Seattle Children's Hospital

ive been here multiple times for many different issues and not a single time has my experience been positive. in the ER nurses frequently forgot to bring me food, which isn't too bad. It's an ER and obviously extremely busy. staff do not respect trans people's pronouns at all here, especially in the PBMU (the inpatient psychiatric unit). they constantly misgenderd me as well as the other trans people around me (Even somone who had been there for many months) the PBMU was extremely understaffed and we were not let out of the commons room more then once the day even though we were meant to be going to group therapy, individual therapy, and much more. nurses were rude and made inappropriate comments about peoples bodies. one very young girl (around 7) was forced to shower with the bathroom door wide open while a nurse watched them while talking to another member of staff (who was male). doctors and nurses often spoke about private information about other patients in front of other patients but yelled (yes yelled) at us for even so much as mentioning our diagnosis. absolutely disgusting. when i got an echocardiogram (a heart ultrasound) a student did almost the entire thing without a fully qualified doctor present. we were not told this would be happening ahead of time or asked if it was ok. i understand doctors need training but a heads up would have been greatly appreciated. the student was very kind but the doctor would push extremely hard on me, pinch me, ignore me when i was clearly in pain, as well as touch me without any warning, she even touched me without gloves on multiple times as well as wearing her mask half way down her face! have these people never heard of cleanliness? many staff wear no mask at all even though it is hospital policy when i had a sleep study done neither me, my family or PCP were told about the fact they had dignosied me with something. Doctors do not take medical emergencies seriously. i have had many catatonic episodes Infront of doctors who entirely ignored me as well as a doctor loudly shuffling cards on a cement floor while i had an SPD meltdown. i begged her to stop being so loud but she just said "im not saying anything" over and over. i have nightmares about this hospital and they have given me an extreme phobia of doctors. do not go to this hospital you will face abuse, malpractice, discrimination, and receive little to no care. absolutely awful hospital, wish i never had to go here but unfortunately for me I've got many health issues.

Came here for my son's surgery. All the Hosptial staff that we met were really nice, we were well informed about the procedure and post operative care. Food: options aren't that great, some of it was kinda stale. They do have few other services for families on floor 7, the chapel was a peaceful place, to just be. Post operative call/follow up is also something that I valued alot.

We had inconsistent experience here. The team that treated our baby’s cut and put stitches in was incredible. The stitches removal was a totally different story. The first team took 20-30 minutes to remove the 3 stitches and to attempt to remove the 4th, which after the doctor’s examination turned out to be not ready for removal. They restrained our baby, who was crying as hard as we’ve never seen. After those attempts, his tiny blood vessels on the face broke and the nurses told us that was normal. Well, our baby had a traumatic experience: 3 weeks past that visit he starts crying hard when he needs to be weighed at the doctor’s visit, cannot stand the checkups and prior to that he was fine. The second visit for stitches removal was not better. The nurse did not clean the area before removal and said it was not recommended in a defensive tone. How can it not be recommended if stitches removal leads to bleeding? When we asked about it, she brought us iodine, which is not recommended to be put on open cuts. There were also no attempts to distract or comfort. I get it that employees here have to work with crying babies and some might be overwhelmed but it would be great if everyone had a good approach to these little people.

Overall the hospital is good; however, some of the nurses aren’t competent and are very rude. Several times, nurses cannot provide basic care to our child, and these include administering medications through the NG tube, replacing ostomy bags, line changes etc. Also, there seems to be lack of supplies in patient rooms; for example, swaddles, ostomy supplies, mouth swabs etc. The NICU barely has anything for parents to comfort their babies with and we even had to buy our personal Mamaroo swing just so our baby doesn’t spend all day in bed. The doctors are very respectful and seem to know their stuff, but the nurses need serious hands-on training. Please invest in your patient experience and overall quality of care.

We live near one of the best child hospital's in the world. We are very, very privileged. Made it just after 3 yrs before having a terrifying rush to the ED and it's pretty obvious this is where you take your kids. We were there for about 12 hours and I was very impressed with how everything was handled and my son was cared for. I'm saying this with the perspective of a physician who's worked and seen just about every type of hospital setting. No hospital is perfect but I hope nobody ever has to see how poor pediatric care can be elsewhere in this country.

As far as Hospitals go, Childrens has been absolutely phenomenal on patient care with my son who was diagnosed with Stage 3 Rhabdomyosarcoma. We spent 3 months inpatient plus many other inpatient trips and the level of care for him was incredible. They took his case very seriously and weren't trying to just rush us in and out of the door. His surgery was 5 stars, Dr. Riehle and Dr. Meehan removed his 6 pound tumor in 1 1/2 hours with no spillage and the margins were negative for cancer. A surgery that was supposed to be 10+ hours was turned into a 1 1/2 hour procedure with an absolutely astonishing result. Our oncologists Dr. Fluchel and Dr. Karvonen, and Nurse Practitioner Kristen Gard have been phenomenal as well. I have probably been a high maintenance cancer mom and anything that I've had extreme concerns about they've talked me through. I probably haven't been the easiest person to deal with, so, I thank them for being comforting during all of this grief. They've allowed us to have partial control over my son's treatment and given us their advice in proceeding through a very hard diagnosis. My son was in the ICU for an extremely long time intubated and the doctors on that floor saved his life. I couldn't thank them enough, they are experts in what they do. There aren't words that can describe that experience and I can't express how absolutely thankful I am for what they did for us. The nurse and staff have been excellent as well. They are loving and kind. They know Roman by his first name which gives a family feel. A feeling I never would have imagined at a hospital. The amount of supportive care for families dealing with these tragedies is immaculate as well. There were so many different programs and people to talk to about the grievances that we were facing. The only reasons I didn't give 5 stars was for a few reasons: 1) Communication was all over the place. Let's just say on Roman's case there were A LOT of cooks in the kitchen. So many doctors, so many opinions on care, just so much. I think it is better for patients not to be in huddles because you never really realize how many different opinions go into the best care for your child. 2) The cleanliness of the rooms inpatient is a little concerning. The counters, railings, tables, and surfaces never get wiped with Cavi-wipes or whatever antibacterial wipes are for hospital level care. They do change linens and clean the carts they draw blood in but they didn't clean the full room and my son came down with A LOT of illnesses through our treatment that we are still not quite sure if it was the hospital or because he was immunocompetent. 3) Scheduling. Oh scheduling. I had multiple appointments rescheduled without our knowledge or they'd just reschedule the day before and move our time and it was frustrating because we would plan our days around the other times. Anyways, this hospital saved my son's life, we're still in treatment but it's looking like we're starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. THANK YOU CHILDRENS. HONESTLY. Thank you so much. That little boy means the world to me and you saved him. 💕