HonorHealth Scottsdale Shea Medical Center — Local services in Scottsdale

Update 6yrs later LOL: i did end up getting called in for the induction at 8p. They gave me my epidural right away. It started wearing off around 3a while in active labor, and I asked for the anesthesiologist to come back in and do it again. I was shocked how the L&D nurse responded, “labor isn’t supposed to be comfortable” WHAT? This is the USA! If I have an epidural YES LABOR IS SUPPOSED TO BE (more) COMFORTABLE. I couldnt believe it. I am putting two stars because the staff here is great, they have a good attitude and are super sweet.

Something has definitely changed in the L&D department though. I have been on the induction list for five days, which wasnt a list at first, it was a scheduled induction and i have been told repeatedly that they would be calling me in soon. I have called the hospital a couple times just to check in on whats going on since i havent heard from anyone and am now being told my induction “wont be any time soon, we are too busy”. Because its considered an elective induction i am not important enough.

At this point i dont even need an induction though, i am in labor with painful contractions 5-7 minutes apart, my membranes have separated, and was sent home by them yesterday (in spite of being on the induction “list”) and told to come back when theyre 2-3 minutes and i cant walk talk or breathe through them, and my water has broken (i live 30+ min from the hospital). Only 15% of women’s water breaks before going into active labor, i might add, some womens water breaks while pushing, and i have only ever had my water break in the hospital. They sent me home without making me walk for an hour and checking for cervical changes, which is abnormal also. My doctor is totally appalled and apologetic, unfortunately there isnt much she can do besides advocate for me. She doesnt work for the hospital she just delivers there so it isnt her call whether they let me in.

I should also add the enormous discrepancy in pelvic exams between my doctor and the OB nurses. My doctor says 4cm 80% effaced, the nurse at honor health says 3cm 60% effaced. The only thing i can think of with the discrepancy is that the nurses are either inexperienced, doing th exam incorrectly, or have some reason to say im not as dilated and effaced as my doctor says i am (still not sure what that reason could be, but it seems something is definitely wrong with things at L&D, be it not enough staff or whatever it is, i have never heard of a labor ward not having enough beds to accommodate births especially as big as this hospital is, but i dont know the ins and outs and am willing to accept that). My doctor said this type of thing used to happen maybe once a month and its now happening week after week, every day.

This is private medicine after all, is it not? I pay for my visit/birth/stay, and i pay A LOT for my insurance, this is not socialized medicine. I feel like an unimportant numbered sow or cattle, pushed to the back of the line, and i literally cant afford to keep going in and being sent home knowing i am in labor and being told its not enough labor. I totally understand that i am not the only woman having a baby, but something seriously needs to change with their staffing- or something- whatever has changed to cause them to be “too busy” over the years to have a woman in labor get a little help along, because if they cant accommodate peoples needs theyre going to lose business (makes me sick that birthing a human is a business transaction but thats sort of beside the point, although again, this IS private medicine and i AM paying for this hospital to have my baby in). Or maybe theyre banking on the fact that people will come no matter what so they dont have to be accommodating, hospitals will make money no matter what.

If i could choose another hospital at this point, I would, but its the only hospital my doctor practices at. She will in turn be losing patients because of whatever mess is going on at this L&D department. Super disappointed. And concerned that when i go back, in labor still, i will be...

• Update: The Labor and Delivery director reached out to get further information and offered her personal support going forward. One additional star given for her great follow-up on my bad experience!*

I love my doctor (Dr. Schwartz). This is one of 2 hospitals that she does deliveries at and it is the closest to my home. Seemed like a simple decision to have my first child here. I went into labor about 2 weeks early and Dr. Schwartz was out of town. I was disappointed, but figured everything would be fine. Dr. DeSanto was a kind, knowledgeable substitute. I wish the other experiences of having my baby were as smooth. Upon arrival at the hospital, the two women in the lobby taking temperatures for COVID were nice and helpful. Unfortunately, the woman at reception in Labor and Delivery was not friendly or helpful. Alex and Cherokee were our first nurses and they were wonderful. But, it was the end of their shift when we arrived, so we ended up with a rude nurse with terrible bedside manner for the remainder of my labor and delivery. She said things like, “All my other deliveries tonight have gone into emergency C-sections. Hopefully we won’t have to do that with you.” And “We could start pushing soon, but I don’t want to stand here and push with you for 3 hours.” The anesthesiologist was good for the short time he was there, but the epidural wore off/was not fully effective, because the nurse wasn’t coming in to regularly check/move my legs (which I couldn’t do on my own). I was already upset that I didn’t have my own doctor and the rest of my experience delivering left plenty to be desired. After the baby was born, I needed some support with nursing, being a first time mom. Many of the nurses were condescending about “helping” and just did things themselves instead of teaching me. Jenn was by far the best nurse we had (aside from our brief experience with Alex and Cherokee) and actually tried to teach me. Other than her, we were lucky to see one of the nurses come around every hour, it was usually about 2. The first pediatrician didn’t introduce herself as a doctor. She just came in and asked if she could check the baby’s vitals. On the day of discharge, the second pediatrician was the main reason we were discharged over 6 hours later than we were told we would be. We kept getting told he should be right in all morning. I had already been cleared by my doctor, but the baby needed to have vitals checked again. We weren’t discharged until 2pm after him looking at her for 5 minutes. We then waited an hour for a wheelchair to be able to leave. After this experience, I received the bill we had been expecting for my services (the only bill we were told about/given an estimate for). We paid it. A few weeks later, we got the separate $1600 bill for the baby that we weren’t told to expect as first time parents. She is a “separate entity” is what I was told when I called in and that it was a “pretty good price.” About a month and a half after that, I got a SEPARATE bill from a third party pediatric group (which again, I wasn’t expecting/told about). Yesterday, 3 and a half months after my child was born, I received ANOTHER separate bill from an anesthesiologist group due this Friday. Less than a week to pay $600 after not being aware there were/would be anymore outstanding charges. Plus, I had a line item on my HonorHealth statement for anesthesiology. When I reached out to HonorHealth billing, Edna told me that I was told about the separate billing in our “deposit” statement. I never received one of those, so no, Edna, I was not told. This is unethical, in my opinion, to spring surprise charges on patients. Be upfront about all charges or figure out how to incorporate them into the one bill. You are taking advantage of the people who actually pay their bills. I am so disgusted with this hospital. I love my doctor, but I guess I either need to look into the other hospital she delivers at or make a different plan for my future children. If you have the option, pick a different place to...

Our experience with the postpartum care department (3rd floor) of the HonorHealth Shea Birthing Center was extremely negative. It went completely downhill after labor and delivery, resulting in coercion and illegal threats from nursing staff with a laundry list of unethical actions that made us feel unsafe throughout our stay.

I stayed here overnight after having a baby with my husband and two year old daughter. For more than 24 hours, we had several tests and checkups for myself and our baby with no concerns from the doctors or nurses. On the 24 hour mark of our baby’s birth, we had the final newborn screening tests done, as we had let the hospital staff know in advance we needed to leave after staying for that time frame.

When we reiterated that we would be leaving after the tests were collected, nurse Jessica made several threats to make us feel we weren’t allowed to leave. Specifically, she said “I can’t let you leave,” and “you won’t be allowed to leave until the results come back.” This is not true, as legally we can leave the hospital at any time, and is false imprisonment.

Jessica immediately threatened to involve “child protective services” if we exercised our right to leave the hospital, even though we stayed well over 24 hours and there were no medical concerns with our baby. All of his checkups and tests came back healthy, and we let them know we were ready to come back to the hospital if anything was wrong when the results came back. Due to our oldest daughter being sick and the care we received on the 3rd floor, we needed to get our family home right away and were not willing to wait there for results on their time after we fulfilled the obligation of making sure our new baby was healthy.

Jessica then demanded AMA and discharge forms to be signed in order to leave as a condition, which again isn’t legally required. She proceeded to get her supervisor, Lacey, who pushed the same forms onto us and also stated our insurance wouldnt cover birth expenses if we left, which is also untrue. When confronted with the fact that none of these procedures are legally required, Lacey admitted it was true, retracted all of her statements right away, and proceeded to help us leave the hospital. Lacey also had no knowledge of her employee Jessica's previous threats of child services and false imprisonment, and did not back it up.

After not getting the results she wanted in the previous conversation, Jessica informed me I wasn’t allowed to hold my baby in the hallway without a wheelchair. When her supervisor Lacey got involved, Jessica went completely quiet about her previous statements and even started to put the wheelchair away in retaliation. My husband had to ask them to keep the wheelchair out and provide this basic level of care all patients receive. Lacey pushed the wheelchair to the front entrance and initially wanted my husband to leave me and our two children with her to pull the car around. We were uncomfortable with that for obvious reasons and had to push for going to another entrance all together.

We left the hospital after this interaction, and were given no information about our baby’s results or any next steps for hearing screening, birth certificate, and more.

Our experience in postpartum care before this was also very negative. The entire floor and all rooms were dirty and run down, which was a night and day difference from the labor and delivery floor. Nurses were unattentive, taking 1-2 hours to respond to urgent calls, and forgetting to give important medication.

Overall, our birth experience at HonorHealth Shea ended very badly after cooperating with procedures for more than 24 hours. The postpartum nursing staff acted extremely unethically and illegally with no basis behind it, simply because we know our rights in the healthcare system and chose to exercise them. We are now exploring legal action after the nursing staff has threatened our family...