Ottumwa Regional Health Center

A few good doctors and nurses, over all not a good hospital. Inaccurate diagnosis, long waits, and rooms are not very clean.

For the good doctors, nurses, and staff, there are several that have punched deep holes into the bottom of what has become a sinking ship. As an investigator, I am privy to cases in which patients have fallen seriously ill, and even died after being treated at Ottumwa Regional Health Center. I strongly urge avoidance of ORHC, and would recommend any other hospital for competent, professional, courteous, and SAFE care.

The nurses in the maternity ward were great! The doctors on the other hand were terrible! (When I had my son.) I recently went there over severe Rheumatoid Arthritis with this current pregnancy. They offered me narcotics. I went to another doctor in Pella. Simply got told more information on my condition and how to cope until seen by my rheumatologist. Also got told in the ER. That with the narcotics I could pick abortion or miscarriage. During my last pregnancy, my anesthesiologist billed me wrong and also shoved a needle in my spine 3x. Also during the process told me, “I can go home. I have better things to do.” Always get a second opinion.

Taking forever in the lobby.and doctors come check you up for maybe less than 8 minutes. after over 3 hours of waiting

I was having really bad hallucinations for the first time, so I had someone drive me to the 24/7 crisis center at the Southern Iowa Mental Health Clinic. They wouldn’t have let my boyfriend stay overnight with me and they totally understood, so they recommended that I go to the ER to have my vitals checked and to see if I needed to take any medication. So we went to the emergency room and when I got into the room the nurse explained to me that I would have to stay 4 to 5 hours and wait to video chat with a psychiatrist and that I would need to change into a hospital gown. I was nervous and had bad anxiety because not only was it such a small room but there was a bed that took up most of the room and I had the people that dropped me off waiting for me outside. When the nurse left the room I told my boyfriend that I didn’t want to stay, so he went and talked to her. When she didn’t think he could hear her, she whispered to another nurse “they don’t want to stay that long, I think they just wanted to get meds and leave.” I signed to get released and she told me “feel better honey,” and as I went to give my ID and insurance card to the lady at the desk, she was whispering to another girl and they both kept looking at us, so I know she was telling her about how I just wanted to get drugs and go. I’ve heard so many terrible things about this hospital but since this was the closest to my location and it was an emergency I figured I had no other choice. I will NEVER come back here EVER again. It hurts knowing that these nurses are probably saying terrible things about their patients behind their backs.