Swedish Medical Center – Cherry Hill Campus

Swedish Cherry Hill, 6 E Inpatient Rehab
I was on 6E for 10 days after a major back surgery. My third night, I had an episode of delirium — didn’t know who I was, where I was, why I was there or that I had had major surgery a week earlier. Got out of bed and fell twice trying to get to the bathroom; nurse got me off the floor, cleaned up, & back into bed. She entered NO documentation into my medical record. My attending’s note the next day said that I had «had no overnight events.» No follow up was done, my surgeon was not notified. Scary.
A different nurse refused to give me my pain medication that my doctor had ordered when I requested it. I’d had a dose at 5:30 AM, then asked for my 12 hour dose at 5:50 PM and my nurse refused to give it to me — said that «every 12 hour meds are only given at 9 AM & 9 PM and I simply had to wait.» Wouldn’t let me talk to my doctor, wouldn’t page my doctor, wouldn’t do anything except tell me that I just had to wait, despite my being in pain. (When 9 PM came, they were «too busy» to give it to me.) I went into an acute pain crisis that took me 3 weeks to come out of. And again, nothing recorded in my medical record, either my request for my ordered pain medication or the nurse’s refusal to give me my dose.
Fortunately, my neurosurgeon has said that I will never be going back to this inpatient unit again.

This review is not about the medical care, which is great! This is about the inn in the hospital. Horrible. No sound proofing, I can almost touch both walls standing in the middle, kids are running around trying to open doors, and the cleaning people force themselves in even if you ask to not be disturbed. The blankets are so worn they hurt your skin as they are now hard and brittle. Bathroom is the size of a cruise ship bathroom. I’m not sure who had this idea but damn… Reusing old hospital rooms does not a hotel make. And be ready to be woken up early. Quiet time ends at 7 am and the cleaning people are incredibly loud with their laughing and carrying on.
Front desk guy leaves so nobody to complain to. Fun times!
Find a nearby hotel. You will be 10 times more comfortable. This isn’t a hotel, you are basically paying to sleep in an empty hospital room with twin beds that almost touch side by side

The service cost a little. But the service and staff do an impeccable job at helping patients. Always clean, fresh and friendly smiling faces. They are quick to do whatever is needed to care of the patients who are in their care. Many patients have told me of the kind acts the nurses do to make them feel comfortable. Highly highly recommend.

I’ve been here two times for sleep study related appointments. I just had my sleep study last month and was really pleased by how I was treated. So far, I haven’t been impressed with Swedish doctors (at other locations) but there was a Sleep Tech here named Erin who was incredible! It was great having the PAP acclimation appointment before the sleep study so that my mask fit and everything went smoothly. The sleep study rooms were nice (nicer than Swedish at Redmond) and had everything one needed for a night (except mini fridge, microwave, etc.) though I guess there was a place to put your food but nobody showed me where that was and I didn’t ask. I had a different Sleep Tech than Erin for my actual sleep study but I don’t remember her name now. She did a good job and made sure I was as comfortable as I could be with all the wires attached on my body. After the sleep study in the morning I was offered some tea and water, and they brought a nice selection of teas for me. I would recommend Swedish Sleep Medicine to anyone however this process has been super long. Here’s the timeline. I called in June 2015 wanting to make an appointment with a new doctor regarding getting a sleep study. I was able to get an appointment with doctor one month later on July 1^st. Then I had to wait all summer long just to get an initial appointment with a Sleep Medicine Doctor and then my sleep study was scheduled for end of October. I won’t get the results back until my follow-​up appointment first week of December. Why does it take them two months to get my sleep study results? I’ve talked with friends and family who had sleep studies done elsewhere and they got their results right away or within a week. I don’t really understand the timeline at Swedish and why it has taken so long but it seems they could learn from other sleep clinics to speed up their process.

Had a wonderful experience in the Swedish Cherry Hill ED this morning. My partner was seen by what I could only call the kindest emergency room doc I’ve ever, ever met. We were in the waiting room for maybe 10 minutes at most, on an IV a few minutes after getting vitals taken, and received a diagnosis in about an hour. The procedures took a while, but the staff was patient and kind and had a wonderful bedside manner. I’ve never experienced patient care like this anywhere, and I’ve been to group health, HMC, swedish’s first hill location and Virginia mason plenty of times.
The RNs were lovely too, and we were both well taken care of. Parking is quite expensive, but I think that’s the case with most hospitals (I go to group health and it costs more, so it’s not *that* bad). What could have been an extensively painful and lengthy ER visit was completely the opposite.

This location includes many different clinics and services, as well as some independent medical practices in the offices building. They’ve had a great revival since Swedish bought out what used to be Providence Hospital, the first hospital in Seattle.
They also have a great ER.
And a small but lively Starbucks.
We’ve been using the «Swedish Family Medicine at Cherry Hill» clinic for 20+ years. (On the ground floor of the lowest level, next to the ER entrance.) They are a teaching facility with a specialty of Family Medicine. They have about 20 residents there for three years each, as well as medical students doing rotations from University of Washington.
You need to put up with a bit of bureaucracy, but they take you regardless of your type of medical coverage. If you have no money, they’ll help get you on a state plan. We’re a tech family, so we run the income gamut over time. It’s nice to know we can go there no matter what.
They give referrals to other doctors all over town when you need them. They’re very much plugged in to the Seattle medical scene.
Among the permanent doctors who teach the residents, there’s a Naturopathic Medical Doctor there (Dr. Sethie) who trained with Dr. Weil in his clinic in Arizona. She’s the real deal. Or you can get more traditional medical care if you wish.
Haven’t seen anyplace else like it. Glad they’re there.

I will find somewhere else to go next time.

If you choose a physician in Central Seattle clinic be prepared to sit in that waiting area for a while.
Lots of time they running late and they would not even bother to let you know. You just sit
and wait endlessly. Very frustrating. Not coming back.

Emergency care @ a great speed!
There are some of us that live a long healthy accident free lives. And then, there are some of us that constantly get injured, sick or frequent emergency rooms. I guess I’ve always been in the latter group. As luck would have it, I frequent emergency rooms at least once or twice a year mainly for accidents. Fractured ankle, fractured knees, wrist, arm, head! I am clumsy what can I say!
And every year, I frequent Over lake hospital for some reason. Maybe east side is my bad side? That was until recently. I came to Swedish late night for major stomach problem/​dehydration. I hesitated before coming because I didn’t want to spend hours waiting as usual. But when it gets so bad, you just had to come! That being said, I do like Swedish for other services. Primary care and all that.
Unlike Over lake, the emergency care here isn’t all that swanky or pretty. It is small and efficient. I was in, tested, got IV and out in a few hours as opposed to several hours wait time that I’m used to. When I came in, there was only two other people waiting. One was handcuffed to his chair by SPD and one was the victim with a gash on his head? So much commotion! I think one was a homeless person. He kept screaming about paying $ 100 for a taco? Say what? I was in a cranky mood so didn’t really listen but would’ve been entertaining.
Long story short, I got a room in about 15 minutes. They took some test, xrays. Holy dehydration! Got me hydrated and sent home with meds in a few hours. Did I mention how little my wait time was? Instead of normal 4 – 6 hours, this only took about 3 hours. Ok it’s still long but just not that long. Maybe it helped that I didn’t break/​fracture any bones this visit but still. Maybe it was an off night. Maybe I got lucky. So man maybes but I still appreciated the speed. The staff was nice too. Thanks Swedish! Don’t plan on coming back if I need another ER visit, I’ll choose you first!

Unfortunately the scheduling office told me my appt was 30 minutes before the actual time. I ended up waiting 45 minutes extra for my appt. Thankfully the wonderful tech that I had an appt to see worked quickly and understood I had a hard time out. Great service from the tech, poor reception staff.

Very nice facility. We had some questions about my wife’s health that the doctors failed to answer where we live. After a few minutes with the doctor at Swedish Poly clinic, we were little more at ease. If the doctors were we live would have explained things a litte more, we wouldn’t have had to drive an hour to see a doctor for 15 minutes. Thank you for your help Swedish Poly Clinic.

So for days now I’ve been trying to get an answer about Swedish hospitals policy on alternative medical practices such as specifically the ancient medical practice of acupuncture. As all of you know Jing has deep roots in this scientifically proven form of healing as she has been practicing and teaching Chinese Medicine for over 30 years and has based her entire life around it. She has helped many of our society’s sick and injured and has passed this gift of healing knowledge on to a new generation of eastern style healers. Yet despite my best efforts I can not get this hospital to allow me to bring in a qualified and accredited acupuncture practitioner to help speed her recovery from the single greatest health challenge of her life.
Jing’s recent brain stem surgery has left her with several significant neurological disabilities such as severe balance vision and motor skill problems and some other less severe disabilities such as speech, swallowing, touch sensation, tremors, neck, and emotional.
I have asked the doctors repeatedly that I be able to bring an acupuncturist in to assist with her healing and recovery yet the hospital will not allow and outside practitioner to work on any of there patients and they only have one acupuncturist on staff and he only works out of there pain clinic as a anesthesiologist assistant and they don’t want him working on a person in the neuro recovery unit.
I asked why there were no acupuncture qualified physicians on the hospital staff and was told simply that non had applied. WHAT! I call total BS. Most hospitals have embraced the benefits of acupuncture for there clients and often have full time practitioners on staff or at least on call.
I believe that Swedish hospitals is bowing to powerful outside influences in there decision making on this. IE: the lawyers and pharmaceutical company’s have them by the preverbial shorthairs and that this is a backwards policy.
Don’t get me wrong for the most part staff at Swedish has done an excellent job with Jing and here recovery but closed minded hospital administrators are hampering the efforts of many of her friends and family to quickly and safely bring her back to the vibrant confident and fit women that she was ten years ago.
All that I ask is that Swedish hospitals allow me to provide the care and comfort that she deserves and is entitled to
I have been at her side night and day since the surgery almost two weeks ago sleeping in a recliner that was obviously made by the low bidder.
I have questioned many decisions made By her doctors and the staff. I have ordered and prepaired her food. I have double checked and questioned her meds. I have massaged her walked her washed and groomed her. I have restrained her and comforted her. I have gone without sleep and creature comforts for her. I have smiled for her and told her that everything’s going to be alright when I was terrified I wouldn’t have her in the morning. I have been her guard dog and her happy puppy.
I have been in disagreement regarding many of the policy’s and practices at Swedish however I understand and respect most of them. But this one I don’t understand or support.
Forward this to your friends and family especially those that have benefitted from acupuncture and other established alternative medical practices. Like on Facebook and write to the Swedish hospital administrators and give them your honest opinion regarding this policy.
I thank you for taking the time to read the rantings of a very tired and concerned husband

Regardless of slightly out of date equipment… Anna in the neuro ICU has the best bedside manner I’ve ever seen. Anna, if you ever read this, thank you for helping us through the 50 hour death of our grandma. You’re incredible. I’ve never given a five star review. I always knew I would have to be blown away. Anna did it. Thanks Swedish!

I regularly receive treatment for Multiple Sclerosis at Swedish, and they give the best customer service of any hospital I’ve ever been to. I see Dr. James Bowen in the Jefferson building. Always prompt, always courteous, and very professional. This is also a state of the art facility.
Search around a little for free parking. If you use the metered parking on the streets which surround the building, be back on time. I got a ticket for three minutes over.

Had to drop someone off in the ER. The wait didn’t seem long, but there weren’t many people there. Thank god. The waiting area seems small. That was the extent of my experience here.

Seems odd to review a hospital but my experience here was interesting.
I’d had pain in my right wrist since November and needed to figure out what was going on, so my doctor sent me here to get an x-​ray.
I parked at the attached garage (which was kind of expensive; I hate when hospitals charge for parking) and found my way to the lobby pretty easily. I got in line and was handed a buzzer, kind of like what you get at restaurants. I thought this was a great concept — I took a seat and was waiting comfortably until processing was ready. More facilities should take advantage of this idea.
Now the bad part. I realized I had forgotten my referral, which apparently is a VERY bad idea here. I called my doctor’s office and had them fax it over to radiology, then waited. And waited. And waited. Front desk called radiology who said they had got nothing. I called my doctor’s office and had them do it again, this time to the front desk. And waited. Finally, one gal at the reception desk decided to call down to a different area in radiology. Voila, there it was. It had been an hour by this time. Seriously? This was pretty bad communication and made me needlessly waste my time. Clearly I should’ve brought my referral but clearly, in a time when we have so much technology, communication between and inside facilities should just never be an issue.
Well, that finally got worked out and I was sent to radiology. Got my wrist x-​ray in fifteen minutes and the results were with my doctor in two days.
Swedish has a lot of good points — the waiting area had plenty of seating, I liked the buzzer system, and the hospital was friendlier and more comfortable than many I’ve been to. They just need to iron out some things.

Pretty building. Pretty clean. Easy signs to follow.
Although a nurse that was supposed to start a new IV for my grandpa kinda of gave a huff and puff because he was in the BR trying to pee after a surgery… that was rude, unprofessional. That just shows she doesn’t like her job, people who work in hospitals should have patience, especially for an old man who just had surgery the day before!
Any who thats why they get 2 stars.
But I have seen better professionalism at the other Swedish location off broadway in the labor and delivery.
I know nurses are tired from working with so many sick patients with long hours and so on… but attitudes like that, we shouldn’t have to deal with. We are already dealing with a sick family member. So they need to watch their attitude or change careers.
BTW parking is expensive under the building, I paid $ 9 for less than two hours

Our family has been to CH twice within the past 2 years and hands down, the surgeons here at Swedish are the best in this area.
I had a cyst lodged to my brain stem causing me massive pain to my jaw and Dr. Marc Mayberg in neuro took care of it with the least amount of side effects. I recovered from brain surgery in 4 weeks and was back at work.
Dad just recently went in for a heart procedure and Dr. Howard Lewis also did a fantastic job giving my dad a 2^nd chance and keeping him alive.
For my procedure I went around to quite a few neuro doctor at UW, Harborview and none of them compared to Dr. Mayberg at Swedish, it wasn’t even a question.
The recovery units here are all single room beds with it’s own bathroom. The nurses are also very wonderful. Unfortunately they don’t get appreciated because you usually feel like shit when you’re in there.

Cafeteria Review: I work across the way and often eat at the cafeteria as well as hit up the Starbucks inside occasionally.
It’s good, especially for a hospital cafeteria, good quality all natural beef burgers as well as turkey, chicken, grilled cheese and some others I’m forgetting with fries from the grill. Salad station, hot food choices, deli sandwich station, Pizza and tacos too I think.
Pinks donuts and cookies. Normal saran-​wrapped desserts in the case too.
Overall, decent prices, good food.

***Medical Dream Team***
The staff are great. They’re friendly, nice, warm and always smiley.
Dr. Geidt is my daughter’s pediatrition and my wife sees her too. Dr. Geidt watch over the whole pregnancy 2yrs ago and took really good care of my wife. She was even there to oversee my wife labor and when she had complications… she was in the operating room when my wife had a c-​section. My daughter’s head was too big so we had to get a c-​section. She’s always in a good mood and super positive, always answering my question with language I could understand. She still takes awesome care of my daughter!
Our last visit, this place had to give my daughter a flu shot. My daughter first saw my wife get the shot. She then had to get hers, so she kept saying ouch even though the needle haven’t touch her skin yet. she is so funny and cute. Anyways, I made it up to her by having a quality day with her and buying her icecream and toys.
I also switch over to see Dr. Chan. He was the first who recommend me to lose weight and did test on my cholesterol a year ago. He help me on the road of a healthier lifestyle and always giving me such great advice about everything. I am so happy he is my doctor!
This place is also so high tech and I could ask questions online to Dr. Chan. If you need a CT scan, you just go to the lower building and all the specialist is in the same building. When you check in, the wait is never too long with pretty awesome nurses who are always so friendly. They really do care about your well being and your health.
Many other doctors who work here and I believe they are all awesome but my personal experiences with these two doctors are amazing!