Abbott Northwestern Hospital

Had a c-​section here, and it was a positive experience. Staff was pretty friendly, food was decent/​quick/​plentiful, and they mostly gave us everything we asked for. There were a few times we really had to bug them to get meds in a timely manner, and there was one lactation consultant that could have been nicer, but for the most part we liked everyone we saw. Nurses had to come into the room a lot while we slept, but they were quiet and it didn’t really bother us.

The worst hospital I have ever been too. I have been to quite a few in my years This hospital and the staff are the most unfriendly and no listing people you can come across.

Love, Love Love this hospital! It’s the only hospital in the Twin Cities I would deliver at. The nurses are excellent. My doctor is fantastic. I might even consider having a 4^th child just so I can deliver at the new mother-​baby hospital opening this next year! :)

ABBOTT NORTHWESTERN F O O D S E R V I C E S
After spending 2 ½ weeks here for emergency surgery, here is what I thought of the patient food.
I was ordering off the menu for each meal :-)
Cream of Mushroom Soup 5 stars
Chicken Noodle Soup 5 stars
Applesauce 5 stars
Banana 5 stars
Canned pears 5 stars
Scrambled Eggs 5 stars
Toast 5 stars
English Muffin 5 stars
Green Tea 5 stars
Mashed Potatoes and Gravy 5 stars
V-​8 Juice 5 stars
APPARENTLY EVERYTHING TASTES GOOD WHEN YOU ARE IN A
M O R P H I N E S T U P O R…

It’s an inner city hospital, so the friendliness isn’t quite, well friendly. However they have access to get a lot done, although the time is a looooong wait. My ER staff have been decent, if I had a choice I wouldn’t come here again.

My sister went in for a crainotomy today.
Timeliness of surgery: 2 stars. We were told to arrive at 1pm, surgery started about 5 hours later.
Bedside manner of prep staff minus the doctor: 5 stars. Everyone of these folks were efficient and explained their parts well. Excellent phlebotomist!
Bedside manner of surgeon Dr Mullan before surgery: 2 stars
He did not explain the various other holes she had in her head post surgery, prior to surgery. The doctor prompted us, my sisters family to ask questions if we had any. Every question we the family asked, was met with hostility and the message that we were wasting his time and he mentioned that he explained the response to my sister already. She didn’t mention everything he said to us. If you don’t care what our concerns are, don’t ask…
Post Op
Surgeon bedside manner after surgery: 4 stars.
It’s like he was suddenly a different person. He answered everyone’s questions and was very patient and took his time, including the answers to our original questions.
Timeliness of post op inital meds: 0 stars. Why in this day and age of electronic capabilities do people have to wait so long to get med approval for the post op room? It’s unacceptable! My sister was reeling and crying and nearly ripping all of her tubes out before the order came through. It was over two hours post surgery.
Post op nurse Rachel: 4 stars. The patient advocacy person I spoke with said my sisters post operative med orders were in place before she got to her room. When my sister got to her bed she was already behind on her med schedule and it still took over an hour after that to get her first dose in the new room. Besides that, Rachel was very sweet and useful and carefully listened to my sister and responded when she needed a higher dose, and anti nausea, she was also able to work in a darkened room to keep my sister comfortable.
Post op nurse Amanda: 10 stars. She gave my sister every med she could to reduce pain and prevent nausea and did it so fast. She was amazing in a way of no other nurse I have ever met.
Gilbert night orderly: 5 stars. He heated up extra blankets to make sure my sister was warm and comfortable and always responded very fast and thought of things she might need, even before we did.
Morning nurse Terrie: 1 star. Picture calm quiet darkness, interrupted with every light in the place turned on, that’s how we started. Terrie was extremely hard to find, slow to respond to requests, usually 30 minutes minimum but more typically an hour or more. She reduced my sisters meds from 4 to 1 but didn’t bother sharing her plan with us, my sister was in a lot of pain and she wasn’t proactive in getting the level of meds increased to reduce my sisters pain. This was only 14 hours after a large portion of her skull was removed. She seems competent with what you can get her to do. She was so absent that I learned how to disconnect all of the equipment for my sisters bathroom breaks, how the bed rail lowers, how her food tray expands and contracts. My brother in law had to empty the urine bowl that nurses are supposed to use to track my sisters bathroom efforts, so she could even go, it was full and we hadn’t seen Terrie for several hours.

My dad came here for his checkups and for chemo/​radiation. I didn’t go with him to every appointment, but I brought him often enough to become familiar with the buildings and staff. Overall, it was as pleasant an experience as you could hope to have given the circumstances of our visits.
Most people working here seem to know what they are doing. They have a lot of convenient services on campus such as a post office, gift shop, notary public and a cafeteria. We ended up using all of these at some point.
The people working here are also incredibly caring. Many went above and beyond to help us and delivered bad news with a soft touch. Over the course of two years I only encountered one employee who rubbed me the wrong way and the anger he invoked in me quickly subsided when a familiar face came along and actually helped us.
I’m glad we’re not going here anymore, but it’s not a bad place to be if you have to.

Waiting for a long period of time to have my outpatient ultrasound completed. The room was extremely hot. The staff were mostly nice except say 1 nurse who was extremely rude when checking the interns work. Parking is a nightmare and You have to pay 6 $ to park for 1 – 2 hours.
–I’ve had major pain, medical info and customer service issues here. Family members via inpatient surgery. To the point we almost had the member transferred when they were in really bad shape. Be sure to have a pain management plan before any surgery with your assigned pain doctor at the hospital. I also would not bring any medical equipment as a cpap machine was lost. They’re some very nice helpful nurses but are hard to find. If you get one be sure to request that one for your stay.

Fantastic! I had a total knee replacement on 12/​17/​2013. The staff was so nice. The physical Therapist Jill was wonderful. They are so compassionate and try hard to fix issues. They had a lot of patients when I was there and you could really tell how hard they tried to attend to everyone. Also even though they said they were at Max capacity the nurse and aid ratio to patient seemed really good. It was a good experience even though it was a tough things t go through they made me super comfy. I had a private room as did the other knee and hip patients.

First off — a disclaimer: I used to work here, but that was over 20 years ago and there are not many faces here that I recognize.
As others have noted the place is clean, without feeling antiseptic. Staff generally are very nice to work with as a patient. The neighborhood itself may seem a bit rough but ANW has done a good job of investing in the neighborhood and even has loans for employees that want to purchase a home in the area.
If you are going to be spending multiple days and will need to park it is worth the time to ask about getting a parking pass. You can buy a 5 park or 5 valet card or even buy a two week parking pass at the gift shop in the lobby near the cafeteria.
The staff are more than happy to answer any questions you might have if you are there for a procedure.

I’ve had surgery here, my doctor is fantastic, the nursing care is AWFUL. I was left in my room nauseated from the anesthesia. I puked into my bowl, I had the nurses button pressed. She never came for OVER 2 HOURS. I asked for medication for the nausea, because my doctor told me to ask for it. The nurse NEVER called the doctor to ask for the order. She kept telling me «We have to wait until morning, the on-​call doctor is busy» WHAT? I’m in a hospital! If I had known I could have demanded the charge nurse, I would have called her. This hospital is the grungiest, old worn out rooms and furniture, with bitter nurses who scoff when you ask for care, you are helpless here after surgery AVOID AVOID AVOID!

I had surgery here last September and had a great experience with the hospital staff. I was incredibly nervous about the surgery, since it was my very first one. The nurses were so sweet, and they really took the time to calm my nerves and to make sure that someone answered each and every one of my questions before anything was even done to me.
My surgery was outpatient, and I was supposed to be in and out before 1 p.m. I had a very difficult time getting my oxygen levels up after surgery and ended up being in recovery until almost 8 p.m. The nurses there were also absolutely amazing and caring. They truly went above and beyond to make me as comfortable as possible and to make sure that I got the care I needed to avoid being kept overnight (they knew that staying overnight was something I was fearful about).
Honestly, I cannot say enough nice things about the nurses there… they were some of the sweetest people I have ever met, and I could tell that they truly cared about their patients. They also did an awesome job of making sure that my husband and grandmother, who had accompanied me to the hospital, were kept well-​informed and were made comfortable. It is because of the excellent care I received from them that I would definitely recommend this hospital.

I had my first daughter here in 2010. I was disappointed in several things at the hospital. I had a scheduled c-​section, and when we showed up to the Maternity Assessment Center (MAC — which is a dingy little hole-​in-​the-​wall office/​waiting room) we were taken back to get prepped for surgery. The small room we were in had dead bugs all along the windowsill… not very cleanly or sterile. At my last prenatal appointment, the doctor said she would talk to the hospital about allowing my husband into the OR when I got the spinal (that was the most terrifying part for me, I do horrible with needles, and knew I would be more relaxed if he were there). When I inquired about it, I was immediately told no, but that there would be a nurse in there for me. There was no other option for them (I found out later, that some hospitals will allow the husband/​support person in, and in hind sight, I wish I would have told them at that point to remove my IV’s, because I was going home!) My c-​section was schedule for 1pm, and I could have nothing to eat or drink for 12 hours before (try telling a 9-​mo preggo lady that, but they told me I would be fine once they hooked up the IV… WRONG!), and of course were late getting me into surgery. I was going on 16+ hours of not eating… not cool.
After the surgery, and after I saw my daughter, I was wheeled on the gurney into my recovery room. The spinal was still wearing off, and movement made me sick (I threw up while seeing my daughter when I tried to shift in the bed to see her better). I told the recovery room nurse that, when she told me to move onto the room’s bed. She didn’t believe me or didn’t care (I’m not sure which), and told me to move again (I still didn’t really have feeling in my legs, I was just beginning to get feeling back in my breasts). The nurse that had been with me before decided that she would move me over on her own, since the new nurse wouldn’t help (I weighted all of 125 pounds when I was 9 mo pregnant, and just lost a bunch of the weight, since my daughter was just born, so she was able to do it without hurting herself at least). Since she was doing it by herself though, I tried to help, and of course, got sick again.
Probably the only reason I don’t give this hospital 1 star, is because while their food is still your typical hospital food, they allowed me to order a large amount of food, which I shared with my husband, so he didn’t have to go down to the cafeteria and pay for his own.

I came into the Emergency Room for a not-​so-​emergency situation because all of the other Urgent Care and After Hours facilities around the area were closed. I went up to the front desk and was brought back immediately to register. It was a bit slow-​going, but after about 20 minutes of waiting, I was brought back into a curtained room, was instructed to put on a gown and waited only about 5 minutes for a doctor to come back and see me. The doctor I had was very professional, asked a lot of questions and attempted to rule out other causes before giving me a diagnosis. SHe then wrote me up a prescription and sent me on my way. It’s been two days and I’m feeling better already.
This hospital seems to be very well taken care of and the staff are attentive to each person. If ever I have a real emergency, I’ll probably request this place instead of HCMC.

I mean… it’s a hospital and they keep you alive and healthy.
I did not actually get admitted, but my father-​in-​law did and I think he received great care. The staff were all really friendly and nice. I like (sort of) that a McDonald’s was located in the hospital for convenient food as well as several cafeterias and little snack shops.
Parking if fine for the most part, it’s just that the hospital is located in a not so great part of town, but I never really felt nervous.
I also saw a horse in the parking lot… kinda cool (yes someone was managing the horse).

Don’t go to a doctor with an office in this abomination of a facility. I have Medica and they charged me twice – once for the doctor and once for the facility – and my insurance won’t cover the facility charge. What was supposed to be a $ 35 copay became a $ 150 bloodletting.
And when my partner, with symptoms of a heart attack and a family history of heart attack, went to their ER by ambulance, he waited several hours to be seen. Thankfully it wasn’t a heart attack, but it took those clowns so long to see him that by the time they got the EEG, the symptoms were gone. Total waste of time and money.

Never mind that shtick about breastfeeding being «completely natural» because no matter how you look at it, doing as nature intended is H-​A-​R-​D.
I’ve learned that there is a pretty intense learning curve for mom and baby during those first few weeks of life and without the assistance provided by the ladies at Abbott Northwestern’s Infant Feeding Program, I don’t believe I’d have had the same level of success I have so I can’t recommend the services provided by lactation consultants enough to any new mother who is inevitably struggling with breastfeeding.
My daughter and I had an impromptu in-​room session with one of the consultants before we were discharged from the hospital which included the most comfortable positions to hold a baby for nursing (it isn’t as obvious as you’d think!) and how to tell whether your baby is swallowing (also, not as obvious as you’d think). She wasn’t able to spend as much time with us as she wanted due to prior appointments but strongly encouraged me to call back in the next few days.
I cockily thought I’d be able to figure it out on my own because breastfeeding is the most natural thing in the world, of course…
But then my daughter developed jaundice and was beyond sleepy allthetime. Treating the jaundice required feeding her every couple hours but just getting her to wake up was a struggle alone and then I wasn’t having a lot of success encouraging her to latch on either. And every time I’d finally get her latched on, it was like someone had just clamped a very soft body part into an iron vise and was p-​a-​i-​n-​f-​u-​l-​l-​y s-​q-​u-​e-​e-​z-​i-​n-​g…
…s-​q-​u-​e-​e-​z-​i-​n-​g s-​q-​u-​e-​e-​z-​i-​n-​g…
…s-​q-​u-​e-​e-​z-​i-​n-​g…
On one hand, I was determined to breathe through the pain because 1) I’d just had a baby – I can *do* pain and 2) I knew the more she nursed, the faster the jaundice would work through her system.
But on the other hand, have you ever wondered what it’s like to have your nipples so crushed that they start to look like red, raw, horizontal pancakes? Oh. No? Well, it effin’ hurts.
So I called the Infant Feeding Program and left a desperate voicemail asking someone to call me back as soon as possible, which they did. The woman I spoke with offered some guidance over the phone to tide me over until I was able to come in the following day and meet with her in person.
During our second session with a lactation consultant, my daughter and I received the full benefit of the wealth of advice and guidance available from a lactation consultant. We talked about and practiced positions, angles, directions, massage, stroking and… WOW. Um, anyway, after we left, I felt confident that I finally had the tools necessary to happily work on establishing a nursing relationship with my child.
And we all lived happily ever after???
Well, I’d thought so until this week I finally acknowledged a fear that has been lurking in the back of my mind for the past several weeks. I returned to work a few months back and have been using an electric pump when I’m apart from her and sending the expressed milk to daycare. And then I nurse her myself in the evenings and on weekends. There have been no snags with this arrangement and I’ve been operating under the assumption that we could easily maintain this schedule until this fall because I hope to continue nursing her until she is at least one. Except that lately my supply has changed and by the end of the week, I can’t pump enough to feed her for the day. Now, I’m pretty stingy so the thought of running out of free breast milk and having to pay for formula gives me apoplexy.
So I called the Infant Feeding Program again and spoke with a lactation consultant who helped me come up with a new plan to overcome my immunity to the pump and rebuild my supply. I’ve already noticed some immediate positive results and feel confident that making some slight modifications to my current program will achieve the results I want.
I never in a million years would have made it as far as I did without the assistance from these professionals.

Most hospitals are clean, this one sparkles. We drove up to the valet parking area, where they are exceedingly friendly. They go to the trouble to get my father in law a wheelchair. First thing I notice is a gorgeous waterfall. Not your average hospital décor. We had to go to the wound clinic (never heard of one) for his leg. It looked like it would need to be amputated, it was that bad. He saw Dr. O’Leary, and in two months it looked normal. They use all kinds of wraps and creams, that a regular GP or Im aren’t privy to. I thought it was cool how they wrap vertically as opposed to crisscrossed. Nice, accomodating staff here as well. The thing that really wowed me was in the bathroom was a two foot wide toilet. No comment.

I went for an asthma attack, and had been to a different hospital (in Seattle) about 6 months before, so I feel like I have a good frame of reference.
First of all — NO WAIT. Amazing. I had a head injury on my previous trip and was registered quickly, but had still sat in the waiting area for an hour, which was super frustrating (it’s an EMERGENCY!) but the ladies at the front desk at Abbot were great.
A nurse saw me right away and administered something that would help me immediately. It took a while for the doctor to show up, and he answered a lengthy personal phone call in the middle of a sentence while talking to me, but made up for it by explaining everything really thoroughly (though he never apologized for the interruption).
They have a handy-​dandy vending-​machine pharmacy in the lobby area, so I could just enter in a number and get my stuff, instead of going to a separate place.
The one thing that went badly — the registration lady who came in to enter my information while I was waiting for the doc took my license and insurance card and never came back. It’s a good think I didn’t have to go to a pharmacy for my stuff, or I wouldn’t have noticed I hadn’t gotten them back til after I left. Apparently she hadn’t expected me to be released so quickly (I was there for about an hour, maybe an hour and a half).
So, overall great experience. You know, for an emergency room trip!

Unfortunately, I can now report that my previous visit was a bit of a fluke from the more typical emergency room experience. Also, instead of an annual tradition, my usage of emergency rooms seems to have become a weekly tradition.
While I was waved in quickly to see the triage nurse again, this is where the similarity in the experiences ended. From her I was shunted to some registration people, who refused to believe me when I told them my registration and emergency contact information had not changed in the 10 days since my last visit.
From here, I was whisked back to the waiting room because no beds were available. I sat for at least 45 minutes, even dozing off (yet somehow managing to keep pressure on the wound).
Finally, I was shown to a bed, where I continued to wait and snooze. Then the staff descended upon me quickly and ferocity. The second tier nurse, the doctor and his rolling R2-​D2 unit all hit at the same time.
This doctor’s bedside manner was not as good as the previous one (minor deficit), and his stichwork was not as good. Something about his manner reminded me more of one of those temperamental chefs slamming pots around the kitchen, then the relaxed and conscientious doctor who sewed me up last time. I feel it showed in the work, such an active part of the body could have used another stitch or two (and I’m betting this one leave a bigger scar).
While I was waiting for my post care instructions, my previous doctor strolled by and noticed me, sticking his head in for a momentary «what, you again?»
Alas, he had been there, but the luck of the emergency room draw did not smile favorably upon me.