Houston MethodistReviews of houstonmethodist.org

Review is in regards to Methodist Willowbrook Hospital in Houston, Texas. Only giving 2 stars because of the condiition my 87 year old Mom was under when being DISCHARGED by Dr. Derek Woo today 12/7. She was admitted to hospital Wednesday, 12/3 after being in ER. I cannot say enough wonderful things about ER Nurse Practioner, Sonia Garza. She was amazing and Mom's vitals were actually better under her care then following day under Hosptal's Dr. Derek Woo's care. Mom had a severe UTI and although they got a handle on it, other then a Nurse helping her to get in a wheelchair 3 days ago, nobody has been in since with regards to working with her to obtain strength. Her knees were as swollen {due to Edema} as they were when admitted. I questioned why Dr. Woo had not prescribed a Diuretic. Nurse Nicole said we would need to contact Mom's PCP who was not involved with ER or Hospital visit! Why would Dr. Woo or the Cardiologist who were over her care since 12/3 not prescribe a Diuretic. Upon getting home, her legs were so weak it took an hour for her to get in bed! With regards to ER Nurse Practioner Sonia Garza and Nurse Alex Lara (North Building, 5th Floor), both should receive 10 stars!!

That's really zero stars. The day before Thanksgiving, I went to the HM ER around 2:00pm. I had excruciating pain in my lower back and abdomen, and my blood pressure was 234/124. I was taken to a room in the ER, and someone came to get me for a CT Scan of my abdomen. The person who came to transport me saw my blood pressure and questioned multiple times whether it was safe to take me back. The nurse’s aide told him it was fine, but the other man still seemed very uneasy about taking me back. I had a CT scan of the abdomen only, and returned to the room in the ER. A paramedic came to start my IV because the nurses were busy. A nurse quickly arrived and the two discussed the fact that I should have an EKG, but one had not been ordered. The nurse asked me if I had been drinking because the doctor had ordered a banana bag and B1. I told her that I don’t drink and she said it was strange that those things had been ordered. At 3:25, I received Fentanyl and Toradol for pain, but those medications did not help the pain. At 4:38pm I was given a steroid, Flexeril, and finally Clonidine for my blood pressure. I was told that they couldn’t find what was causing my pain so they were going to have to discharge me. I told the PA that my head hurt and my face was numb, and that I had previously had a stroke. She insisted that she would need to discharge me because they couldn’t find anything wrong. (MY BLOOD PRESSURE WAS 234/124!!!) At that point I should have been given a head CT, but that never happened and I was completely ignored. At 5:39 they gave me morphine for the pain, and my pain reduced significantly. At that point my blood pressure went to 169/76, and I was told that I had been discharged. I told her that something was wrong, but she completely ignored me. She prescribed enough Tylenol 3 and Flexeril for a couple of days which was not nearly enough to make it through the holiday weekend, and an NSAID that I can’t take. (No one bothered to get any medical history from me, or they would have known that.) I was incredibly upset and afraid because she absolutely refused to listen to my concerns. I asked if she could at least give me something in case my blood pressure spiked at home because she wasn’t addressing the blood pressure issue at all. I told her that I was having pain in my ribcage and she literally walked away. I should have had an EKG and a head CT. She was completely incompetent and negligent. When I went to the pharmacy, I learned that the prescriptions that she had prescribed could not be used together so I wasn’t able to take anything extra for my blood pressure. As soon as the morphine wore off, my blood pressure was back up and the pain medication she prescribed did nothing to help the pain. I might as well have not even gone to the hospital. I could have died with blood pressure that high. I ended up spending the next couple of days in severe pain, and I could barely speak or form a thought. I knew that I could not afford two ER visits, so I held off as long as I could, but finally went to Memorial Hermann with a blood pressure reading of 244/117. They immediately did an EKG, head CT, chest CT, abdomen CT etc., and I was admitted so they could control my blood pressure the correct way. I would never go to Houston Methodist again. I can already see that my insurance was charged over $20,000 for that medical malpractice.

The doctor made a joke about billing my insurance. Not much of an examination. My copays were paid by my supplemental insurance but I was sent bills and phone calls were made on numerous occasions. I had to file a complaint with the insurance to get the charge removed. Incompetent customer service representatives who claimed to not see the electronic payments.

At least 95% of the techs working there do a fantastic job; know what they're doing, totally professional, usually kind too. Doctors and nurses are a mixed bag though. Some do a great job, but not all. We had to go to the emergency room recently, and while waiting for a doctor overheard several complaining about "not having enough RVUs to make it interesting". For those who don't know, RVUs are Relative Value Units, and the more RVUs a treatment, service or procedure has, the higher the pay for whoever performs it. Reviewing the record for our visit afterwards, we saw that the provider (Dr. Simonson - one of those overheard earlier complaining about the RVUs) left out half the reason for our ER visit, listed a test as having been performed when in fact it had to be stopped immediately after it started because the patient was excruciating pain (despite having been given morphine), she 'didn't have time' to update the patient's medical record by listing a previously prescribed medication which could be a contributing factor, yet wrote an unrequested & unnecessary 'excuse letter' for a weekend visit, she claimed Houston Methodist doesn't have a diagnostic lab, patient had to do a Google search for an antibiotic that would actually work when the one sent back choked the patient and came back up, she made an inappropriate follow up referral. Houston Methodist used to be the best hospital in Houston, and it still has the best techs, but for actual medical services much of it has become or is becoming as sketchy as its competitors. Please don't go alone if you need emergency medical treatment, you probably won't get it if it doesn't provide enough RVUs. Speaking as someone who didn't.

the most wonderful hospital in houston - I only experienced the katy location off of IH10 clean, efficient, wonderful caring staff

Good place when you sadly need to go but their billings team needs to be severely disciplined for their billing overages and tendency to max out revenue for their shareholders and with little to no regard for the average humans who feel powerless in the face of these corporate juggernauts. When all people are looking for is to be cared for, the last thing you want to do is slap them with overages and charges their four generations down can't pay...so please y'all fear God and get reasonable for the sake of all things holy!!!.

They took me to get an MRI and I went into one of those side bays where you change into the gown while on the stretcher. I was told to put my items on a chair. I told the attendant I wanted to lock up my valuables and he said that wasn't necessary and he would take care of everything. Right....... Followup to previous post about stolen property at this hospital. I filed a report on a Friday and was told they would follow up on Monday with a phone call. An idiot dispatcher named Gonzalez refused to provide any information with regards to my filed report. He stated that it was hospital policy that no assistance would be provided until I could remember the name of the officer I filed the report with. I repeated these calls several times, and each time Gonzalez was a jerk. Next, I tried to reach the head of Seccurity at the hospital and he refused to take my calls. After 2 weeks of getting nowhere, they brought in the overall head of Security, not just the Woodlands, whose name is Amanda Burrows, and she was as worthless as all the rest. She also promised to contact me and never did. After 4 weeks of their BS, they won, and I have given up all hope of being able to deal with these incompetent people. I suppose my $800 pendant which was stolen due to the negligence of the hospital staff will never be seen again. Instead of trying to help you, the Security Dept. only tries to get rid of you and make you go away. The whole lot of them are totally worthless, and in fact are antithetical to their supposed "job". Top to bottom, this is one terrible department, and they should be ashamed of their total incompeyence!!!

My complaint is with the Gynecological Oncologist Dr. A. Suri on the Houston Methodist team. It has been 36 days since my 85 year old Mother-in-law had major Vulvar cancer surgery and we still can't get Dr. Suri to get us a pathology report. He made major wounds in her thighs to take lymph nodes out after removing a lot of cancerous tissue and my Mother-in-law and Wife have talked to him and his office multiple times and he just says if I don't call you, everything is allright. He won't even release the pathological report to the Houston Methodist MyChart automated system they so heavily advertise.