Elmhurst Memorial Hospital

Worst ER ever! If the wait time says 10 minutes, make sure you add 4 hours to that time. They are many other choices, go somewhere else!

Seems odd to write a Unilocal review for a hospital, but I noticed the negative reviews and had to share my wonderfully positive experience at Elmhurst. First off, the place is a gorgeous work of art, and incredibly comfortable, which is very important if you need to stay overnight or longer. I specifically dealt with the pediatric unit, CT unit, ultrasound, and OR… Each team of professionals never ceased to impress me. And, they work as a team. The inter-​departmental communication was incredible, which is rare for such a big place. They obviously have some great SOPs in place. Kudos to Elmhurst.

An ambulance had to be called to my house because of the extreme stomach pain I was in. When I got to Elmhurst Memorial, it took over an hour to get any pain medication. I was vomiting every 2 minutes, couldn’t catch my breath, and they figured it was food poisoning. I told them my history of several GI surgeries. Nothing. My blood pressure was ²⁰⁰⁄₁₈₀ due to the horrible pain I was experiencing and still, nothing. Finally, after an hour and a lot of screaming I got morphine. Morphine did nothing. After yet another hour I finally got some relief from a stronger pain medication. When admitted, I waited for a doctor to see me for hours. When one finally got there, he told me (and I am NOT kidding here) «maybe you should get pregnant. Things usually clear up after you have a baby.» I thought my husband would physically hurt this man, because I was unable to, being hooked up to an IV and all. NOT one doctor could figure out what was going on while I was there, even after numerous appointments after the hospital stay.
Three months later, same pain episode, went to Loyola. I’ve been pain free since May.
The Elmhurst ER staff needs to work on their bedside manner. Also, to the nurse who was eating onion and gyros, please save it for after your shift or pop a tic tac. Nothing worse than smelling onion breath on someone trying to insert your IV, while you’re puking your guts out.

My rating is the average of a 2 for the ER and a 4.5 for their surgical and CCU departments.
y 87 year old father was brought into the hospital by ambulance in extreme pain. The hospital looks great, new and shiny. But the staff were cold to my father. They asked questions and did their duties like robots, there was no warmth. My father was scared, he needed a human being. One staff person introduced themselves, the rest came and went. They ran out of blankets and pillows and let my dad cold and uncomfortable. At 6:01 dad hit his call button and asked for a nurse, he could not breathe full breaths and the pain was intolerable. He was told the nurse would come in 10 minutes. At 6:20 he called again. At 6:31 a nurse came into the room to check on him. She said she would call the doctor and we never saw her again for over 30 minutes. The janitor went and found a blanket. The place is uncaring and cold.
Once my father was admitted and moved to the surgical floor and then the CCU the care improved greatly. The nurses were attentive and caring and they had blankets and pillows! They were fabulous in a very stressful and difficult time.

I brought my husband into the ER in extreme stomach pain. we waited 3 hrs to see a doctor. After being admitted, it took them 2 days to determine that his gallbladder was badly infected and ready to burst. He was rushed into surgery after 2 days of strong pain meds. No one would take ownership of the delay in treatment. They need to change their ER procedures for sure. we almost left. We can say that the nursing staff and assistants were wonderful! The desk people at the ER were horrible! We will NEVER return there for help. Go to Good Samaritan or Edwards

Terrible, they double charge you for everything. The Physician charges you then the hospital charges you the same if not more for the service you already paid for.

I feel completely duped and extorted by this hospital. My son went in for a singular blood test to help determine what was causing his eczema. ONE BLOOD DRAW. How much do you think a simple blood test should cost? I was thinking that I’d pay, oh maybe a couple hundred bucks at most. You know what they actually charged for that one blood test without telling me in advance or warning me that this isn’t a normal standard blood test? $ 3400, of which I was responsible for $ 1250 (my insurance company paid the rest). I called them multiple times to dispute and explain the charge; no one called me back. I had a HealthAdvocate call on my behalf and they gave her the runaround, too. All they said is that the claim is valid. I also got threatening letters from their collection four months after the blood test, even though they were on notice I was disputing the amount.
PARENTS, if a physician tells you that their hospital can do a simple blood test to help determine what is causing your skin’s rash, it is NOT simple and it is going to cost you BIG TIME. Please insist the hospital/​doctor tell you upfront how much that is going to cost and DO NOT GO FORWARD until they give you the price in writing. Do not assume simple blood tests are nominal in costs. They tried to downplay my son’s blood test as a «simple routine test» without every disclosing or warning me that it costs several thousands dollars!!! And you’d think the hospital would call ahead of time to also doublecheck that you could actually afford the test. NOPE. After the blood test results are in, you get this invoice for a massive amount, and then the hospital ignores your request to substantiate the cost. They give you the runaround when you try to question why a simple blood test should cost that much money. Both my husband and I have each had surgery in the past few months, and our respective surgeries did not cost as much as this ONE BLOOD TEST. And then they start the fun with the threats to sue and ruin your credit score.
It’d be one thing if the hospital were upfront with us to explain the unexpectedly high cost, but NOPE. Really, is it that hard? You don’t think a regular consumer would be caught off guard when you charge then $ 1250 for one simple blood test? Nice. Oh, and I especially loved when they sicced their collection agency on me only after a couple of months and sent me threatening notes about filing lawsuits and ruining my credit score.
Thanks for the love, EMHC. No really, THANKS.

This is not a hospital, it is a Corporation. And a poorly run corporation at that.
The doctors, nurses and technicians may be professional, but the people who you need to talk to in order to make an appointment are rude, unprofessional and not helpful at all. And billing is a joke. We provide our current, active insurance card EVERY SINGLE TIME we go in for an appointment but at least 50% of the time, they send the bill to an incorrect insurance company. Or they transcribe the ID number or Group insurance numbers on the claim, so the claim is rejected by the insurance company. I have spent hours on the phone (after waiting in long queues) trying to untangle the mess they make with the insurance payments. Very frustrating.
Message to Mary Lou Mastro (CEO): why don’t you implement a customer satisfaction survey for your billing department and appointment center? You spent $ 450 million on the new hospital. Maybe you should spent a few thousand to ensure your patients are satisfied with their experience.

How unethical to charge a hospital outpatient fee which is not covered by insurance for each time I enter my dr. s office on Addison… this Elmhurst Hospital is driven by its debt and costs are being filtered to any patient seeing a Dr. within its system… truly unethical… a facility fee… beware people and be aware that we have great alternative hospital systems very near by! Loyola, Hinsdale, Lutheran General… no facility fees!

I have been going to this place for 27 years… my parents for double that… Their receptionist have been God Awful the entire time. The Billing Department is horrible not to mention snotty when answering the phone.
That said: my father was billed as if he did not have insurance for normal services (e.g. blood draw, urinalysis). When finally speaking to the billing department at Elmhurst Memorial the Hospital Billing Department (because that is who they stated it went through) I was advised that the physician CHOSE to bill it a different way and it was billed as an OUT PATIENT visit instead of an OFFICE VISIT (Which it was) and now it falls on my father to pay for these charges. The woman really had no idea what she was talking about and just fed me lies until I got off the phone. She also told me that she didn’t know what to do at this point. I also was told that since the physician did not inform the patient that they were billing it differently to him HMO it falls on the patient.
Thanks Elmhurst. once again for sucking at life.
I would never recommend Elmhurst Memorial Health Clinical to anyone who wants to keep some faith in humanity. These people are horrible at their jobs and they do not care about you, or your family.
Might as well be going to McDonalds… they have better service. Ha!
My family will no longer be using Elmhurst Clinic. They just need people to pay for the ENORMOUS Hospital they built with magnificent fountains and a Starbucks… That’s important…

Not happy. Its like dropping your car off for a oil change and never getting it back.