Lakeview Surgery Center — Local services in West Des Moines

After a wild goose chase with insurance and my providing clinic to get my procedure, the day finally arrived. We arrived to Lakeview Surgery Center 30 minutes early, after driving 2.5 hours to get there. We sat in the lobby for an HOUR, before I was called back. My procedure was slated to begin at 12:30. While getting hooked up to the IV, I’m informed my surgeon is running behind; not big deal, it happens all the time. By running behind, they meant two hours behind. A nurse came in and asked if I wanted to reschedule, as it’s Friday and I will be the last procedure of the day. I informed her no, we drove 2.5 hours for this, spent 8 hours on the phone with insurance, and have been anticipating this procedure for awhile. She informed me “that is fine”. She comes back and tells me she saw me sitting in the lobby and didn’t know why she didn’t just tell me then that my procedure was running behind. She comes back a little while later and tells me that all the anesthesiologists are going home for the day and she can’t guarantee that the surgeon won’t cancel the procedure. At this point, I’m worked up emotionally, terrified the procedure will be cancelled and I’ve wasted yet another day of my life for nothing. She comes back in again a little while later and says “did you hear Patrick Mahomes is having another baby?!? Oh I’m so excited, I love Patrick Mahomes!” This statement is not exactly something I would say to a patient who is having a surgery for having 3 back to back miscarriages. As if the day had not been bad enough, her exclamation about a celebrity having a baby just twisted the knife. At this point I’m crying, because I just feel defeated. I can hear the nurse in the hallway saying “oh yeah, she’s still here. Oh she’s going to wait it out. Oh she is not fine. She is NOT fine at all”. I could sense the staff’s frustration with me for not rescheduling the surgery. The nurse comes back in and offers me 2 $10 Amazon gift cards for my “patience” - my guess is because I was bawling and they were trying to rectify it. Finally, my surgeon shows up and I get the procedure. While I’m in the recovery room, the same nurse holds up her phone and says “want to see a picture of my new grand baby?” Given, she was talking about a kitten, but still - a woman grieving 3 pregnancy losses and a terrible experience with getting medical help does not need to hear about other people successfully having babies while she’s in the trenches.

I also received a text stating I would get a survey to fill out about my experience and I never did, so I guess here I am on Google. I’m just broken and defeated at this point, and Lakeview Surgery Center just added...

Front desk staff: amazing! Pre-op nurses: could not seem to do anything by themselves. Took three people for the IV and the one who got my IV in refused to wear gloves. They had to put a catheter in me to get a UA because I was dehydrated, took two nurses, both were verbally questioning the anatomy of my body and not able to get their shorter catheter in properly. They found a longer one after 5 minutes of poking around and failing with the short one. Took 7 more minutes of poking to finally get what they needed. Surgeon & anesthesiologist: I was then able to speak to surgeon and anesthesiologist which was 1.5 hours later than scheduled time. Very stressful. Surgeon was great but anesthesiologist acted surprised and bothered when I was asking questions and knew the types of intubation tubes. Walked to OR, the OR nurse was the best and most kind lady I had there. Post-op part one: the nurse asked me if I was in pain, gave me meds, then when I was trying to sign that I needed something her response was “you know you can talk right?” I had just had an oral surgery and it hurt to talk. I struggled to speak but was able to say I wanted my family member. She said “no” and when I shrugged why, she was already looking down at her computer typing. She acted like she hated her job with all the sass and eye rolls I got. I tried about two minutes later to ask again and said “family please”. The nurse looked up from her computer, sighed, and said “later.” No other explanation which was frustrating because this was my first surgery and I was scared and confused most of the time there. Post-op part 2: I waited for at least 30 minutes then a different nurse came and asked me if I wanted juice and a popsicle. I nodded yes and she promised to be back. She came back shortly and said my room and family member was ready to see me, she wheeled me to the room and was very kind as well. She was one of the few staff members that had a genuine smile. She explained that I had to wait another hour before going home and helped me get dressed and sat with me and my family member while I ate. She told me she understood that my throat probably was sore so she was not going to make me talk. Instead, she told me I could type or write if I wanted to speak. I used Google translate to talk and she was very patient while I typed and she answered my questions very calmly and respectfully. Overall I say 2/5 because of the staff interactions I had. I wish it was a...

HORRIBLE!!!!! Their billing office is not on the same page at all! And the woman in charge needs to get with the program!! I will not even give them one star after working with them.

Our experience with the Doctor was great and the surgery went well. Our experience with their billing office was awful. I will never go there again. Our bill was $3000 out of pocket for my sons tubes and they expected full payment within 3 months. I called and asked to set up a payment plan and the woman I spoke with said she could not handle that, which was completely fine. However, the boss who did call me and left a message. so she says, (I have no record of that) said to call her back. Within a week I got a letter from Bridge system saying they had moved my account there. Which I was shocked by considering I had just been told they would likely work with me. I called Bridge System and they said the account was still being managed by Lakeview... (so which is it?) I was getting shuffled back and forth and then the next thing I know, I get a letter from Hauge and Associates saying that the account is now with them. When I called them they were great about setting up a payment plan, but in the mean time I learned that it would be reporting to the credit bureaus as bad debt until it was paid. So, we ended up making a $2000 payment 7 weeks before Christmas to keep it off of my credit report. As I found all of this out I called back to Lakeview to see if there was anything that they could do to assist. The woman in charge of billing said it's okay, they looks at medical on credit reports and it is no big deal. What!!???? I am fortunate to have been able to pay the $2000, I feel horrible for the people that can make this happen. (Oh and the woman on the phone told me that once the account moves over there they don't get any money from these accounts, just pennies.) That is the biggest crock I have ever heard in my life!! I could go on and on... I would steer clear of this place unless you have thousands in your pockets to pay them immediately or they will...