Banner Desert Medical Center

Reviews 3

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Anessa Gordon

I had to bring my girlfriend in because she was suffering from pain and numbness in her hands. She had been in the ER and Urgent care for the same issues in the weeks before, and she was awaiting an appointment with a PCP to get to the bottom of things. She has AHCCCS and we were just trying to be patient with the process but the pain was just overwhelming for her. We went in the middle of the summer on a humid monsoon day. When we got in, the nurse checking her in was very rude. She asked my girlfriend why she was sweating and asked what she really wanted from the ER because she said, there was nothing life threatening and there was nothing they could do besides give her pain medication. It was a nurse with long dark hair and furrowed eyebrows. We ended up leaving because we felt accosted, like she was implying that my girlfriend was pain pill shopping. We had gone to the ER to try and get answers about what could possible be going on and see if there were any other options to try and reduce the pain beyond pills, like exercises or something. My girlfriend was trying to avoid pills because she still was expected at work. We ended up going to Chandler regional, where the staff was polite and not rudely intrusive or assuming negative things. The doctor there was very nice and took the time to explain that she likely had tendinitis and carpel tunnel that she needed to have a specialist visit for (we already were in that process). He listened when my girlfriend explained that the pain medications she was prescribed on her last two visits just made her tired and loopy, without taking away the pain. The doctor prescribed an alternative medication for her to try until she made it to her appointment. Much of my family works for banner, and Ive had a lot of positive experience with them, but that visit was just the worst. That nurse at the ER front desk was just so unnecessarily rude and impatient. I know it has been awhile, but I just really felt the need to report her absolutely terrible bedside manner. It was the middle of the afternoon with maybe a handful of patients, so I really didnt understand the need for her to be so terrible to my girlfriend. Thank goodness there was a nearby hospital where we were able to get some sort of kindness, treatment, and ANSWERS, when everyone else before was just shrugging their shoulders, not wanting to give an explanation until my girlfriend went to her PCP and specialist visits. Having someone give us an IDEA of what may be going on gave her at least some understanding of what was to come and didnt make her feel like her pain was all in her head. Its just unfortunate we did not get that information from Banner ER. I only gave 3 stars because in the previous visit, the nurses and doctors were nice and tried to work with her a bit. They just didnt want to suggest what could be wrong with her because she needed to see her PCP first, so we were left wondering what could be wrong. If I based stars on that visit Im writing about, it would be an easy .5 star! Again, that was the rudest nurse I had ever encountered.

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Sheila Hauber

I was an inpatient at Banner Desert Hospital in Mesa AZ from April 3 through April 7, 2014 for a hand injury. I gave the clerk in the ER my insurance information before being admitted. On April 5th after 2 days in the hospital and had been seen by several different doctors and PA’s, I was seen for about 3 minutes by a Dr. Yang of Arizona Hand Surgeons. I was never told that this provider was not contracted with Aetna. I assumed since they worked with the hospital that they would accept my insurance and was never told differently. Had I been told they were an out of network provider, I would have refused his services as there was no need at that point for him to consult with me anyway. My wound was healing and there was no nerve damage. When I questioned Arizona Hand Surgeons about the insurance decline for the visit, they told me that there were no other doctors on call. I have to differ with that. I was in the hospital for a total of 5 days and was seen by 3 other doctors for my hand. They may or may not have been hand specialists per se but there was no need for a specialist anyway. I am sure that within those 5 days there was a doctor who was contracted with Aetna who could have seen me if necessary. At the very least I should have been given an opportunity to decide for myself whether a hand surgeon was required since I would have to pay for it out of my own pocket. I was not given this choice or information at all. Although my insurance paid this visit as in patient, the usual and customary charge by AZ Hand Surgeons was more than 6 times this amount and they refuse to discount any of the charge. I feel this was an error on Banner’s part by calling in this doctor who was not in my network without informing me of such and not allowing me to decide to have him see me or not. I was not given this option and was actually on the schedule for surgery for 4-6 and 4-7 but was doing better so I didn’t have to have the surgery. Can you imagine what my out of network cost would have been if this doctor would have done surgery on my hand? I doubt I still would have been informed that my insurance would not pay this. But at 6 times the normal charge I am sure it would have ended up to be more than my total in network hospital bills. Thank goodness I only had this 3 minute office visit. They wanted me to make a follow up appointment and I am so very glad I did not do that. By allowing this to happen, Banner is allowing these doctors to scam their patients in thus is themselves scamming. Look at their reviews on Google and Yelp. I am not the first one that they scammed. Do you want to be affiliated with this kind of scam? I wouldn’t think so.

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Brittani Bamrick

I will never go to this hospital ever again. I had never had to go to the ER before my attempt to get treated at their location, but Im positive that patients in the condition I was in should not be treated the way I was. I had a friend drive me to the ER and when I was getting checked in, I told the nurses that I knew exactly what was wrong with me (Im a medical student and was aware that this condition was a possibility when my primary care doctor and I started trying to get a chronic problem under control) and that it was life threatening and I needed to be treated very soon because heart failure was the main concern. They gave me Tylenol for the fever and had me wait. I waited for 3 hours and started seeing people who had come in after me, most of whom were drug seeking (Im also a pharmacy technician so I see drug seekers all day every day), going in and getting help before me. You could tell these nurses knew these patients and were being spiteful because my friend had already been complaining about the wait. Which I felt was understandable considering I could barely stand up and walk and when someone tells you they are having chest pains and their resting heart rate is over 120 beats per minute, you usually get them help as soon as possible without any hesitation. We could hear the nurses saying my name as they were talking to one another. They were clearly planning on making me sit there all night and were not going to bother to try and get me help. When the my friend approached them again to inquire about me getting treatment, the nurse told her "There are people here with worse vital signs than her. She is not getting treated." The Tylenol had finally brought my fever down enough that I could manage to walk without much help (only 3 hours after they had given it to me) and when I angrily asked the nurse if he had said that I wasnt going to be treated, he said he was the one who said so. I asked for his name, and he proudly stated it to me and sarcastically said "Do you want my employee number too?" I said no and my friend and I walked out. I went to an urgent care where they gave me an EKG. I got an emergency appointment with my primary care doctor the next day who confirmed that I had what I told the nurses I had. At the end of the day, Im convinced that these so-called "nurses" arent nurses at all, but are secretaries who wear scrubs, because there is no way that a group of healthcare workers could be so heartless and careless. They should be thankful I didnt die because of their high school attitude, because I was very close to it.