Chandler Regional Medical Center

Unfortunately, something's definitely wrong at this hospital. I was sent there by my gastro for a fast-tracked x-ray due to unusually severe pain after a colonoscopy. The outpatient desk couldn't even find the order for 45 minutes, then discovered they had no paper in their fax machine. Seriously? It just went downhill from there. I was finally ushered back to outpatient radiology by a sick tech (visibly ill and coughing with no mask on). After taking one set of views, she tersely told me that it would all have to be retaken because I 'breathed'. The second set were also not good (there seemed to be a pattern?), so she then took a third set. In between, I heard her joking with other staff about how she just couldn't seem to get any good views taken that day. When she was done, she informed me it would be quite a wait because all the radiologists were gone for lunch? So no radiologist to read x-rays during the lunch hour at a large hospital. Finally after sitting in the waiting room for 2 hours, my husband called my doctor's office to try and see what was going on. We were ready to just leave because I was in so much pain and there was no place to lie down. My doctor quickly returned the call and told us all the x-rays were unreadable and more views would need to be taken. Due to the intervention of my doctor, I was then taken to the regular hospital radiology department where a technician who actually knew what he was doing got the process going again and took the needed views. After another painful half hour sitting upright in the uncomfortable waiting room, we finally got the news that we could leave. So, over three hours to have an x-ray clearly marked STAT taken and read. What's really unsettling is that this is the hospital our doctors and specialists use, so at some point, if surgery or hospitalization is ever necessary, we'll have to switch doctors because I refuse to count on this facility for healthcare. My husband's having surgery next week at Banner. Thank God the surgeon does not practice at Chandler Regional! This is a broken hospital and best avoided. It needs an intervention. more

I've had several surgeries as an in patient and the care was great, but the emergency is another story. It used to be good when it was Catholic Health Care West, but since Dignity took over. IT STINKS! more

Chandler Regional Hospital is without a doubt the worst hospital in the area. The service is terrible and the staff is uncaring and rude and will lie to your face. If you show up complaining of pain you had better be prepared to be treated as though you are a druggie. I went in the middle of the night with major tooth pain and was left to wait over two hours, at times with zero other patients waiting, while the nurse continued to socialize with the doctors, other nurses and to look down her nose at me. Finally, after waiting to be seen for over two hours (immense pain the entire time), I asked the nurse how much longer I would have to wait, she lied to me and said they ""must have come to try and get you while you weren't there, did you go outside and smoke or something?"" (I was there the waiting room entire time, did not leave). This also is after the triage nurse stated that I had been ""fast tracked"" - which I now believe is their internal code for them thinking you are lying to them about your pain. Another huge concern is that you will need to pay very, very close attention to the bills you will receive from both from the hospital itself and the doctor who eventually sees you. They will: 1. Overcharge you for the visit itself 2. Overcharge you for any medications administered 3. Bill you for the entire bill (not just the patient portion with insurance) 4. Send you invoices that are inconsistent with what they filed to your insurance Unless it is an absolute emergency and there is no closer hospital you can go to, I recommend doing all you can to avoid Chandler Regional Hospital. If a representative from Chandler Regional Hospital should happen to read this I want you to know: I am a real person and was in real pain and I came to you to seek help. You did far from help me. It was traumatizing what you put me through and continue to put me though with your unethical bill practices. You should be ashamed of yourselves. more

I was admitted to this hospital in Oct 2011 for triple by pass heart surgery. I cannot say enough positively about their service or care. They are truly outstanding, great ER, good nursing and OK the food was not gourmet but after 17 days including 7 in the ICU i left a new man to continue to enjoy like with my 10 year old daughter. Ok we had some billing issues which we were able to resolve, but we are lucky to have such a quality hospital in our community. Maybe those with the critical reviews should check in at the Ritz Carlton next time they need medical help. The medical professional at Chandler regional would then have more time to provide competent services to the rest of us. more

The worst ER I have ever experienced. The nurses there are so put out to treat you and so disgusted that you are there that you might as well go outside and walk to another ER. They are more concerned with there socializing amongst there peers than treating the patients. F- more

Soooo glad to see these postings! I have visited Chandler Regional hospital when needed for the past 5 years with no issues until this last autumn of 2012. Something has drastically changed since I ws last there. First off, the person checking patients in at the front (a man missing two fingers on his right hand) acted like i was inconveniencing him by daring to visit the ER at 5am in the morning. Like i wanted to be there in the first place, OK? Then i sat and sat and sat and waited for a nurse to come and take my vitals and then give me some medicine to drink. No explanation, just drink it. Then i was at in the 'back' in a chair with a curtain pulled where i stayed for another hour at which time a physicians assistant came to tell me that my throat was sore. No tests as to why i was having a hard time breathing or why i felt my throat was closing, nothing. Just on my way home.. 3 minute consult tops. THEN to add insult to injury i get a BILL from premiere em medical specialists telling me I owe $200 and change more than what my insurance paid and on top of my $150 copay! Why? I'll tell you why. Becuase ALL CHANDLER PHYSICIANS ARE OUT OF NETWORK DOCTORS FOR BCBS. ALL OF THEM. What you are charged depends on what ICD-9 or CPT code the billing department decides to enter in at the time of your visit. According to my insurance company, the Premier EM medical specialists charge considerably higher rates than national average which is why we have to pay more. Mercy Gilbert also uses Premier EM medical specialist, so beware. Upon calling premier em medical specialists, they refused to lower their rates to even somewhat close to national average. So i was stuck paying this bill. So in summary: I work to have benefits, then i have to pay a $125 copay to go to hospital where i am treated like an inconvenience.. an afterthought, and for that i get to pay an additional $200.00. $325.00 that visit costed me to get stuck in a corner and talked to for 3 minutes. Please beware when visiting this hospital. Please be AWARE that depending upon what codes are entered, you could be paying a boat load extra than what you expected to pay. It varies, there is no rhyme or reason, and they will not budge. It's just not worth it unless you're having a heart attack. Please visit The urgent care affiliated with them on Chandler and 48th st (approximately). they will take MUCH better care of you and not leave your wallet empty more

I had a very serious chest pain and it was so painful that my whole body cramped and couldn't breathe. I felt like I would probably die on my way to the hospital and was crying because of my pain, but when my hubby carried me inside the Emergency Room, nobody seemed to care. We were waiting for quite a while and a male medical practitioner helped to have a basic check-up on me. He was nice and gentle, but he said we have to wait for a room to have a doctor to further check on me. Then we waited and waited, and it was over 30 minutes already, I cried very loud because of my pain but the staff there just passed by me, looking at me and having a lukewarm look on their faces. Not even a word of comfort or encouragement. Nobody offered any help despite the fact that I had an extremely hard time breathing to a point that I actually couldn't speak! I had never have that experience before and no one even gave me oxygen. Some lady did come to me and asked me for some legal stuff I guess but I just couldn't speak or so painful that I couldn't read the documents. My hubby helped me to take care of her. And I guess someone looked like a doctor finally came and he said from the readings took when I first entered the hospital, my oxygen level seemed okay and it should be psychological factors that make it seem so painful. Okay, even if psychological factors affect the painfulness, part of it is due to the lack of caring from the staff and you doctor! When you can't breathe and in a great pain, how can you stay calm!? After the 1-minute talk, the doctor left us saying I needed some other scans before they can diagnose me. I can understand this, but not until another 30 minutes or so did another scan happen. Later, I was brought to a bed and a really nice nurse gave me some oxygen to breathe. I felt much better just breathing the oxygen! Thanks nurse! After awhile, I was able to speak again. Later on I needed a CAT scan, and the nurse asked some male medical staff whether it's okay if I have seafood allergy. He told the nurse that seafood allergy is no longer a factor, and sent me to have a CAT scan with iodine injected in me. After I came out from the scan machine, the staff in the room asked me if I was okay, and on their faces I could see a sense of fear. At first I didn't think I have a problem, but after a few minutes, I started to feel itchiness on my head, and on my body! One of the staff brought me back to my bed quickly, and the nurse, my hubby and people around were all scared because I had serious rashes all over!! The nurse was right!!! Then they injected me with 2 or 3 stuff quickly to make my rashes go away, but when the male medical staff injected me with the first thing (I don't remember if that's the one who said I'm okay to have CAT scan), I almost fainted! The nurse told him he shouldn't use the whole dose because I'm small; he should have given me a dose for a girl...the doctor finally came to see me again after all the scans and stuff, and what he said was something like, ""Oh, you look much better! You can speak now! When you got in, you couldn't even speak!"" I was speechless...you knew I couldn't speak because I had an extremely hard time breathing and you did nothing to help. In the end he couldn't find the cause of my chest pain. And it didn't end there. The medication the doctor prescribed me damaged my nerve system and liver. Thank God I read the prescription sheet and stopped the medication myself after the second day. Although these effects are mostly rare according to the prescription sheet, they all happened on me. And did I mention a mere few hours service cost $20,000+? (I had EKG, X-ray and CAT scan, some two bags of potassium, saline water and oxygen.) Thank God again I have medical insurance, or else I might probably need to file bankruptcy. You got 2 stars from me because of the nice nurse who took care of me and comforted me beside my bed! more

I would just like to inform everyone that no matter how much pain you are in, ""Do Not go to the ER"". Unless you want to receive more pain in your bank account. more

We were at the Chandler regional Hospital Emergency Department. I have never seen such a group of lost souls anywhere before. Talk about chaos. Nobody knew anything about what is next for the patient Case manager knew nothing about the case. Just sit down and wait for the next step to unfold. The procedure that should have taken an hour or two max, took 9 hours to complete. Emergency Services? It was a lousy service and it certainly was not an Emergency as far as these people were concerned. All physician groups should be allowed to run their own mini hospitals. These large hospital organizations are absolutely bureaucratic black holes where patient care is the last thing on their mind. The only thing these people are good at is how to lobby congress to line up their pockets and protect their butts. more

We went to Chandler Regional Hospital for Labor and Delivery even though one of my friend gave heads-up about the ""Poor Nurses"". We chose this because it was ""very convenient and closeby"" and nothing else. more

I was brought to CRH to the ER after a 1 car vehicle accident. I was wearing a helment as the paramedics throught that I had a ""broken neck"". I was treated in a very casual manner. the medics hitting every crack and bump in the sidewalk w/o regard to my condition. I also had a whip lash and spinal injuries. I was taken to the ER and basically left from approx. 9pm until 4:30AM. I was in exruciating pain The staff came in and out occassionally however no MD appeared for the longest time. During my wait, I did not receive any meds to lessen my pain and I could not move because of the helment they had put on my head. My back was in painful spasms. I turned on the Nurses night several times. They would turn the light off and not come to help me I was horrifled and could not stand to stay flat on my painful back. After turning on my light and no one arricving to help me, I got up, went into the nurses station area and began tearing my helmet off I was enraged at the lactk of attention and empathy. During the hours I was there, I saw no emergencies come in, there seemed not to be many patients, the Nurses and staff were laughing & joking w/each other, working casually on the computer and joking w/staff as they walked by. It was a totally unprofessional, uncompassionate, uncaring scene I watched thru the curtain they had drawn around me. The way they grabbed and pulled the curtain going in and out ennerved me. My tension increased continually more

I ran into a bad review of Chandler Regional Hospital and could not sit by and let it go undefended, not that they need my support, anyone who has ever needed their service would know they are outstanding in all areas of medical care. In the past 12 months I have had stomach hernia surgery, prostate surgery, 2 occasions to insert a stent and a quadrupal bypass. After my treatment of all these situations, all I can say is thank God we have a hospital service such as theirs. This goes for myself and for how my wife was treated. If you have a problem, let them know, they will respond favorably and quickly. more

I went to this hospital thinking that I would get compassionate care. That's were I was wrong. I had an extremely (and I mean extremely) painful muscle spasm that was shooting down my neck through my shoulder and down my spine. I walked up to the front where they get the basic information and the girl sitting behind the counter which was a registered nurse couldn't even get my name right even after three attempts and spelling it 5 different times. Mind you, my name is pretty common and not hard to spell! After getting my vitals and initially talking (not examined, just talking) to the ER doctor they gave me some prednisone to reduce the swelling and a Motrin to relieve the pain. Then they sat me down next to the registration room and after getting my registration information I was unable to get out of the chair. I was near tears every time I tried to stand up and was just unable to do so, so the nurse brought a wheelchair over to take me to the ER room (which again I had to change from the wheelchair to the ER chair almost in tears) and wait for the doctor to come in. The muscle spasms I was having felt like red hot knives cutting into my neck and shooting down my shoulder and spine. I was in a LOT of pain. They came and gave me a volume for pain which did absolutely nothing and seemed to make the spasms worse (or it could have been the chair they sat me in...not sure). All I know is that I was gripping the chair with my left hand because my right shoulder/neck was in so much pain. When they came to give me the volume I almost dropped the cup of water on the nurse because when I raised either arm and put any weight on it my neck and back would go into severe spasm attacks. The nurse looked at me and said ""Does it hurt that much that you can't even hold a cup of water?"" to which I replied ""yeah...it's extremely painful!"" (DUH!). more

I asked how long the volume would take to relieve the pain and was told 20 minutes. I waited over an hour and was in even worse pain than before I took the pill. I then had such a severe spasm that I yelled out and blurted out a curse word (being in such pain, you don't think about what's coming out of your mouth), and the nearest nurse whose name is Kevin came in and yelled at me saying that I will not curse in the hospital and yelling because of the pain is borderline OK! Mind you that I was in the room with another couple because this hospital shares rooms with two patients and I was not only in severe pain, but I was completely humiliated when the couple next to me heard this nurse try to reprimand me for yelling about my pain and then attempted to argue with me in front of these people! When I told him that I didn't appreciate being yelled at, he stated that he didn't yell at me and I told him that he raised his voice at me and he, of course, denied that and said ""well, it's going to be your word against mine anyway"", like if I even thought of saying anything to anyone above him his version would counter anything I had to say!! I was NOT in a mood to take any kind of crap from anyone at that point considering I was in the hospital now for over an hour and a half and was STILL not seen by the ER doctor, so I told him that I could understand about the cursing by what did he expect me to do about the pain!?! Was I just supposed to sit there and not express my excruciating pain? I told him that I would have loved to see him in this kind of pain and not make a sound or curse. I made sure to catch his name so that I may give the ER Director a call and tell her of my experience there with him, but it gets better. After they gave me all the pills I mentioned above, another nurse came and wanted to give me MORE pills which when asked how long it would take to be effective she replied a half an hour!! Are you kidding me??? I was already in excruciating pain for around 2 hours at this point...still not seen by an actual doctor and now they wanted to give me another dose of whatever that was going to take another 30 mins to work! I then waited for MY nurse (which by the way was NOT Kevin) to ask him about how much longer the doctor would take and when he finally did come, he took more vitals and asked me if I took the pills that the earlier nurse tried to give me. I told him that I didn't because I wanted to have something that would work quicker since my pain was increasing to the point where I was almost on the floor. He said that he would talk to the doctor and see what he wanted to do. The nurse then proceeded to the room across the hall from mine that took the vitals of a teenage girl with half her boobs hanging out of her shirt and then started flirting with her!!!! I'm sitting there across the room moaning and groaning from the severe muscle spasms and there he was flirting with this girl! Oh, the part I didn't tell you, was before the nurse came to take my vitals, she was seen by the doctor (which I can only assume that that would have been the same doctor that would have seen me, but no doctor ever came so I couldn't be too sure). The doctor told her that she was going to be discharged and left...after that is when the nurse came and took both my and her vitals, flirted with her for several minutes, and then came back some few minutes later with her discharge instructions. So, I'm still sitting there in pain, moaning and groaning (loudly, not to be obnoxious, but because I was seriously in pain), and after the nurse was done discharging her, he walked right past my room TWICE and didn't even come in to tell me that he talked with the doctor or any kind of update. more

I was fuming. I got out of the chair with the most excruciating pain and tried to walk out of the hospital. I walked down the wrong way and ended up by the doctor/nurse station. I walked right past it and guess who I saw? The DOCTOR. And he was stating there in the station chit-chatting with whoever was there and LAUGHING about something. I was brought back by someone there and they explained that I had to sign some waiver which I did and got the hell out of there. Here's the kicker, when I was waiting to see the doctor in the ER, I overheard one of the patients in the room across from mine (it was an elderly lady in pain) and I don't want to get into the whole conversation, but the one part that rubbed me the wrong way was when the nurse told the patient that there are other patients in the ER and she's not the only one that he has to tend to so she just has to deal with it. I heard her crying after he left. I don't know which nurse it was because the curtain was closed and he walked the opposite way of my room. I then proceeded to the front of the ER where the lady screwed up my name and asked the nurse or doctor (I'm not sure who it was because they were dressed in a doctors scrubs and not a nurses, and I asked who the director of the hospital was. He asked me of which department and I told him I wanted to head of the entire hospital but he said that each department had different directors, so I asked for the ER director. I asked for the name and all he gave me was the direct number for the hospital and told me that they would tell me who the director was. I asked him ""Don't you know who the director of the ER is??"" and he then told me that he did but still wouldn't give me the name. I asked AGAIN who the director was which then he told me that it is Janet Shepard. I told him to write down her name under the phone number he gave me (which I know bothered him for some reason) and he reluctantly did. After that horrible experience I walked out to my car and my husband was waiting for me in his car since the nurse told me I was unable to drive. As I was standing there explaining what had happened in the ER I saw maybe 6 or 7 security guards gathering up at the front of the ER entrance pointing in my direction. Then one of the security guards came by and wanted to know what happened. He listened to my experience and was very sympathetic to it and told me that I was doing the right thing because MANY patients don't get treated with the respect and compassion they deserve and too many of them don't say anything to anybody. After that whole ordeal, and since I was still in horrible pain, my husband drove me to Mercy Gilbert Hospital and what a difference!!!! I know that the same doctors that work at Chandler Regional also work at Mercy Gilbert, but the difference in care was like night and day. They were extremely caring and compassionate. The doctor that I first saw there did a few motor tests with my hand and arms, checked my lymph nodes, and actually checked my back to see where the pain was (which the doctor at Chandler didn't even bother to do). The doctor ordered an IV with pain meds and my pain was almost instantly gone. I wasn't 100% pain free, but about 80% which was just enough to take the edge off and be relaxed enough to where I was able to actually move around and not be bombarded with excrusiating spasms. The petite blond doctor was a saint and was very compassionate to my needs. She ordered a CT scan to make sure it wasn't something more serious than just muscle spasms (which luckily it wasn't). She sent me home with three prescriptions and I am now doing a LOT better. The doctor at Chandler Regional didn't even order any tests when I first came in and just let me sit in pain the entire time I was there. I do not and will not ever recommend Chandler Regional Hospital for any kind of care and will be filing a complaint with my insurance company and will also be in contact with the Director of ER. more

We were UNLUCKY enough to have a ?consult? with Dr. Hedrick of Mercy Gilbert Hospital Pain Management. This Dr. suffers from a HUGE GOD complex. I could fill up a page of my wife?s medical problems, and Mr. Wonderful (sarcastic) Dr. Henrich comes into her hospital room and after 12 min he undid 7 years of medical advice which included advice from both the Mayo Clinic in Phx and Jacksonville. With my wife and daughter in the room he THREATENED my wife. Why we have pain management doctors scared of opiod medication, I will never know ? if you don?t believe in it, don?t go into the profession. The only thing the pain medication does for my wife is get her out of bed MAYBE 15 days a month. If she was given more, it might be 20 days. The pain medication increases the quality of her life. This genius took it all away ? cold turkey today ?then lied to hospital administrators saying he did not say what we said he did. Well genius, my 19 year daughter who was in the room with you, taped the conversation and we have it as evidence. You threaten to reach across the bed and remove the pain patch from my wife?s chest. If you are thinking about seeing this Dr. or going to this hospital, remember this story. If you hurt, my wife was crying in pain, they take meds away from you ? they refuse you appropriate pain management ? then when you escalate they all stick together. The hospital actually told us today that they do NOT treat chronic pain patients. Which was a SHOCK to (our really good pain management dr.) who continues to tell us to go to the ER when we can not control her pain at home. No one listens ? god forbid you disagree with a Dr. ? regardless of what you say ? they stick together. I took my wife from the hospital AMA today, wheeled her out crying in pain. This is after the ER doctor gave her pain medication, the admitting dr ordered 2MG every 2 hours, then after this pain dr. came in he removed all access to pain medication. Dr. Hedrick, I hope you read this, I would not let you change a tire and I wish it would have been me in that room instead of my 19 year old daughter. You treated the wrong chronically ill person as a drug addict. You are an embarrassment to the profession, and you should not be doing what you are doing. You can?t play GOD and you can?t make decisions without having the correct history. How did you make that call, her medical records had not yet been received by the hospital ? so what did you base your decision on. Had she had to much? What her crying in pain not enough hurt. I would tell you what I think, if you called me, but you chickened out when hospital administrators called you to meet with us to discuss you lied about what you said, and you hid. I hope you get enough complaints over the next few weeks, cause we are doing everything we have the right to do to complain about you and how you practice medicine. Pros: 2nd Floor Nursing Staff Cons: Horrible Dr. - Peter Hedirck more

I recently had surgery at Chandler Regional and had an amazing experience. From the moment that I entered the hospital at the surgery waiting room I knew that I was in good hands. Jack, a volunteer, was wonderful and so very kind. The nurses in pre-op were fun and helpful in making me feel calm. (Thanks Andie!) Recovery room nurse Elaine and the 4th floor nurses, Alex, Cheryl, Julia, Nancy and the charge nurse on 6/5 (sorry, I forgot the name!) were exceptional. And last but not least, Ronald in catering. All in all, what could have been a very unpleasant experience turned out to be just the opposite. How often can someone who has undergone a major surgery say that they're stay was fun and relaxing? Well, I can. And it was because of the amazing staff at Chandler Regional. I thank you all so much. more