Dell Children’s Medical Center

**Let me be clear this review is for their billing department and their insane costs.
Doctors, nurses and every staff we dealt were amazing and their service was beyond superb. But to get there we went through hell. My daughter needed her ear tubes taken out so her ENT who is affiliated to Dells gave us the referral to schedule the quick procedure (which took 10 mins aprox), scheduled the procedure almost 6 weeks ahead with no problems for April 2^nd, just to get a call on March 31^st around 4:30 pm telling me that insurance covered only 80% of the costs (which for a simple procedure they charged us almost 19k, really???) and if we needed to pay our 20% off before the surgery which was 4,662 or else we couldn’t proceed, but I don’t know about you but I do not have 5 grand sitting in my savings account, I wish I did. Anyway, I couldn’t pay it off so after back and forth and them telling me that they needed their money in order for my 2 yr old to have her procedure, I ended up telling them to cancel the procedure, I did not have the money to pay for it, I assumed I could make payments like in most hospitals in California but I was wrong. then the lady from the billing department told me to not be so drastic (really? you are asking for money I don’t have and threatening to not provide a service for my most precious treasure– my baby and then expect me to be all relaxed about it?), she asked «can you give 50% of the money?» to which I say «NO!!, I DONT HAVE ANY MONEY!!! I LIVE CHECK BY CHECK» and then she said «how much can you pay today?» I said «I can use the little I have on my savings just to get my baby that procedure» to which the manager agreed (but to get to this point I spent about 30 mins on the phone negotiating (?).
The hospital charged almost 19k for a minor procedure (remove 1 ear tube and patch) a procedure that took less than 10 mins, My insurance is premium and paid almost 14k and that was not enough, they still put me under so much stress a day before the surgery that had already been scheduled for over a month? They couldnt tell me I needed to pay x amount any earlier? reallly? I WAS 32 WEEKS PREGNANT when this happened and thanks to their inept billing department, my unborn baby was at risk because of so much stress I almost went to ER, my doctor kept me on check for the next couple weeks because that experience really pushed me over the edge.
Who doesn’t want the best for their kids? Isn’t Dell’s a CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL? Well, they care more about their money than their patients for sure, I just know that I will NEVER go back there, NEVER and I DO NOT RECOMMEND IT! It is a shame because staff in general is amazing.

So my son and I were in the nicu at dell and it was amazing the staff was attentive trusting and knowledgeable 2 floors down in the picu is like 10 steps down in service and the level of care. The staff is lazy and careless. I have no idea why brack. Decided to close there unit but it’s truly a disservice to the citizens of austin to be limited to dell childrens. After talking to parents with similar situations it’s sad to hear that for those who can afford it will travel out of the city for continuous care.
Because of the hospital grade usually it’s not recommended to take your child to another facility like seaton nw for example.
SAD!

Terrible service, waiting 2 ½ hours and waiting to see doctor for my sons broken nose. Unbelievable slowwwwww. Trying to stay calm for my son but I will report them.

We have been to the dell children’s eye center twice now for my daughters eye condition, each time we have waited over 2 hours to see the doctor. My suggestion if you have to deal with this business make your appointment first thing in the morning, 9:30 wasn’t even early enough for us to avoid a two hour wait time

Caveat emptor. ¡Cuidado! ACHTUNG!
Glad this place is in-​network for our PPO… too bad the ER doctor isn’t.
Until hospitals provide a menu of services with prices indicated and insurances accepted by all providers, or the hospital actually employs the doctors so the hospital handles the insurance contracts for them, consider going elsewhere, such as an urgent care center where the doctors are employees. If you must come here, the wait isn’t bad, the staff are great, the facility is very nice, but you’re playing insurance roulette and that ER doctor is billing for about $ 4,800 an hour if they’re out-​of-​network.

Our trip to the er: the first people were ok. Not much of a personality at all. The next nurses are ok, quick in and out to get vitals. The wait was expected and thankfully not to long. I’m sure that usually depends on how busy they are. Needed x-​rays and they guy that helped us was magnificent. But all the females in radiology had the worst attitudes ever. I don’t leave much feedback but had to just to warn people of them. I’m a parent, don’t treat me and talk to me like I’m a child. You may deal with children all day but with that comes parents. You must know how to respect us as well!!!

Waited in the emergency room for over two hours without anywhere to keep my daughter intrigued as a two year old. I would’ve imagined this would at least be available for this to be a top recommended pediatrics facility. After three hours of waiting when I went to inquire about the intake process Nurse Segovia and Nurse Feather avoided my question then falsely told the working officer, officer Hurst, that I was being vulgar which he himself denied due to being within five feet of the intake desk. Me and my wife proceeded to leave with our daughter vomiting.

Unfortunately we have been here twice for my daughter’s broken arms. The good news is both times we received top notch, caring, loving and friendly service from everyone involved.
Everyone we encountered from the folks who go around (I forget the title) to check in on the kids and help them cope with their fears and stress, to the doctors and nurses and all the follow up visits were all fantastic.
There’s nothing worse than watching your child in pain and not being able to do anything about it, and these folks treated my daughter (both times a couple of years apart) like I would treat her. I know if I ever need a children’s hospital in the future, and I hope I don’t; this is where I’m taking them.

So, I found myself at Dell Children’s when my son developed appendicitis and needed an emergency appendectomy in the middle of the night.
Let me say, first, that our surgeon, Dr. Garcia, was absolutely incredible. She covered all the bases in testing to get to the bottom of the problem. She went above and beyond to make sure my son didn’t have any other issues.
Next the night nurses were incredible as well. They also went above and beyond. They were top quality nurses and we appreciated their skills and bedside manner.
Testing — ultrasound/​imaging. Incredible people working in that unit. Very kind and thorough.
ER: Ahhh, not so great. Long waits for everything up until the surgeon came in. Then it was rush, rush to get everything taken care of.
Our day nurse (we had the same one repeatedly) was not so great. If I could give her no stars, I would. First, we hardly saw her. She had 4 patients every day, and we only saw her when we called. We had to call for meds every single time. She wasn’t doing her intake/​output correctly and we had several full bottles of urine waiting for her to measure and dump on the shelf in the bathroom. My son vomited and I had to take care of it. There were emesis basins with vomit in them sitting in the bathroom, waiting to be measured and recorded. My son accidently spilled ice water in his bed and she told us there were no clean linens or gowns. In the whole hospital? Really? I insisted to get a new pad so at least he didn’t have to lay in ice water, then I chased down a clean gown. I changed it all. His room never got cleaned (3 days) and no bed changes either. I had to ask for toothpaste/​brush, and cloths to bathe him with. She wouldn’t bring anti nausea meds to him and I’m certain that this ended up with us needing an extra day in the hospital. My son had to keep solids down to go home, but if he’s nauseated, he can’t do that! Meds were ordered but tough to get. His IV infiltrated and I was the one who caught it. She turned it off, but didn’t disconnect so we walked around with a non-​working pump for half a day until I asked her to disconnect him.“Oh, I forgot!” she said. The list goes on and on. I was thoroughly disgusted with the type of treatment we (didn’t) get. When we were discharged, they didn’t even offer to take him down in a wheelchair. I had to insist and they acted like it was a burden, when it was their job. Really.
I’m glad that we had such wonderful doctors and a few great night nurses. That did make the stay bearable.

I went here with a friend recently and I was impressed with all levels of how this operation works.
I don’t know tons about it but I feel like this is a wonderful place for children.
The staff was great overall and response times have been as quick as can be expected.
The parking also deserves a star!

Worst ER ever. The place was filthy. My shoes were sticking to the floor. The rooms were disgusting, dirty walls with chipped paint and holes in them. The student nurses or whatever they were calling themselves were extremely unprofessional and basically drawing straws as to which one of them was going to draw blood from my 9 day old baby. Took 3 hours for a doctor to see us and she was less than helpful. It wasn’t till we were admitted and transferred upstairs, 6 hours later, until we felt like we were in capable hands. People wonder why I’m overly cautious with my twins; I don’t EVER want to rely on their ER EVER again. Oh and I’m still waiting on them to call me regarding my formal complaint. It’s been months, 15 to be exact.

So can I act like I have the Gary Coleman syndrome so that I can go to this hospital? It is colorful inside and out. They have two peaceful areas outside and the whole hospital is just great (visually).
My nephew was in the hospital last week with a tonsil surgery and when I visited him the nurses were nice, the rooms were very spacious and clean. Plus they have room service and a nice cafeteria. The nurses helped my sister in law with everything she needed and really made my nephew comfortable. Yesterday he went back again for an emergency surgery and they helped my sister in law stay sane and helped calm my nephew down. The nurses were very patient while trying to put a IV in his arm.
I gave three stars because I was only there half the time and until it’s my personal child-​experience I don’t want to give too may stars. I will say that if I was on this side of town I would most definitely take my daughter here.

Worst Hospital ever!!! So huge and so many nurses for nothing! My 1 yr old was burning up with a 104.9 my child is burning up, crying and the only thing they did was give him ibiprofen. And after 4 long hrs they sent him home. The staff there in midnight shifts are just sitting on their asses, laughing and saying jokes when is more than clear people/​kids get sick any time of the day! Just awful awful!!! Don’t take your kids here because you’ll end up wanting to strangled this people just like I felt like doing.

Unsanitary! My daughter was admitted for a leg injury, and within a couple of days of our overnight stay we all had colds. The baby developed pinkeye, and I got strep in addition to the colds. It might have been the surfaces and bedding (the foldout couch was WET when we pulled it out, and there was a baked-​on smear of something brown on the blanket) or the deck of badges each nurse flashed the baby to distract her. It’s a cute idea to have stickers on there, but how many little hands touch those cards, and how often are they washed? We have no other exposures… The germs came home with us from Dell.
Hospital staff were perfectly friendly, but the ER doctor and our primary nurse there were callous. I was told not to nurse the baby during our four hour wait, and that «if she has tears, she isn’t dehydrated.» The nurse who took blood pumped the syringe so aggressively she blew the vein, and still attacked the other arm just as forcefully. How do you protect your child from this kind of treatment?

Been waiting for 2 hours with my 3 month old after being checked in at the E.R. no sign of progress, still waiting… If you come here make sure your kid doesn’t need urgent care or they might not make it to see a doctor, this is ridiculous.

The ER Doctors take really good cate of the kids however if the are admitted its a whole other story! Yell me something other than a sells pitch! I invite you nees to get this room bit if bit jid is not doing well guess what? We have insurance™Figure it out! We kbiw the flu is hell but ro tell us things just to discharge us just to come back pisses me off. Get better help… Like kIM at the ER frim desk. She is the best

Not impressed with the sense of urgency from this place. First I was told my child had just allergies… then a virus and she was sent home. It took days for them to call and then they werenlike «oh she has strep»…said they would call in medicine and they never did and it was impossable to get a hold of anyone who could help. Resulting in another doctors visit just to get a perscription. Complete waste of time and resources.

Been here since 7 o’clock and still haven’t been seen doctors or horrible they don’t care about the kids the nurse in the front didn’t want to tell me who her supervisor was she said that she was supervised there and she couldn’t tell me her supervisors name. The nurse told me that my children is fine when my children is screaming his lungs out super sick with a high fever been here three times for the same thing and they always send me home saying all we don’t know what’s wrong with your six month old!!! The worst hospital in central Texas!!!

I’ve had the poor luck of having to rush my kid to the ER recently, and I wouldn’t go anywhere except Dell. The check in was easy. They attended to him right away, and the doctor was great. Every person who came in introduced themselves to us, and made small talk with our son to put him at ease. The doctor & student doctor took time explaining all the details of his illness to us, and put as at ease with their treatment plan. It is always a stroke of bad luck to need to take a child to the ER, but I’m thankful that we have Dell Children’s in Austin!
(I’ve also had the occasion to take my son there 2 years ago, and my experience with the triage nurse at that time was horrible. His method of taking rectal temps on a small child was positively unsympathetic. We didn’t encounter that on this visit, which made it a whole lot nicer.)

I will start by saying that for a typical Parent there isn’t anything you won’t do for your child, especially when hurt. So in saying that YES I have become quite irritated when I have brought my child in and due to the ER already being overly swamped the wait time to get into a room or even be seen once in the room is forever long, but hey it’s policy not on purpose.
I have been coming here for my children since 2009 and only ever in the ER. The first time back in 2009 my three year old got a popcorn kernel stuck in her ear, we were in and out within 45 minutes. She came in a few months after that via the Ambulance because of a deathly allergic reaction to fire ant bites and they SAVED her life, brought her back to me!
A few of the other times were minor incidents that because of the hour at night I couldn’t bring them to their primary doctor (thank goodness they have those 24 hour Urgent Care close to me now) so I brought them there.
They always make my kids (even the one who isn’t ill or hurt) feel special! They bring in toys, books, and if allowed drinks and popsicles. They make them apart of the process by telling what they are about to do and if they can help. And the reward of a sticker makes them feel even better!
We went yesterday when my daughter fell into a sliding glass door face first. They calmed her down, got her to laugh, gave her and her sister a popsicle right before we were discharged. Yesterday’s experience took us less than 2 hours in and out.
I recommend this place for BIG EMERGENCIES!!! For minor ones, read my review on Urgent Care!