Submitted by ExtremelyQualified t3_123vx98 in pittsburgh
A question for everyone, but especially curious to hear from the healthcare workers out there:
You wake up in a Pittsburgh hospital. Which hospital do you hope you've been taken to? Which one do absolutely hope you didn't end up at?
This is another way of asking which Pittsburgh hospital do you feel is the best at patient care vs which one is the worst at patient care.
The WPIC in Perks of Being a Wallflower is nothing like the real WPIC.
I think in the book it was mayview hospital the old state one ?
In the movie it was an unknown psych hospital but out the window was the Cathedral.
I don't think it matters which one. Can't afford any
UPMC Children's
Do they still not have a burn unit, anyone know?
Long story short - my kid got burnt and sent to the hospital (not in my care) and I was initially told Childrens, and arrived and they told me they have no burn unit so he was probably sent to Mercy (he was).
Mercy was great, they even have a little play area with like a kid's play area and wheeled in a TV with a Wii and stuff. The only bad part was that his bed/unit was in the main either ICU or step-down unit and more than a few nights I laid awake listening to stabbing victims cuss out the nurses.
No, Children’s does not have a burn unit. Only West Penn and Mercy do.
I work at Mercy and if a child is very critically ill with a burn, they will still go to Children’s, and Mercy will send staff there daily for burn care.
No idea, but they treated my AML when i was 17/18 and every single person on the staff, from my Oncologists to the Janitors were fantastic people.
I hope it's AHN because I'm not insured at UPMC.
Statistically unlikely if you're anywhere actually in the city 🫠. I'm a transplant and this split based on "medical systems" is complete bullshit. The only other time I've been with an insurance sectioned off like this was when I was a student at a college with a medical school.
While the Consent Decree from 2014 or 2015 allows Highmark to contract with UPMC, they can still define networks like any other insurance company. There are some Highmark plans that place UPMC providers and facilities in a less preferable tier.
Regardless, the commenter might mean that, due to their coverage, they hope to be at an AHN facility because UPMC would be financially ruinous.
hope it's Presby
hope it isn't anything owned by Excela
Hope: presby Nope: upmc mckeesport
This
Always got McKeesport in y’all’s mouth
Because the hospital is a shithole. I have nothing against McKeesport other than I otherwise have no business being there. If I were stuck in the Mon valley in that area I'd be praying to be take to AHN in Jefferson Hills.
Shut up
You live in a dumpy place.
Don’t live there smart guy just from there stop assuming
I put my time in mckeesport working the call center for dish network, I can talk shit.
No u can’t shut up your not from there clown
UPMC Presby, Shadyside, Magee all good with diff strengths. West Penn is best AHN has to offer.
Penn Highlands affiliates might kill you. The transfers from these hospitals always had one foot in the grave before they arrived.
Weird question... I hope I'm at Magee or Children's because it means I've only feinted or something minor, but if I got shot I'd want to be at Presbyterian. If I got stabbed I'd want to go to Mercy. Different hospitals have different specialties. One of them is better for burns, etc.
Presby. They saved my moms life
Upmc mccandless. Dad went in for outpatient hernia surgery came out with a hospital stay and severely scratched cornea. Can't make that up
A high hernia?
No small one! They just scratched his eyes when they put him under
Oxygen Masks can scratch corneas if eyes are not taped.
General Hospital. The one from the TV show.
I hope it’s AGH and not AVH (where you go to die).
I work at all of these hospitals. You have nothing to worry about if you’re in the city AGH, shady side Presby, etc. Wexford’s new pavilion is really nice, but I generally try to steer folks away from the community centers if it’s more serious than stitches, concussion, stomach pains
The good thing about St. Clair is that they know what they don't know and are not afraid to send you into town if it's outta their league.
They have a pediatric department, too. It’s small, and anything major gets you a ticket to Children’s, but if you’re stable, the service is like being at a nice hotel and the care is exceptional.
I'd want to be in Children's though I wouldn't qualify. Everyone there's the best and so kind. I guess Presby by my actual age.
I'd never want to be in Western Psych from the horror stories I've heard. Or anything owned by one of the random non-major networks like Heritage Valley.
A paramedic once told me he would never send a family member to UPMC McKeesport.
As for preferred hospital, UPMC Shadyside. Presbyterian is closer to me but there is too much traffic in the area currently, and parking is a pain. Shadyside is more convenient for accessibility and traffic and parking.
Well, in this scenario you'd wake up in the hospital, so you don't have to worry about parking.
UPMC McKeesport has some fantastic nurses, however. All of their staff were pretty great, every time I've been there. Always got the feeling they were the most "real" or something, like the distance between McKeesport and Downtown meant that they weren't all drinking the Corporate Kool-Aid.
That ER triage on a Friday/Saturday night is WILD, though. Long time ago, went in with a ruptured appendix, and had a woman who spoke only in profanity on one side of me, and a guy who was on PCP (restrained to the bed, naturally) on the other. By the time we were shuffled our separate ways, I'm pretty sure they had decided to marry each other in order to spite a third party.
So romantic! Hope they made you their ring bearer!
For anyone that doesn't know Presby has free valet parking for er patients.
My brother got excellent care at shadyside
Got my husband to AGH last month, middle of the night, when he was having a stroke. Can't thank them all enough, from ER docs and staff to the ICU people and all of the doctors and nurses. The level of care and treatment there was superb, couldn't have asked for better.
MIL had several visits to Jefferson and, well, those were nightmarish. Every. Single. One.
Anywhere but Sewickley hospital.
Agreed.
Not Forbes in Monroeville – they tried sewing up my 5-year-old brother's face by tying him down, apparently without pain relief.
UPMC East said my mother was 'faking' an ovarian cyst and were ignoring her in the ER by the time I showed up (she can be dramatic if her kids are sick, but you could tell she was in real pain). I shouldn't have to advocate for her to be admitted.
I second Forbes. They're ass. If I need to go to the hospital, I'm taking my chances going to West Penn first.
And I live in Penn Hills
The answer, as a nurse in Pittsburgh, entirely is dependent on what is wrong with you.
If I have cancer, I hope I am at Shadyside. If I need to go the ER for anything but a cancer crisis, I pray to God the ambulance isn’t going to Shadyside.
If I have a burn or substance use disorder, I hope I’m at Mercy.
If I am having a CSF leak, it better be fucking Presby.
So and so forth. Every hospital shines (and flops) in different areas.
Not a big fan of the Shadyside ER?
At least not right now, no, mostly secondary to staffing and organization. Unless having cancer crisis because they have a cancer doctor or PA there at all times!
This! But if you can only pick one! 👉 Presby 200000x over! Fellow RN here.
Children’s. My daughter gets the best care there and has the best docs. If I could go there as an adult, I might actually go to the doctor.
I’d rather die than be taken to Forbes. Too much horror stories including from my own family.
Echoing Jefferson too. The way they treated my grandfather in the months before his death was disgusting.
Yes: WPH, AGH
No: WPIC, Presby
for all trauma except for a solely Neuro related issue, presby. for anything Neuro, AGH. and please for the love of God don't take me to Passavant.
My mom had an emergency neuro issue. My dad BEGGED the ambulance to take her to Presby because he knew they had a good neuro dept. They wanted to take her to St. Margarets, because it was closer. They finally agreed, and thank god they did. She just happened to have a super rare thing happen to her, and there is like ONE expert in the entire country on this super rare thing, and he just happens to work at Presby and happened to be working there that night when my mom came in. If she had gone to any other hospital or was seen by any other doc, she probably wouldn't be here right now.
I know I'm only one case and it was 7 years ago, but the doctors at Mercy (brain aneurysms that ruptured) saved my mom, so that would be my pick.
Well, I guess I'm glad to hear there's more than one good Neuro hospital in town! My neighbor had a brain aneurysm that ruptured as well and was given a .1% chance of survival. The doctors at AGH saved her life and her story was turned into a case study for other doctors and students.
The doctors at Mercy botched a colostomy and killed my uncle. So that place is on my do not go list.
What’s up with Passavant?
It does have the nickname "Passaway" for a reason
Their ER is a hot mess, long wait times, lack of 'strong' doctors.
Horrible- won’t treat any type of pain inpatient or out patient. U see the Hospitalist on an iPad wheeled into ur room. Spent 2 days in ER waiting for bed eating crackers & ginger ale.
Despite my pessimism about the state of healthcare training and delivery in the US, the UPMC Presby-Monte-Magee system is very strong. I’d pick Magee - if you’re admitted to Presby that’s an independent poor prognostic sign (it’s a quaternary referral center - only the sickest end up there).
St Clair and Jefferson are the worst
I don’t know how they don’t kill more people at Saint Clair
I agree with Jefferson. I was just there in June and sat there for 4 days waiting for people to get off their butts. None of the nurses understood why I was still there.
I hope you’re still not there!!!
I was a medic in area for almost two decades. We know where to go and where not to go. Purely based on quality of care (and no, your wait time doesn’t count): AGH, Forbes, Mercy, Shadyside. CHP obviously is tops for kiddos because duh.
Presby.
I would never go or suggest anyone to go to any AHN neighborhood hospital. They almost killed my mom
I’ve heard pretty bad things about the AHN neighborhood hospitals
West Penn
I hope it is Mercy.
I hope it is not Fucking Presby.
Why not Presby?
Other than my colonoscopy which is pretty hard to fuck up, myself and family members have had way too many bad experiences here. The place is just too bloody damned big and impersonal. I had a terrible time with a post surgery infection (absolutely needless, but they forgot to give me post op antibiotics) and tons of cancelled appointments. That’s just one instance.
Fucking Presby!!
Hope: Magee Nope: St Margaret’s
I hope for Presby do not hope for Jefferson.
Not Mercy for me. When they did have labor & delivery they almost killed me. I was 8 and a half months pregnant. 2 weeks before I was hospitalized they said they heard my babies heartbeat. Unfortunately, It was mine. My daughter had been passed away inside of me for 2 weeks and my blood was septic. And on her autopsy everything was unremarkable. So to this day I don’t know how she died.
Damn, that’s absolutely horrible. I’m so sorry for your loss and the experience surrounding it.
Thank you for your kind words.
Children’s -pediatric, UPMC Presby - trauma, West Penn - burns
I'd love to wake up in any large city hospital. Don't want to wake up at a small community one like the one on Natrona heights.
West Penn….upmc hospitals are trash
Hope it is: Shadyside. Hope it isn't: AGH. Signed, an ex healthcare worker who's seen a lot
What kind of things turned you off AGH?
It's a very dirty hospital. You'll find trash on the floors regularly, and while I was there, an employee rubbed feces on the bathroom wall in the women's changing room multiple times. The floors are rarely mopped and look it, especially in non patient facing areas.
There's also a higher than average I-don't-care attitude from pretty much everyone. Those who do care don't stick around. I stayed there for 4 years and that's a large part of what made me finally leave.
Those are the main two things, though I could go on for a lot longer.
Presby and only Presby! Any family I need to take to the ED… I take them to Presby, I’m an RN and I’ve worked many places. Presby has the most resources to figure out wtf to do, staff trained that actually know what their doing and overall… outcomes are better at Presby. Just my 2cents.
If your Highmark… AGH!
Pediatric - Children's Adult- Presby
Hopefully not ahn. They left me naked for eight hours and transferred me to UPMC naked because I was covered by UPMC. Fuck them
Anywhere but St. Clair
Hope prespy Hope isn't - Jameson in new castle, absolute horror house. But also could be argued not 100% in Pittsburgh
Shadyside and Presby are good. West Penn is best in the AHN network. Steer clear of the suburbs if you can and, dear glob, anything but Passavant.
Hope it is Saint Clair hospital.
Hope it isn’t anything UPMC.
Fuck UPMC
Wow a pro St Clair vote. Why is everybody else so anti?
[deleted]
I’d hope to be in Presby or St. Clair and definitely wouldn’t want to be in anything AGH or OVGH or Western Psych.
sarcasmcumseasy t1_jdwq3j6 wrote
I hope I’m not at Western Psych. Other than that I don’t care.