/25 LPN Liz came to my room & said "I hope you're NOT here when I return on Sunday morning" Might I add, it was not due to empathy. She was rude. I asked to see a case manger which someone by the name of Dr. Abdullah came in. I was grateful for the night nurses on my March visit On 03/28 I am not sure of the names of the RN or Nurses aid, but the LPN for both 03/28 & 03/29 was Jackie. She actually did the best job checking my incision site, loosening my binder to let tha wound breathe. She NEVER complained & was on top of giving my meds at the appropriate time. Another thing was I only had eaten a partial part of a PB&J & a graham cracker due to being told that the kitchen that the patients food came from was being renovated. All I could say was WOW & shake my head. I was so elated to get the heck out of there on both visits. You just might want to have the floor nurses trained by the pre-op & recovery nurses who did an excellent job. Unfortunately it wasn't up to me to pick a better Hospital to have my 2 surgeries at. If I need surgery in the future & find out it has to be done there, I simply won't have it. Thunderbird is just as bad. It's a shame Peter Fine is no longer there or I would've emailed him. Your facility SUCKS!! Your facility should NOT bill any patient their portion as they DO NOT receive proper care.... I wouldn't have given even 1 star if there was that option!!!

P.S. Whomever posts a comment on the Facilities behalf, do NOT waste your time because it's Blah,...