Ohio State University Medical Center ER

By far the worst ER experience I’ve ever had. Poorly run with a poor process. This place has fell between the cracks some where between the customer service era of yesteryear and the advantage of high tech in the modern era. They have lost all that was good and gained nothing for it. It is not kept hygienically; used vomit bags lying around and placed in regular waste baskets. I’ve seen cleaner restrooms at a college bar.
Shameful

A family member was transported to OSU ER. The staff was great at dealing with our large family and keeping us informed. The nurses were very kind and understanding. The nurses even spoke with a touch of humor and a smile that made us feel comfortable with them. They explained things very well and took their time to make sure we understood what was happening. They treated my family member with respect and showed empathy. I could not ask for much more from the ER staff. After we were admitted to the hospital we found that every staff member we interacted with was very kind and helpful. A girl at the front desk even highlighted routes on a map so we could find vending machines and restaurants to keep us going through the night. The hospital also appears very clean. This was a horrible situation we were in but the staff has made every effort to make it as easy for us as possible.

Agreed. Don’t go to this hospital or ER if you are sick. This is not their area of expertise, skill or focus. Arrived early afternoon on a Wednesday. Did not get out till 830 pm on Thursday with horrible treatment and care and management and discharge. Then a week later a clinical case manager will send a letter to follow letter for a referral. Awful medical management. Not service oriented for Eck people.

Wanna be treated as less than human? Want to be insulted by the nurses, and passive-​aggressively abused by the doctors? Want to be deliberately exposed to infectious pathogens like strep throat when you dare to complain about the abysmal wait times and insults by the staff? Then you’ve found the right place. Grant, Riverside, Mt. Carmel, your local veterinarian… go anywhere but here.

At this ER or any other: if you’re waiting hours to be seen YOU’RE NOT SICK. They’ll see you – they’re required to see you – but you’d save time and money going to an urgent care. It’s only common sense that the heart attacks and car accidents are going to be seen ahead of the ear aches, belly aches, and low grade fevers. «Sick» in an ER means something very specific and different from what it means to your mom, your boss, or your spouse. To all the Unilocalers who think this ER is the worst, be aware that if you have a Level 2 trauma, THIS is where the bucolic suburban hospital you prefer – the one with the private rooms and guaranteed short waits– is going to send you. Ditto if you need a heart transplant or other really major surgery. That’s what’s called «cherry picking.»

Worse Hospital in Columbus. Looks like they have Teen Agers running the entire ER. They make you wait in line no matter how sick you are to screen you for weapons. I felt like I was at the Airport. Plus the security are very rude and act like military police in another country. The ER is very dirty. Seats are very uncomfortable. If you are very sick, in agony and worse pain every suffored they didn’t care. Told me to go sit down! I was suffering and no one was there to help me. Gave me the cold shoulder. Horrible hospital. Plus even with insurance Igot bills that went threw the Attorney General for $ 10. Ohio State is in my opinion the worse in Columbus. They have no heart for their patrons.

Well, been here about four hours and still no doctor. Thought my fiancée had appendicitis … still don’t know. Hopefully it’s not as urgent as my online readings would have me believe. At the rate of one person per 45 minutes and with five people ahead of us, might just call it night. The killer is that almost no one is here, waitingroom is half empty — hate to see it on a busy night. Limited interaction with staff has been unpleasant.
On the upside, I’m writing this review on their free wifi. Plus, the ER was poorly marked so we got to explore the new addition/​lobby to the cancer center. It’s pretty clear where the money is being made (not in the ER) #ButForOhioState

Ahhhhh, the ER. Everybody’s favorite place.
Inevitably, ERs all have relatively lengthy wait times; it’s just in their nature. And the OSU MC Emergency Room is no exception. So, if you find yourself needing a trip to the ER; buckle in you’ll be having a relatively lengthy sit in that unnerving waiting room. But once you actually get back into a bed, things get a little easier.
The physicians and the nurses do a pretty good job of assessing your needs and keeping you consistently informed throughout your stay in the ER. And some slack need be cut for these poor people. They are running from person to person to person to person, so to them, it probably doesn’t feel like an hour since they’ve last seen you. I’ve never seen anyone lackadaisically mulling about in this ER as I have in others.
All in all, nobody likes going to the ER and you’ll be spending a lot of time waiting (as you would anywhere); but the staff at OSU’s ER is a cut above and will do everything they can to help you out during your time there.

I recently went to the ER following a routine eye exam. The exam revealed optic nerve edema, which is indicative of either a brain tumor or elevated intracranial pressure. I was fast-​tracked at the ER, the eye doctor had called ahead for me. In my particular case, there was a lot of hurry up and wait. The on-​call eye guy was just that… at home on call. They consulted with him over the phone, ran a blood work up and requested an MRI while he made his way into the Hosp. I saw several folks, a few of which wanted to see my ailment as it’s not very common. I had been prepared for this possibility by my regular eye doctor, as OSU is a university/​learning hospital. Everyone I had contact with was extremely nice and courteous. I ended up there almost 12 hours, and I can’t really say it was pleasant (ended up with a lumbar puncture), but the people were pleasant, nice, and caring. When we thought we were gonna be there for awhile longer, they even ordered a meal for me. They validated parking in the garage so that it was only $ 2.
Emergency room visits are never fun, but this visit was a smooth as could be managed. Also… no brain tumor! lol

there’s probably a good chance i would have died… if i waited in their waiting room much longer than i did (~6 hours).
i went here back when i was in undergrad (ohio state university), in 2004 or 2005. i told them i felt pain (9 out of 10) near the bottom of my abdomen, i felt constipated, etc.
there were a lot of people in the emergency room. most people appeared to be in much less discomfort /​pain than me. after waiting ~5 hours at the ohio state university medical center emergency room [OSUMCER] (complaining at least 2 – 3 times that i needed to see a doctor ASAP and being told that other people have been waiting longer than me by the staff at the OSUMCER and laying on my back in the waiting room in agony) i called my x-​girlfriend and had her pick me up and take me to riverside methodist hospital emergency room [RMHER].
while my x-​girlfriend was pulling up to the front entrance to the RMHER she had to pull over so that i could vomit. once i made it into the emergency room waiting area i saw that there were only 1 or 2 sets of people (much less than at OSUMCER). i was checked out and moved into a hospital room within 30 minutes. i was sent in for a cat scan within 30 minutes and (at the request of some friends that were visiting me) put on a pain killer because i could not keep still from the pain. within 30 minutes of the cat scan i was being escorted to the surgery room to have my appendix removed.
when i woke up the pain was gone (except for soreness from surgery). apparently (according to the doctor) your appendix is supposed to be about the size of your pinky finger (~ 2 inches long for me) and when they removed my appendix it was 6 inches long… so i’m very lucky that it didn’t burst (it releases toxins into your body that can kill you). i remained at RMHER for 1 day and was able to make requests for a pain killer to be released into my iv. everyone was very nice.
my mother visited me from 2 hours away (she is a nurse). when i told her what happened she was very upset with OSUMCER staff because had my appendix burst i could have been fighting for my life. she called and complained to the head nurse. he briefly reviewed my information and confirmed that i had pain 9 out of 10. he said that he would do a full review; however, we were disappointed that he never got back to us and/​or apologized.
i highly recommend that anyone considering between ohio state university medical center emergency room and riverside methodist hospital emeregency room to choose riverside methodist hospital emeregency room… and again, this is coming from an ohio state university alumni (whom has donated every year).

Let me preface this by saying that I hate hospitals. I absolutely hate them. The only hospital I’ve ever been able to tolerate has been Children’s Hospital.
September 2011 marked my first trip to the ER in ten years. I sustained a nasty injury at work that necessitated medical attention (aka chopped the end of my finger off).
My girlfriend went with me and my dad drove us. Dad dropped us off at the door and I was checked in at a little after 10:30pm. We waited. And waited. And waited. I understand there’s an honor system, but when someone is bleeding REALLY BAD, even if it’s not life-​threatening, you need to get them seen ASAP. I did not appreciate them telling me I had to write everything myself instead of having my dad sign for me (I understand it’s because I’m age of majority, but my writing hand [I’m right-​handed] was out of commission and I can’t control a pen/​pencil with my left hand if my life depended on it). I was standing right there. I even said, «This is the hand I write with. I’m in pain. I cannot write.» and tried to make them understand that my dad was my parent and that he could sign/​fill out forms for me — which, legally, he could do. They wouldn’t let him because I was coherent despite the blood loss.
The wait was the worst part because of all the writing, the constant pain, the blood loss, and just SITTING THERE. It was three hours before I was finally called back and taken to a room.
Once I was taken to a room and given a bed, things went a bit better. The attending and the resident overseeing my care were wonderful and took great care in undoing the crappy makeshift bandage the managers put on me before I left. Getting a needle in my finger to numb the pain wasn’t fun, but they gave me pain pills, told me to watch Dukes of Hazard, and stopped the bleeding. There was no hope of stitching me back together, so they covered my finger in Dermabond, let that dry, and then they bandaged me up and wrote up a prescription for pain killers. That took about an hour and a half, mostly because of waiting for the bleeding to stop.
It took forever for the glue to fall off, but I healed up pretty well and I an forever grateful to them for saving my finger.

Sitting in the er for almost three hours. Without a single update. We’ve done this a lot over the last several years so it’s not like we are rookies at it but we came to OSU at our Dr.‘s request instead of Riverside. Never again.
This place is a literal and figurative mess. They are moving one person about every 30 – 45 minutes. The staff is clearly stressed and very rude. Normally I’m quick to cut folks In this situation a break, but this may be the worst I’ve ever seen in recent memory.
Any questions are met with a quick rebuke for bothering the staff and the best they can do is stand at one end of the er waiting area and scream people’s names: it’s 2011 and the best they can do to communicate is scream names?
Part Deux (12 hours later)
Once we got in to see a physician it was the exact opposite. Attentive and great care with a team that was very much focused on taking care of business.

I spent a hellish 8 hours here with my 92 year old father. This was even after we bypassed the usual waiting room wait because he had collapsed before having a radiation treatment. A very junior resident ordered a battery of useless tests that were in some cases repeated twice. He had very painful sores from the radiation treatment which were aggravated by pulling him on and off the gurney roughly. He basically recovered from severe dehydration by receiving fluids. If I would have known how to disconnect the IVs myself I would have taken him home sooner. An indescribably bad experience.

I freakin’ hate hospitals and avoid them until avoiding them is no longer an option, but after the meds from my urgent care visit earlier in the week proved ineffective and the pain grew ever more unbearable, avoidance was no longer an option.
I’d never been to OSUMC before, just knew it was the closest hospital to my house. I had a few experiences early into this visit that really turned me off from it… initially:
Turnoff number one was the construction going on around OSUMC — lanes closed, confusing parking, signs and traffic patterns. We pulled into what we guessed to be the ER area (we were luckily correct) and a not-​super-​friendly security guard showed him where to park and pointed me to the ER doors.
Turnoff number two: Walking through the ER doors and then being forced to walk through a metal detector and have my purse searched. I would like to think of a hospital as a safe, healing place. Not an airport security zone. Very uncomfortable.
Turnoff number three: After checking in at the pre-​registration past the security guard (who somehow switched my first and last name?) I had to check in with not one, but two other people. Three checkins. Explaining what’s wrong with me to three people, who are NOT the actual medical personnel who can help me who I will have to explain this all again to later.
HOWEVER, despite all of that… it was a very positive experience. First of all, from the time I walked through the metal detector and went through all my disparate checkins to the time I got into an exam room was under 15 minutes, and just another 5 before a doctor came to see me. I’ve been to emergency rooms in 4 different hospitals, and have NEVER had such a short wait time. I also didn’t have to fill out a crapton of paperwork — any, actually. They asked me the few questions they needed during the checkins. I did nothing more than sign my name.
The doctors and the nurses who worked with me were very helpful, friendly and instructive. And they got me in and out of there FAST — I spent about 30 minutes in the exam room.
The only other ER I’ve been to in Columbus is Grant. By comparison, OSUMC is roughly 525 times better.

Spending the power outage on my death bed wasn’t my idea of fun so when I couldn’t take it anymore, I drove myself to the OSU ER for some help. I had no idea where i was going so I simply followed the signs from my house in Grandview and thankfully they were pretty self explanatory as I has absolutely no capacity to think. I pulled into what I thought was a garage but turned out to be a funky driveway and was immediately greeted by a parking attendant (?) who directed me to park in the spots close by. Too easy. Had to go through some metal detectors and pass the judgment of a security guard which unnerved me a bit but again, I just wanted to get in there. I was signed in right away and despite the hoards of people seemingly on their death beds, the staff here were quite cheerful and helpful. I sat for over an hour before being taken back to do the whole insurance thing, etc., and I felt like the wait was never-​ending. I thought I was getting close to being called but I was wrong.
Nearly 2 hours after signing in, I was called back by the nurse for initial examination only to be told that she was sorry that the bed she had for me was now taken. She sent me back out to the waiting room where I struggled every second to not get sick on anyone. Another 45 minute wait and I was seen.
An EKG, full exam, 3 doctors and 8 hours later I was released. It was no doubt chaotic there and the atmosphere was incredibly tense. But the staff remained upbeat, helpful and cheery despite all this. I felt like I was in good hands.