Oregon Health and Science University Hospital

I sort of promised myself I’d stay off Unilocal.But after reading some of the reviews, I had to chime in.
I’ve had to go to the ER twice for the same condition. The folks at OHSU were head-​and-​shoulders better than the Silicon Valley hospital where I live.
The staff I saw on a weekend graveyard shift were pro’s pros. You could see they had a plan, and they made it happen.
Folks in Oregon, you do not know how good you have it.

If your life depended on it do not call the general number! Find patient advocate quick. Also, do not call medical records – you will need an interpreter to get an answer!

I need to write a review because I see so many negative ones but we received very good care here from the emergency department.
The wait was not too bad, triage was very quick. Everyone was pleasant, friendly, and respectful, (except for a few unruly patients who kept screaming obscenities at staff.)
The parking garage for the emergency department was closed (for valet only,) so that was pretty annoying since I was already stressed out. So I drove to the next garage up the hill and there was plenty of parking there. The waiting area was a little messy when we arrived, but someone came out and cleaned it up after about 20 minutes.
The triage area is a private room, which is nice, you aren’t answering personal questions in a large room full of strangers. I was worried about getting towed since the lot I had to park in had a two hour time limit, and the people at the info desk were very helpful and kind.
There is a vending machine near the waiting area but no food court in this building that I could find open. We had to stay more than a few hours hooked up to machines for testing, so a snack would have been nice. They didn’t offer any water or food at all to the patient, but maybe that was part of the medical issue being treated.
The room where we waited to see the doctor was clean but slightly worn. That’s fine, it’s not brand new and they serve a lot of people so I wouldn’t expect it to be. The nurse came in and fully explained the whole process of how the night would proceed, what tests would need to be done, who we would need to see, and how long each should take. Everyone was very thorough and professional.
We were there over shift change, so right after the new set of staff started, they came in to introduce themselves and see if we needed anything and make sure everything had been previously explained to us. Every time I’ve been to OHSU I’ve been poked and prodded by brand new and very inept students, so I was very surprised that when the doctors finally came, it was a resident and his supervisor. No Students! I know it’s a teaching hospital, but when you are suffering, it’s nice to be poked and prodded by someone who has at least some idea of what they are doing. These two were REALLY experienced and it showed.
I’m relieved to know I can trust the Emergency department at OHSU if I ever need it.

Such a bad decision to come to the ER here, and I’m still reminded of it while I’m here at school. And they did not follow-​up with a survey for feedback, but a bill sure did make its way to my mailbox. I expected better care. The doctor and the social worker they recommended made it seem like school was more important than my emotional well-​being at the time. They were severely lacking the compassion to emotionally support me. They just made my emotional health worse. The social worker didn’t help at all and agreeing to see her was such a mistake. She talked to me like I was a kid. I’m an adult who can acknowledge my mistakes and the mistakes the school made about leading me on about my financial matters. I felt they weren’t really listening to me and my concerns.
And the high bill is another thing to add to the list because the health insurance they give to students here is not that great. There is the JBT center which is not that much better, but at least it’s free for students and they send out surveys for feedback. The OHSU hospital should consistently follow up with surveys so they can get some feedback and improve. They could use the reality check.

There are two faces to OHSU, the quality of medical care and their administrative organization. I had a friend go into OHSU via ambulance in a trauma situation that nearly killed him, and the reaction from the medical staff was first rate. He was rushed into surgery and then ICU. I was his emergency contact so I got a call from the surgeon letting me know what had happened. My friend needs proper medications to survive, but when I visited him he hadn’t received any meds and the staff hadn’t called his primary care physician (she was listed but with an out of date phone number) to check on his needs or to inform her that he was even at OHSU. Their administrative skills need to improve quite a lot to even become average. Their medical staff however is fantastic in a crisis situation.

I went to the OHSU Human Performance Lab in particular, so this review is only for that office, not the hospital as a whole.
The scheduling was easy and they sent all the info I needed well in advance of the appt. I got totally lost trying to find the lab, as it’s on the 11^th floor of the Hatfield Research Center, which is one of many buildings on the confusingly-​laid out campus. But, when I called them to let them know I was there, but lost and going to be late, the assistant talked me towards their office, then came out to the main hall to find me. That was really nice, as I was totally bleary-​eyed and uncaffeinated at 7am, per their instructions.
The test (resting metabolic rate) was easy, and then afterwards I had a consult with one of the sports-​medicine docs plus a student. They explained the results and gave me advice on how to use the info towards my weight-​loss and fitness goals. I was quite pleased.

April 2016 update: STILL NOT FIXED. Be aware that if you talk to your insurance company to straighten everything out, and. they tell you to have the hospital call them, the hospital will refuse. They will probably demand ANOTHER copy of the EOB telling them that they have been paid.
Update: This mistake is STILL HAUNTING ME! OHSU has been trying to bill the MR# that this person in the ER gave me, which my insurance of course does not recognize. I have attempted to straighten this out, but have not heard anything back from the hospital.
Note that this review is only for the ER:
I finally decided to write a review of this place. First off, as a disabled woman, the ER is not a place you want to go. You will always be treated as a possibly mentally incompetent hypochondriac. If your symptoms are neurological, you’ll have to prove that they’re real, and not made up. On the other hand, Good Sam does not have neurologists or neurosurgeons on site, and is not equipped to deal with your Neurological emergency.
That being said, I have mixed feelings about the 3 star review, because I did actually get excellent, and thorough care on my last visit here. On the medical side of things. BUT, and this is a big one, I had an administrative nightmare to clean up.
I was brought here by ambulance, after a bicycle accident. The nurses, and the doctor I saw were very nice. They did scans, and cleaned me up. The strange thing was that these people acted like I’d never been to OHSU before. Even after I told them my name, so they could presumably look me up in the computer. HELLO PEOPLE! My accident was in Sellwood. Why would I ask to be taken to OHSU, if I’d never been there? Did they bother looking me up, or adding my ER visit to my fairly extensive record? NO. They put me into the computer again. I did not find that out until later. I can only speculate as to why. I kept being asked if I knew what hospital I’d been taken to, and was I sure that I’d been seen in the OHSU Emergency Department. No one at the hospital could tell me who had brought me in, or where my trike was. I FINALLY got my ER record merged with the rest of my records, but it took some doing.

Update: This mistake is STILL HAUNTING ME! OHSU has been trying to bill the MR# that this person in the ER gave me, which my insurance of course does not recognize. I have attempted to straighten this out, but have not heard anything back from the hospital.
Note that this review is only for the ER:
I finally decided to write a review of this place. First off, as a disabled woman, the ER is not a place you want to go. You will always be treated as a possibly mentally incompetent hypochondriac. If your symptoms are neurological, you’ll have to prove that they’re real, and not made up. On the other hand, Good Sam does not have neurologists or neurosurgeons on site, and is not equipped to deal with your Neurological emergency.
That being said, I have mixed feelings about the 3 star review, because I did actually get excellent, and thorough care on my last visit here. On the medical side of things. BUT, and this is a big one, I had an administrative nightmare to clean up.
I was brought here by ambulance, after a bicycle accident. The nurses, and the doctor I saw were very nice. They did scans, and cleaned me up. The strange thing was that these people acted like I’d never been to OHSU before. Even after I told them my name, so they could presumably look me up in the computer. HELLO PEOPLE! My accident was in Sellwood. Why would I ask to be taken to OHSU, if I’d never been there? Did they bother looking me up, or adding my ER visit to my fairly extensive record? NO. They put me into the computer again. I did not find that out until later. I can only speculate as to why. I kept being asked if I knew what hospital I’d been taken to, and was I sure that I’d been seen in the OHSU Emergency Department. No one at the hospital could tell me who had brought me in, or where my trike was. I FINALLY got my ER record merged with the rest of my records, but it took some doing.

Everything takes forever at OHSU. It’s the triumph of slow bureaucracy.
To get a routine shot, count on spending more than one hour. Safeway pharmacy does it in 15 minutes.
I am out of refills for a drug, and they don’t call back Walgreen’s, in spite of multiple phone calls to the office of my doctor. Count on waiting for many days.
A month ago I needed to have a lab order faxed to a lab in California. I submitted the request days in advance, nothing happened, I had to call OHSU many times and talk to a supervisor.
The standard answer is that they have put your request on a queue, where it stays forever.
They never DO things, just put paperwork in a queue.

What a terrible ER experience. I have NO faith in OHSU after this experience. Go somewhere else if you have a choice. It was dirty, bad care and horrible follow thru. The nurses were nice but only in a passive aggressive they have to be nice to you way. It’s probably not their fault though. Clearly it’s the administration and doctors creating a toxic environment of poor judgement and non-​evidence based medicine.
I’m sure they could sew you up after a car accident but come in vomiting widely from food poisoning and they might try treating you for Cannabis Hyperemesis Syndrome or Flu or maybe an ulcer but finally they think Hepatitis… nope it was just food poisoning. Oh and once they knew i had medicare they tried to get rid of me the first chance they got, good thing i said no or i wouldn’t have gotten the care i needed.
However Thank You for that rousing decades out of date safer sex talk about monogamy…

Bitchiest nurses and longest wait times. Make you sign paperwork before they do anything stating you will pay. Nurses are mean not caring and just not worth the time. Go somewhere else.

Not my first experience with OHSU but the first time I have left a review. All but one of the doctors I have seen there are good, but try to get in touch with one of them! My doctor went to OHSU last year and service has just tanked since then. Please understand I NEVER had trouble contacting my physician before he went to OHSU.
I see my doctor every three months but had to reschedule my appointment this time, which meant I would run out of pain medication before my appointment date. I called and left a message to be delivered to my doctor, stating I would need a new prescription for the pain medication. I asked for a phone message or phone call in response. That was 12 days ago and I received no message or phone call.
Three days later, I called again and left the same message – again asking to be contacted. Nothing.
Two days later, I called again and asked whether there were a problem or not and asked for contact. I did receive a message stating I had not specified what medicine I was asking about and that I should contact them again. I will be honest – I did not think I had to specify the medicine since I only have one such medication and I had said I was fine if the doctor chose to change it. So, I called back and SPECIFIED the single pain medication that I was prescribed, asked to be contacted and that a prescription be written for me.
Nothing. As of today, twelve days after I made the original call. I sincerely doubt my doctor ever heard from me, because he never failed to have someone promptly return calls from me. You know what is the saddest part of this story? That OHSU is the «flagship» of health care in Oregon. Duh. Think not.

I’ll get to the review part in a second, but let me start with a warning: If you can walk into the OHSU Emergency Room, you might just want to turn around.
This is a fine place if you’re brought in by ambulance or MedEvac, but if you can walk, or if you’re wheeled in by someone who can walk, you could spend hours waiting in a cold-​war –era, Soviet-​style waiting room before the triage team allows you to receive care.
That’s my warning. Here’s the review:
Once you go back into the bowels of the Emergency Department you will receive skilled and useful care, though it is a teaching hospital so the first doctors who see you will lack the experience of a seasoned pro and it could take a while before they report their findings to attending physicians and a treatment plan is formulated, so be patient. The reasons anyone might choose a teaching hospital over another are personal but I have faith in our medical education system and I feel secure knowing that there’s more than one person looking over my chart. Still, the ER can be frustrating.
This is not TV-​show-​911. Operators are not standing by. The people who told you to go to the ER do not work in the ER.
First Rule of ER is: don’t go there.
This is a busy place and while the providers are smart, kind, and efficient, they are busy tending to emergencies, i.e. life-​threatening events, i.e. not you.
The time from showing up to getting useful treatment will be slower than you might consider ideal, especially if you feel like death but still have a pulse and the will to live. This ED is set up for major trauma and true emergencies, meaning that if you’re not actually dying (Thinking you might be dying or feeling like you are dying do not count) you are not a priority. Don’t listen when you call your doctor and s/​he says, «Sounds like you’d better get to the ER.» No judgement; that’s the way it is. You have to be, as Miracle Max says, mostly dead to warrant attention in the Emergency Room. Deal with it.
If you are super sick and the ambulance brings you, chill. This ER is top notch. They save lives and can stabilize an unstable, critically ill person. But if you happen to be checking Unilocal for the most recommended place to go in a health crisis, pay attention to what people are saying about their experiences, because, though you will eventually receive treatment and recover to post yet another one-​star review, you might want to formulate a Plan B and consider urgent care.
It’s not as clean as one would hope for and the public bathrooms scare me.
On the plus side, you can get a decent vegan sushi roll and Kambucha on the 9^th floor.

Had a great experience here all around. The best of the best is George, the Pharmacist. I am getting injections to administer to my wife and he took the time to show me step by step instructions, supply me with syringes, needles, and a sharps container. He answered all of my questions and was completely informative without being condescending.
Thank you, George!

My sister had brain surgery after a seizure. It took 2 months later to hear what the diagnosis and prognosis was (she has terminal brain cancer) from another doctor who was about to treat her. That doctor wasn’t happy telling my sister and the rest of us that she’s dying fell in her lap. The surgeon came in after the surgery briefly w/​tears in his eyes, so we knew it wasn’t good.
The surgeon just disappeared after that and wouldn’t respond to pages, the PA wasn’t authorized to give us information. The advocacy people I called took the surgeon to my sister’s room to talk with her — she was completely unable to process anything they were saying, she was reduced to a childlike state with little working memory. Luckily a family member came to visit at the tail end and was told the diagnosis but no other info (it can’t be cured). They didn’t call the family members who had Power of Attorney to discuss the outcome. Thank you internet for giving us a clue, but I can’t tell my mom I read on the Internet her daughter is dying.
It was really clear the hierarchy there is pretty severe and the people who wanted to help us out with info couldn’t and/​or were afraid to get in trouble. OHSU admins, if you’re going to use PAs to shield the doctors from patients, give them the authority to communicate fully. No one is expecting them to diagnose, but they should be able to provide information from the doctor.
I think the surgery itself was done very well, and my sister seems to be beating expectations in part because so much tumor was removed. Thankful for that. The nurses and rest of the staff were great.

I understand Friday nights can be difficult in the ER; long wait times and cases that are more severe, more urgent than mine. But if you have no intention of providing any care, put me in a cab and send me to another hospital. The following is absolutely true. Names have been changed to more accurately describe my health care «professionals».
I arrive at OHSU at 5:30 on a Friday evening and wait 5 and a half hours to get into a room, which happens to be, no kidding, a closet, away from other patients, literally equipped with only a gurney, a folding chair, one thin blanket and a vent in the ceiling that blows cold air, at an extraordinary rate, into my face for 8 hours. Great because having no interactions or distractions, or the ability to call for help, allows me to fully focus on my pain and anxiety.
Wait another hour and a half to get a review of my symptoms with Dr I’ve-Got-Better-Things-To-Do who cleary never read my chart. He doesn’t care that this headache is completely different than the normal headache that he knows nothing about anyway. He tells me there is nothing he can do and asks what my goal of the ER visit is. Hmmmm, is this a trick question? An hour later Lacking-​Compassion Man-​Nurse comes back with a Percosett, a Benadryl and a half cup of water. A Benadryl? A hour later, no relief. Remember, Man-​Nurse is nowhere to be found and my «call button“involves getting up to wave someone down which, on the janitorial wing,…let’s just say, there is no shortage of janitors and they are dressed exactly like the «doctors» and «nurses» I’ve been dealing with.
At one point a real doctor spots me in my storage room and pulls back my blanket looking for my IV. He is shocked that no one is doing anything and orders IV fluids and medication. At this point, it does nothing. He doubles my medication and it still does nothing. Hours pass, more invisibility, and eventually one last dose of medication, which provides relief for about a half an hour. It is 4 am. And at the exact moment I finally start to fall asleep, after being awake for more than 48 hours, it’s time to buff the floors. At least the janitors are really on their game. I never see that real doctor again.
After falling apart in front of Nurse Janitor, who looks at me with his usual vacant stare, I am provided with a new janitor, Dr. Condescending-​Close-​Talker who makes it clear (at such an uncomfortably close distance it feels as if she is leaning in to kiss me) that I am not in any way a priority. She demands to know why I am crying («are you just emotional?») but orders more medication. It never shows up.
At 7 am I flag down Man-​Nurse and tell him I am leaving, and I am so happy to be provided with one last lecture about being a low priority.
I leave feeling worse than I did when I arrived and take a cab to another hospital.
Wherever you go, take someone, anyone, with you to advocate for you, as I was not in any condition, clearly, to advocate for myself. And don’t go to this ER ever. Spend a few extra minutes in the car and go to St. V. where you will receive compassion, care and treatment. Because we ALL have the right to good care.

I was in the hospital for surgery on my shoulder and I awoke in a small, dark, windowless room — with no bathroom! I couldn’t tell if it was day or night as there was no natural light whatsoever. I felt as if I’d been put into a stuffy broom closet.
An hour or so after waking, I needed to relieve myself and I called for a nurse. There wasn’t a bathroom, and I couldn’t have walked to one if there had been — I wasn’t strong enough — so I asked the nurse for a bedside commode. My doctor had told me that I might need one. She said no and told me that I needed to use a bedpan. I protested, but I was in too much pain and too helpless to do much.
She brought me the bedpan and told me to lift my hips so that she could slide it beneath me. This took all of my strength as I was minus an arm and coming out of a surgery blackout. After much effort, she said it was in place and left.
Something wasn’t right because as I started to go, the sheets started to get wet. I hadn’t gone for hours and hours, so I couldn’t stop. I’m an adult woman, and I soaked my sheets, my gown, and myself in hot stinky urine. It was awful.
I called for a nurse and the same woman returned. She was annoyed by my plight, as if I’d done it on purpose when, in fact the bedpan wasn’t placed properly. She made a face and called for a friend, and together they got me out of my bed and changed the sheets. The nurse gave me a new gown and pulled my blankets around me, and that’s when I remarked as politely as possible that my skin wasn’t clean. I was polite because I was terrified she would leave me like that.
She tossed two packs of baby wipes on the bed and told me I could clean myself. Keep in mind, I had just gone through a major surgery and one of my arms was functionless. I protested, but she told me I’d be fine and she left. She left me sticky and stinking of urine, in pain and alone in a stagnant windowless room. All I could do was lay in my own filth and cry.
A few days went by in that awful room and I became more and more despondent. I felt like a prisoner and I slept as much as possible. When I awoke I’d have to ask if it was day or night. Every night, they cut off food service. After a while, I stopped trying to eat. The nursing staff responded by threatening to cut off my medication if I didn’t eat a full meal. Days passed, and I still hadn’t been washed.
A family member spoke up for me and got me moved to a room with a window for my last 24 hours. He made sure they washed me with wet washcloths. As soon as possible, he took me away from there.
That hospital was hell on earth. I filed a written complaint and received no response, not a word of apology.
Stay away from that place. If you must go, require a room with a window in advance and arrange for someone to check on you, someone close enough that you can tell them if you’re being mistreated.

My daughter is in delivery. This will be our 11^th. Grand Child. The new baby is a boy and being delivered as I write this review.
The labor and delivery dept. Is top notch extremely professional and caring. The rooms are clean and spacious. They show large amounts of compassion.

IF YOU VALUE YOUR QUALITY OF LIFE, PLEASE STEER CLEAR!!! I first went to OHSU for care after a very serious car wreck in 2008. OHSU insisted that my spine was intact and that I just needed (expensive) facet joint ablations and «pain psychology». One trip through OHSU medical moron hell later, I ended up flying to Southern California for care. The doctors down there immediately realized the need for surgery and found that one of my discs had literally exploded, and that disc «shrapnel» had been lodged into the nerve passageways (causing massive nerve root compression). According to OHSU my extremely severe symptoms were all in my head, and that I only needed pain psychology and medication. After surgery in California I regained much of my ambulatory abilities (but not all), and my pain level immediately decreased 80%. If I had stayed with OHSU I wouldn’t be able to walk today.
I recently went back to the ER due to new significant symptoms and was basically held involuntarily in the Emergency Department (arrived at about 9:30am) until MRI was available at 6:30−7 pm. I was told that I would not be allowed to leave and come back– that if I wanted the MRI I had to stay and wait. I only was given food once, and was on an EXTREMELY uncomfortable gurney the whole time (with a spine injury– nice!). As if this wasn’t enough bull puckey for one patient… Upon review of my discharge paperwork after the hellish ordeal, I found that they had put information into my chart that was not provided to them by me or anyone caring or me, and is outright untrue (in the «social history» section it says that I am a «passive smoker” — the only thing I smoke is salmon over applewood chips! Nobody in my home uses tobacco! Additionally, it says that I use «illicit drugs” — I was a law enforcement officer before becoming disabled, I am outright offended that this is in my medical records– I have no idea where this information came from, I don’t use any drug that isn’t prescribed to me, and I take it VERY seriously– I don’t even take narcotic pain killers because of the stigma!). I would literally rather go without care, I would rather die horribly from untreated sepsis than go back to OHSU– it would be less painful.

Not the most diverse hospital on the west coast! Doctor/​Nurses look down upon all the other employees/​patients when not seeing them. There are major class issue with this employer (wealthy v. poor)
Not the best care either. 80% of the time you are going to see a student, intern, PA, resident, fellow and then a seasoned doctor before you can leave an appointment… so annoying!
Cost is high compared to Kaiser and they suck every little dime out of their employees with higher benefits, parking and food prices.
I’m so happy they’ve contracted with Zoomcare so I don’t have to deal with the doctors up there.
They pay reasonable for the employees but many are underpaid given the tight budgets and re-​organization of duties when someone leaves… only the higher ups benefit with bonuses each quarter/​year and everyone else gets pooped on!

The staff and doctors are good and the care they provide is great. The Hospital itself is a joke. The castle in the hill has outgrown itself and is poorly designed. If you don’t mind getting lost every time you come here and have staff point you around in circles because they don’t even know where things are then come here. If you just so happen to cut your arm off and need to find where you are going don’t come here you will die in the corridors of this maze of a hospital. Also bummed in the fact that they used state taxes to pay for a PRIVATE eyesore of a tram to service the expansion to the waterfront. On a lighter note they do have a full range of services and really good programs but in my mind it does not make up for the inefficient design and navigation of a place where finding your way around in a critical where time is of the essence. Go to Legacy Emanuel instead.

I will NEVER use OHSU’s services again — even if I’m on my deathbed and they’re the last option available to save my life.
It wasn’t until they ran up my bill to nearly $ 2000 did the doctor finally admit they had seen my condition before and there was no known cure. One would think if they’ve seen it before they’d advise one’s options and let the patient decide whether their battery of tests are worth the expense.
Additionally, their billing department is very quick to send accounts to collections — which happens to be The Oregon Department of Revenue (yes, the tax man) — even if you’re making regular and timely payments, i.e., never late.
This organization is rude, unethical, and simply in the revenue business — not qualities for good healthcare.
OHSU broke my spirit for the Oregon I once thought I knew.

Have been at OHSU for 2.5 wks with my family in Kohler and the main hospital. The nursing staff have been wonderful. The surgeons and doctors have rounds once to twice a day. Some are more personable than others but on a whole I think they are trying to practice with safety and quality outcomes. Nursing staff like I said is incredible. The concierge food for pt was nice.
Some negatives — many different teams were involved and it was hard knowing whom was communicating with whom. Sometimes the wait for things were long and it is the nature of acute care but it can be hard on waiting family. 9^th floor café was hit or miss on food (over or under cooked veggies or meat).
Altogether they took good care of us with mostly quality.

Amazeballs. And a maze. Balls.
However, since there really are no visitor hours, I don’t expect all doors to lock behind me at every turn.
I was visiting a friend in the hospital and we went for a walk. Lo and behold the doors lock behind us. We try to buzz ourselves back in, but they told us we had to walk all the way around, through the ER full of sick people, to get back to her room. Not easy when you’re in your hospital gown, dragging your IV with you. It was a sight to see, people. It was like Girl, Interrupted meets Something’s Gotta Give.
Also, I found that dropping a pin on my iPhone did NOT mean I would be able to find my car once everyone had left. I got a workout trying to find my car, found myself back in the employee parking garage, met an RN that assumed I was an employee, and I pretended I was in the medical field. «How about that guy with exploding head syndrome? Yeah, poor guy. Not much I could do to help him.»
Oh, did I mention that their menu is actually decent?

I have had my fair share of hospital experiences in recent years (my own as well as for other family members and friends) and aside from the somewhat difficult navigation between buildings/​floors/​parking, migrating from the cancer center down the hill, etc. this place is pretty phenomenal.
I can’t say that I had the «pleasure» but I was more than grateful to have been with my MIL for her day of pre-​op appointments, her surgery and her post op appointments. Everyone that we came in contact with at OHSU was kind, supportive and friendly.
The cafeteria deserves its very own review for the amazing options (I need to figure out how to replicate the cold spinach shrimp quinoa salad) and the free valet parking option during a rainy December was very appreciated.
I am hopeful that my MIL will never again need the «services» here, but if she does or if I were ever in need while in Oregon, I woud make the Winchester Mystery House Hospital venture again and again.